Design and Implementation of a Network Robotic Framework Using a Smartphone-Based Platform

Abstract

With recent advances in robotics along with sensor technologies, robots have richer features and can be used in more diverse applications. However, onboard microcontrollers in robots often take full responsibility for processing data acquired from sensors, controlling actuators, and other tasks. This prohibits us from implementing complex algorithms in microcontrollers. To address this issue, we present a novel design of a network robotic framework using a smartphone-based robotic platform. The design was implemented using a smartphone as a network bridge to distribute computationally burdensome tasks into multiple networked computational resources, as well as, a sensor package that allows the mobile robot to navigate. One of the most practical benefits derived from the outsourced computations is the simplicity in a robot's design. This provides a sturdy robot that consumes less power. With interaction capabilities to networked resources, more diverse robotic applications can be developed. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed network robotic framework, several experiments were conducted for indoor localization and navigation using a novel smartphone-based robotic platform.