Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Robot control
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-14
2003-12-02
Beaulieu, Yonel (Department: 3661)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Robot control
C700S049000, C700S246000, C700S249000, C700S250000, C700S256000, C700S259000, C700S264000, C701S213000, C701S208000, C701S215000, C701S049000, C701S050000, C318S568100, C348S159000, C709S223000, C709S218000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06658325
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to means by which mobile robots, equipped with computer operated onboard internet web servers and short range digital radio transceivers may be remotely teleoperated over the internet, and directed to interact with other external computer controlled devices also equipped with short range digital radio transceivers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Although self-propelled mobile robots have been the subject of speculative literature and experimentation for a number of years, the field is still in its infancy. With the partial exception of industrial automation for highly repetitive situations, educational purposes, and toys, mobile robots are not widely used. This is because the problems of coping with machine vision, artificial intelligence, general purpose robotic “arm” and “hand” like actuation systems, limited battery life, and the like make it difficult to devise flexible and general purpose systems suitable for widespread use.
Because robotic artificial intelligence is particularly difficult to achieve, human operators often remotely control robots. A number of techniques for robotic remote control (teleoperation) are known in the art, and these are discussed in the book: “Remote Control Robotics” by Craig Sayers, published by Springer-Verlag, New York, (1998) and incorporated herein by reference.
Other prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,062 which teaches a type of robotic arm that may be controlled by radio from a remote location, and may be programmed by radio from a remote location. U.S. Pat. No. 5,331,413 describes an external camera used to view a robot. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,231,693 and 5,046,022 describe methods of semi-automating telerobotic control. U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,844 describes methods to compensate for variable teleoperation delay.
Recently, programming techniques used to increase the power and flexibility of the Internet have matured, and a number of these newer programming techniques can also be adapted to robotic control methods. In particular, this includes programming languages, interfaces, and protocols used to generate (serve) and interpret (browse) world wide web pages on the Internet.
World wide web (also called “Web” or “Net”) servers are computer programs, such as “Apache”, and the like, that communicate over the internet in the form of variants of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), Extensible HTML (XHTML), and the like. These servers accept commands from a remote user, and respond by returning SGML variant “web pages” or forms which can be read and interpreted by the remote user's browser.
For purposes of this discussion, “web page” is defined as an HTML, XML, or XTML electronic document on the world wide web, identified by a unique Universal Resource Identifier (URI) or unique Universal Resource Locator (URL), and transmitted over the internet using the (HTTP) Hypertext Transfer Protocol, and usually the TCP/IP protocol.
Also for purposes of this discussion, “web server” is defined as computer program functionality (either stand alone, or part of an operating system) that, in response to an internet URL or URI request, sends back a “web page” file to the internet address that made the request, or alternatively passes the URL or URI request through a “Common Gateway Interface” or CGI protocol to a CGI compliant program, and when the CGI compliant program has output, and passes the output back to the internet address that made the original URL or URI request.
Use of the CGI interface greatly enhances the flexibility and power of web/server—SGML variant web form technology. Here, the HTML or SMGL variant web form can be instructed to pass data of any sort to and from the user to programs, executable scripts, or software processes that are distinct (external) from the main web server program. This non-web server software may be a database, image manipulation program, robot control program, or any other independently running process. Data submitted from a web browser to a web server's CGI interface is generally submitted either appended to a CGI URL address (GET method, limited to 255 maximum characters of data) or through a STDIN standard input method (POST method, no data size limitation). Data from a web server to a web browser may be of any sort, as long as it complies with the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) format.
Prior art on the GCI interface includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,041,362; 5,961,594; 5,905,908; and 5,742,845. A more complete CGI discussion is given in Dwight, Erwin and Niles book: “Using CGI, Second Edition”, 1997, published by Que corporation, and incorporated herein by reference.
In addition to SGML variant files (HTML, XML, XHTML, etc.), programming languages such as Java are also frequently transmitted by servers on the word wide web. Java (and Java-like languages such as C#), is a general purpose, object oriented, high level programming language, commonly used on the world wide web to deliver enhanced functionality to web pages. Typically Java commands are embedded in SGML variant files that frequently sent out (and occasionally also received) by web servers. Such Java “applets” can then perform many specialized functions. In particular, Java applets may be used to extend the basic SGML functionality, and can translate user commands to other languages, display video, display interactive graphics, and other useful functions.
Web browsers are likewise commonly known in the art. For the purposes of this patent, a “web browser” is considered to be a program that can read and interpret the SGML variant files sent out by web servers, (primarily HTML files) and optionally execute Java and/or additional plug-in module commands. Examples of modern web browsers include Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or greater, Netscape Navigator 5.0 or greater, and the like.
For robotics control purposes, in order to take advantage of the wide variety of “off-the-shelf” software, originally written for internet or other purposes, for robotics control, it is preferable to use software (programs) that run on standard operating systems, rather than software that attempts to run directly on the underlying robotic computer hardware. Standard operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, Unix, and the like, manage much of the software burden of a computational system by controlling access to underlying hardware, memory management, and the like, relieving the programmer of much complexity. Popular (e.g. widely used) multi-tasking operating systems are particularly advantageous, since thousands of programs are available that have previously been written for them. By use of a popular operating system, a robotics programmer may leverage his or her limited time and energy by using standard programs to handle most of the robotics system, and only writing robot specific software when absolutely necessary. The one drawback of this approach from a robotics control standpoint is some potential loss or degradation of precise real-time determinism and control, which can be overcome by the use of real-time modifications or patches to such operating systems. An example of a popular operating system (Linux), modified to enhance real-time determinism and control, is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,995,745 for “real time Linux”. Other such real-time operating system enhancements also exist.
Previous art teaches that both mobile and non-mobile robots may have their movement and video functions controlled remotely by using web browser/web server technology. For example, the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Engineering Laboratory of the University of the West of England, Bristol teaches that web server technology may be used in mobile robotic systems. They have developed the “LinuxBot”. This is a mobile robot, intended as an educational project, that performs a number of functions, including movement and wall avoidance, as well as serving web pages, using an on-board multitasking embedded Linux operating s
Beaulieu Yonel
Marc McDieunel
LandOfFree
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