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对部署在其设施中的协作机器人进行任务和控制。对于最终用户来说，这种软件的简化将使机器人系统像单个机器人一样容易控制。在机器人和传感器的生命周期中进行数据收集(目前还没有完成)可能有助于识别新技术，从而使机器人领域的系统能力发生革命性变化。尽管这一概念可以应用于广泛的服务行业，但SRT建议高效地集成和协作控制一支机器人和传感器车队，以支持托管服务行业的任务，因为尽管托管服务必不可少，但并不会给组织带来商业价值。因此，该部门正在寻求减少人员流动率和其他成本的方法。在美国，托管服务是一个价值400亿美元的行业；效率只要提高5%，每年就能节省20亿美元。这个领域充斥着来自不同制造商的机器人，但设施经理需要一种易于使用的方法来使用？这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目将开发一个通用的软件体系结构，作为服务机器人系统的通用接收器。主要的技术障碍是有效地结合软件协议和机器人的协调控制。目前，机器人软件系统还没有统一的标准。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到来自不同制造商的机器人如何在现实世界中互动。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仍将保护专有组件，但将允许最终用户快速将多个组件集成到同一系统中，并开发他们自己的算法来利用共享的数据流，从而快速允许跨多个设备共享数据-促进机器人、机器学习和大数据的研究。

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.