Distributed control framework design and implementation for multi-robotic systems: a case study on block manipulation

This work describes the design and development of a multi-robotic system. Each subsystem is built, tested separately and then integrated, using middleware standard, CORBA. Using middleware reduces the burden of network programming, error, and complication of integration, and increases reusability and portability. CORBA is the major and leading standard for distributed platforms. Our approach is to deploy CORBA to integrate distributed robotic and automatic control systems. Using standard specification language, we can describe clearly the system's overview as well as in detail subsystems, even in a large complex system. It helps to define message passing and interaction among subsystems in distributed environments. We summarize SDL (specification description language), and explain our robot system using the SDL. To show the feasibility of our system, small blocks are grasped and moved by the manipulator robot.