Flexible Remote-Controlled Robot System with Multiple Sensor Clients Using a Common Network Communication Protocol

In Japan, several types of remote-controlled robots are used for work in environments that humans cannot enter directly, such as disaster areas. These robots can operate effectively by working collaboratively. However, it is difficult for a robot to cooperate with other robot systems and change equipment for some tasks. Therefore, we propose a system that can realize flexible remote control. It uses the Robot Service Network Protocol (RSNP), which is a standard network protocol for service robots. Using this protocol, we can combine robots or robotic elements according to the required task. Moreover, cooperative operations using multiple robots are possible because each robot and component can be easily made a client for a server. Here we propose flexible sensing using RSNP clients. At first, we evaluated the delay of the data update time by adding sensors and confirmed the processing speed of a remote-controlled robot system. Thus, we verified the proposed system with a mobile robot and multiple sensors and confirmed the system's effectiveness.