A Service Oriented Architecture for Robotic Platforms

Abstract : Existing architectures, infrastructures, and frameworks for robotic systems have limited utility when used in the context of integration. This limited utility derives from either a narrow scope assigned to the architecture or a lack of application of generally accepted software engineering principles for integration. Commercial development strategies utilizing well-defined software architectural principles are frequently at odds with how typical robotic software architectures are designed. This inherent conflict results in resource consumption on integration work in projects where integration is not the primary goal. Moving results out of the laboratory and into the commercial domain becomes difficult. In this thesis, I present an architecture based on a clear definition of software architecture, an understanding of the stakeholders for the architecture, those stakeholder interests, and the use of accepted principles of software architecture definition and design. A software architecture is constructed around the viewpoint that a robotic system can be considered an enterprise and everything associated with that enterprise provides a service. This enterprise perspective leads to the description of a service oriented architecture (SOA), which provides integration flexibility while satisfying stakeholder requirements and interests. I construct an implementation approach embodying these principles and apply that implementation approach to real world integration problems to illustrate the utility of such an approach in robotic software development. Finally, I define a set of metrics to be used when comparing the SOA approach with other architectures for integration on robotic systems.