Wrapper Components for Distributed Robotic Systems

Nowadays, there is a plethora of robotic systems from different vendors and with different characteristics that work in specific tasks. Unfortunately, most of the robotic operating systems come in a closed control architecture. This fact represents a challenge to integrate these systems with other robotic components, such as vision systems or other types of robots. In this paper, we propose an integration methodology to create or to enhance robotic systems by combining tools from computer vision, planning systems and distributed computing areas. In particular we are proposing the use of CORBA specification to create Wrapper Components. They are object-oriented modules that create an abstract interface for a specific class of hardware or software components. Furthermore, they have several connectivity and communication properties that make easy to interconnect with each other.