ROS Supported Heterogeneous Multiple Robots Registration and Communication with User Instructions

Abstract

Different types of heterogeneous multiple service robots are working in the same environment to help humans in many ways in a smart house. These service robots have different capabilities based on the different control and communication systems. The complexity of the programming of the robots is now reduced by using middleware like Robot Operating System (ROS). However, the communication and control of the heterogeneous service robots using very high-level instruction is still tricky because of differences in ROS topics. If a user has issued a high-level instruction to all multiple heterogeneous robots in the same environment, then all robots must complete the given task without considering the software differences in each robot. This research has developed a web-based interface where users can input high-level instruction to all multiple heterogeneous robots running in the same environment. We have used three levels of instructions. Level 01 moves robot forward for the given speed for some distance without obstacles. Level 02 is to move the robot to a specific location without obstacles. Level 03 is to navigate the robot to a goal with some obstacles in the environment. Initially, all robots need to register their software specifications and hardware specification Format (URDF) in the robot registration engine with the help of the ontology. Then all service robots act according to the instruction given by the interpreter. The proposed system was evaluated using a simulated environment with a gazebo using "Turtlebot" and "Tiago" robots. Time complexity analysis of all algorithms was completed using the Big O notation.