Robot Web Tools: Efficient messaging for cloud robotics

Since its official introduction in 2012, the Robot Web Tools project has grown tremendously as an open-source community, enabling new levels of interoperability and portability across heterogeneous robot systems, devices, and front-end user interfaces. At the heart of Robot Web Tools is the rosbridge protocol as a general means for messaging ROS topics in a client-server paradigm suitable for wide area networks, and human-robot interaction at a global scale through modern web browsers. Building from rosbridge, this paper describes our efforts with Robot Web Tools to advance: 1) human-robot interaction through usable client and visualization libraries for more efficient development of front-end human-robot interfaces, and 2) cloud robotics through more efficient methods of transporting high-bandwidth topics (e. g. , kinematic transforms, image streams, and point clouds). We further discuss the significant impact of Robot Web Tools through a diverse set of use cases that showcase the importance of a generic messaging protocol and front-end development systems for human-robot interaction.

Authors

• Russell Toris
• Julius Kammerl
• David V. Lu
• Jihoon Lee
• Odest Chadwicke Jenkins
• Sarah Osentoski
• Mitchell Wills
• Sonia Chernova

Keywords

• Robots
• Libraries
• Protocols
• Human-robot interaction
• Cloud computing
• Computer architecture
• Browsers
• Cloud Robotics
• Point Cloud
• Robotic System
• Web Browser
• Robot Operating System
• Wide Area Network
• Image Stream
• Open-source Community
• Modern Web Browser
• Research And Development
• Usability
• Operating System
• Raw Images
• Web Application
• Robotic Arm
• High Bandwidth
• Robotic Applications
• Point Cloud Data
• Image Compression
• Web Technologies
• Mobile Manipulator
• JavaScript Object Notation
• JPEG Images
• Web-based Interface
• Robotics Research
• Bandwidth Usage
• Web Camera
• Bandwidth Requirements
• Real-time Communication