Development of an Open Software Platform for Robotics Services in Korea

Abstract

Until now, a robot software(S/W) has been devel- oped with a great deal of hard work in order to control the position or the velocity of each part in robots. It often takes much time and efforts to implement robot algorithms and functionalities involved with the robot S/W. Even a small size robot S/W requires a lot of program modules including firmware, system programs, application programs, and so on. Further- more, the robot S/W becomes more complicated by infusing intelligence into robots. In this regard, robot S/W developers should have a good knowledge on a variety of areas, which may impose a heavy burden on them and prevent them from concentrating on their specific job. Moreover, since there is no standard with respect to the robot S/W, one company is not compat- ible with others and it also costs a lot to manage and extend their S/W independently. In doing so, devel- opments have been duplicated and existing contents or modules are diffcult to be recycled, which leads to inefficient industries and risky businesses. In this situation, it would be very meaningful to develop a common platform for the robot S/W in order to offer a convenient development environment and standard interfaces for simple integrations, verify the developed S/W according to the standards, and hence save time and efforts effectively.