SBIR Phase I: Development of an innovative software architecture for co-robots and smart devices to augment human capacity with regard to mundane tasking in the service sector

该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是为机器人和传感器创建一个用户友好的通用控制系统，这将首次使非技术服务行业专业人员能够在其设施中部署任务和控制协作机器人。这种为终端用户简化的软件将使机器人系统像单个机器人一样易于控制。在机器人和传感器的生命周期内收集的数据（目前尚未完成）可能有助于识别新技术，以彻底改变机器人领域的系统功能。虽然这一概念可以应用于广泛的服务行业，但SRT建议有效地集成和协作控制一组机器人和传感器，以支持保管服务行业的任务，因为？尽管重要吗?托管服务不会为组织增加商业价值。因此，该部门正在寻找减少人员流动和其他成本的方法。在美国，托管服务是一个价值400亿美元的产业；仅仅提高5%的效率每年就能节省20亿美元。这个行业充斥着来自不同制造商的机器人，但设施管理人员需要一种易于使用的方法来雇佣机器人。多个专门的机器人。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将开发一个通用的软件架构，作为服务机器人系统的通用受体。主要的技术障碍是将软件协议和机器人的协调控制有效地结合起来。目前还没有机器人软件系统的通用标准。实际的机器人（硬件）通常是产品开发人员的主要关注点，而软件则是由各种专有的、传统的和开放源码构建的，并且与开发它的公司一样独特。很少或根本没有考虑来自不同制造商的机器人如何在现实世界中相互作用。通过标准化机器人和智能设备的数据协议，并使其公开可用，srt打算推动未来硬件的开放API开发。标准化的api仍然会保护专有组件，但会很快允许跨多个设备的数据共享？促进机器人、机器学习和大数据的研究？通过允许最终用户快速将多个组件集成到同一个系统中，并开发自己的算法来利用共享数据流。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be to create a user-friendly, universal controlsystem for robots and sensors that for the first time would make it possible for nontechnical serviceindustry professionals to task and control co-robots deployed in their facility. This simplification ofsoftware for an end-user will make systems of robots as easy to control as a single robot. Data collectedover the lifecycle of the robots and sensors (which is currently not done) may aid in identification of newtechnologies to revolutionize system capabilities in the field of robotics. Although this concept could beapplied to a wide array of service sector industries, SRT proposes to efficiently integrate andcooperatively control a fleet of robots and sensors to support custodial service industry tasks, because?though essential?custodial services add no commercial value to an organization. Thus the sector isclamoring for ways to reduce personnel turnover and other costs. In the U.S., custodial services are a $40billion industry; a mere 5% increase in efficiency would result in $2 billion in savings annually. Thissector is rife with robots from disparate manufacturers, yet facility managers need an easy-to-use methodto ?employ? multiple, specialized robots.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a common softwarearchitecture that will serve as a universal receptor for service robotics systems. The predominant technicalhurdle is effectively combining the software protocols and coordinating control of the robots. Therecurrently is no common standard for robotics software systems. The actual robot (the hardware) istypically the primary focus for product developers, while the software is built from a variety ofproprietary, heritage and open sources, and is as unique as the company developing it. Little or noconsideration is given to how robots from different manufacturers could interact in the real world. Bystandardizing the data protocols for robots and smart devices, and making that openly available, SRTintends to drive future open API development for hardware. Standardized APIs will still protect theproprietary components, but will quickly allow for data sharing across multiple devices?facilitatingresearch in robotics, machine learning, and big data?by allowing end-users to quickly integrate multiplecomponents into the same system, and develop their own algorithms to utilize the shared data streams.