Integrating Smart Resources in ROS-based systems to distribute services

Abstract

[EN] Mobile robots execute complexes tasks that involve the management of several embedded sensors and actuators. Therefore, in many cases, a robot is characterized as an intelligent distributed system formed with a central unit, which manages the on-board embedded devices and distributes the tasks execution. Embedded devices are also evolving to more complex systems. These systems are developed not only for executing simple tasks but also for offering some advanced mechanisms. Thus, complex data processing, adaptive execution, or fault-tolerance routines are some common system features. The Smart Resource topology has been developed in order to manage these embedded systems. This topology offers high-level routines that rely on a certain physical hardware execution. Therefore, Smart Resources are defined as distributed services providers, which operates within some context and quality requirements. Provided services can adapt its execution in order accomplish the set requirements and maximize the system performance. How to improve the versatility of the Smart Resources by making their services compatibles with the Robot Operating System (ROS) is addressed along this work. This solution integrates all the execution mechanisms provided by ROS with the service distribution, adaptive execution, and fault-tolerance routines offered by the Smart Resources. This integration is tested through a set of experiments using the Turtlebot robot platform and a simulated version of it. In both approaches ROS mechanisms are used to access the Smart Resource Services. Finally, obtained results are used to characterize the performance of this proposal.