RT-middleware (Robotics Technology Middleware) is a common

computing platform A computing platform or digital platform is an environment in which a piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the operating system (OS), even a web browser and associated application programming interfaces, or other underlying ...

technical standard A technical standard is an established norm or requirement for a repeatable technical task which is applied to a common and repeated use of rules, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods, ...

for

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be ...

s based on distributed

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ai ...

technology. RT-middleware supports the construction of various networked robotic systems by integrating various network-enabled robotic elements named RT-Components, which specification standard is discussed and defined by the

Object Management Group The Object Management Group (OMG) is a computer industry standards consortium. OMG Task Forces develop enterprise integration standards for a range of technologies. Business activities The goal of the OMG was a common portable and interoperab ...

(OMG).

Properties

In the RT-middleware, robotics elements, such as actuators, are regarded as RT-components, and the whole robotic system is constructed by connecting such components. This distributed architecture helps developers reuse the robotic elements and boosts the reliability of a system. Each RT-component has a port as an endpoint for communicating to other RT-components. Every port has its type and the ports which have the same type can be connected each other. RT-components also have

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * '' Our ...

, so they behave as

finite-state machine A finite-state machine (FSM) or finite-state automaton (FSA, plural: ''automata''), finite automaton, or simply a state machine, is a mathematical model of computation. It is an abstract machine that can be in exactly one of a finite number ...

s. The states they can have are: CREATED, INACTIVE, ACTIVE, and ERROR. States and behaviors are controlled by the execution-context. If component behavior must be changed, the execution-context can be replaced at runtime.

Implementations

RT-middleware is only a standard of the Robotics platform software. Implementations include: * OpenRTM-aist is based on the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) platform developed by

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology The , or AIST, is a Japanese research facility headquartered in Tokyo, and most of the workforce is located in Tsukuba Science City, Ibaraki, and in several cities throughout Japan. The institute is managed to integrate scientific and engineer ...

. Using CORBA properties, OpenRTM-aist is available for environments with multiple

platform Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system ...

s and

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming l ...

s. * OpenRTM.NET is for the

.NET Framework The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...

. * RTM on Android is being implemented on

Android (operating system) Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of d ...

. * RTC Lite is a future modified RT-middleware for embedded or small-resource systems. * RTM Safety to pass the IEC 61508 standard.

Related projects

Robot Operating System Robot Operating System (ROS or ros) is an open-source robotics middleware suite. Although ROS is not an operating system (OS) but a set of software frameworks for robot software development, it provides services designed for a heterogeneous comp ...

(ROS) – C++

software framework In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software, providing generic functionality, can be selectively changed by additional user-written code, thus providing application-specific software. It provides a standard ...

developed by

Willow Garage Willow Garage was a robotics research lab and technology incubator devoted to developing hardware and open source software for personal robotics applications. The company was most likely best known for its open source software suite ROS (Rob ...

. *Open Robot Control Software (Orocos) – C++ software framework for component-based robot control software *OPRoS developed by Korea Association of Robot Industry (KAR)

References

{{Reflist

External links

RT-middleware Project (Japanese)OpenRTM-aistOpenRT PlatformVirCA - Virtual Collaboration Arena framework powered by RT-Middleware
Robotics software Robotics suites

Properties

Implementations

Related projects

See also

References

External links