Universal programming interfaces for robotic devices

Abstract

Robotic devices, whether service robots designed to help people or entertainment robots, are more and more widespread, and their number is increasing. All these robots currently have a different programming interface, more or less complex and more or less powerful. The situation is reminding of the 80's and the personal computer revolution: many vendors, models and as many programming languages and interfaces. We have developed URBI, a Universal Robotic Body Interface in an attempt to address this issue and provide a standard and simple way to control robots, while still providing powerful high-level capabilities expected from a modern programming language. To achieve this, URBI is based on a client/server architecture where the server is running on the robot and accessed by the client, typically via TCP/IP. The client can be any system, thus giving a great deal of flexibility. The URBI language is a high level scripted interface language used by the client and capable of controlling the joints of the robot or accessing its sensors, camera, speakers or any accessible part of the machine, We present in this article a short introduction to URBI and show application examples with Aibo. We finally explore how URBI could impact the development of everyday robotics and facilitate the interaction between robots, computers and smart objects in general.