International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

NCETECE`14 Conference Proceedings

ISSN: 2278-0181

A Proposal On Robotics Using Cloud Computing

Vishnu G
MSc (IT) First Year
IIITM-Kerala, Trivandrum, India
[email protected]

Abstract—Technology advantage has opened a new research A networked robotic system refers to a group of robotic
discipline for the robotic world. This paper aims to introduce devices that are connected via a wired and/or wireless
the application and research of robots using cloud computing. communication network . Networked robotics applications
The concept of networked robot is changing and opening a new can be classified as either tele-operated robots or multi-robot
field of research called cloud robot. The new machine to cloud
systems. In the former case, a human operator controls or
communicating will enhance the efficiency and productivity of
robots in industries. Currently Cloud Robotics is considered as manipulates a robot at a distance by sending commands and
one of the emerging research field under the mainstream receiving measurements via the communication network.
research of robotics and artificial intelligence. The main focus of Where the robots are controlled from distance using wireless
cloud robotics research is to explore the possibility of using connections like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Deep Space Network etc.
existing cloud-computing infrastructure, which is based upon Application examples include remote control of a planetary
service oriented architecture. Further advancements in this field rover and remote medical surgery. In the latter case, a team of
aim to establish a shared network resource for various robotics networked robots complete a task cooperatively in a
applications of future in order to make robots more scalable. distributed fashion by exchanging sensing data and
Researchers strongly believe that this would also enable
information via the communication network. For example a
scalable, cheaper and much powerful robotic application with
intelligent and self learning robots. group of robots engaged in rescue mission.
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Keywords—cloud computing, big data, networked robot Networked robots, similar to standalone robots, faces
inherent physical constraints as all computations are
I INTRODUCTION conducted onboard the robots, which have limited computing
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capabilities. Information access is also restricted to the

Machine intelligent and robotic applications have brought collective storage of the network. With the rapid
significant impact to human life over the past few decades advancement of wireless communications and recent
[1]. For example robots are used in industries to enhance innovations in cloud computing technologies, some of these
productivity and for the successful completion of real time constraints can be overcome through the concept of cloud
jobs. Many industries that use assembly line manufacturing robotics.
process uses robots to get work don with in the dead line.
Defense as well as the health care sector also uses robots for In the cloud robotics the robots communicate with the cloud
efficiency. A robot is a mechanical or virtual agent, usually to share information and data. There are many architecture
an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by a computer which explain the communication protocols. In the cloud
program or electronic circuitry. Robots can be autonomous or system even the robots can communicate each other as in the
semi-autonomous intelligent machine. Robotics is a wide and case of networked robots. The data that are collected from
vast research field that is growing day by day. The research individual robots or group of robots can be stored in the cloud
on robots has result in the new era of robots called cloud or can be transferred from the cloud to a storage database
robots. The cloud robotic architecture leverages the where big data analysis can be used to obtain some
combination of an ad-hoc cloud formed by machine-to- information from the data. In this type of cloud
machine (M2M) communications among participating robots, interconnected robotic environment we use the new big data
and an infrastructure cloud enabled by machine-to-cloud technology to collect and analysis huge data. The new
(M2C) communications. technology growth take robotic research to a new level of
environment where we can form an interconnected network
Unimate a digital programmable robot, was the of robots which can do useful work by sharing data and
first industrial robot, which worked on a General communicating with each other.
Motors assembly line at the Inland Fisher Guide
Plant in Ewing Township, New Jersey, in 1961. It was II CLOUD COMPUTING
invented by George Devol in 1954. Today, it is now possible Cloud computing is a terminology used to describe a
to envisage human sized robots with the capacity for near computing environment in which information as well as
human thoughts and movement. The preprogrammed digital application are shared to process data. It is a distributed
robot has now evolved to networked and cloud robotics. environment in which not only network but also application,
storage space, resources, etc. are shared to obtain a powerful

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
NCETECE`14 Conference Proceedings
ISSN: 2278-0181

computing environment. In this architecture the Virtual underlying hardware and software layers. In the business
machines are placed in the network place where it can model using software as a service (SaaS), users are provided
communicate with each other without knowing the exact access to application software and databases. Cloud providers
physical location. manage the infrastructure and platforms that run the
applications. SaaS is sometimes referred to as "on-demand
In the 1960s, after the invention of computers, the need for
software" and is usually priced on a pay-per-use basis.
computers as a public service was realized. It was not until 30
years later, with the creation of the Internet that allowed III CLOUD ROBOTICS
launching cloud computing to what it is today (Fig. 1). Cloud
Our cloud robotics differentiates from existing solutions in
computing refers to sharing of computational resources over a
that it leverages two complementary clouds (i.e., an ad-hoc
network. Although seemingly a simple concept, it relieves
cloud and an infrastructure cloud). The interconnected
remote devices from the burden of carrying out extensive
networked robot has changed to more advanced cloud robots.
computations and complex decision making procedures. It
The networked robot results in machine to machine
also allows even the simplest devices to have access to an
communication (M2M) to share information. This method
unlimited supply of software resources .
has enhanced to the new model of communication i.e.,
machine to cloud (M2C). Cloud computing uses both M2M
as well as M2C communication method to achieve maximum
efficiency.

A. Network To Cloud Robot

Networked robot can be considered as a parent or an

evolutionary step towards cloud robotics, i.e., cloud enabled
networked robot which leveraged the emerging cloud
technology to form cloud robot. The design objective is to
overcome the limitations of networked robotics with flexible
resources offered by a ubiquitous cloud infrastructure.
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NIST defines cloud computing as “a model for enabling
ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a
shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g.,
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networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can

be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal
management effort or service provider interaction.” Cloud
technology or cloud computing provide a natural platform to
develop the networked robot.
Fig 1: cloud computing
Several research groups such as Google, Microsoft have
A. Cloud Service Model started to explore the use of cloud technologies in robotic
Cloud computing providers offer their services according applications. Google have developed smart-phone driven
to several fundamental. Mainly there are three service models robots that can learn from each other via the cloud [4]. The
but we can generalize it as anything as a service. (XaaS) are three main service model (i.e., software, platform and
described in a comprehensive taxonomy model published in infrastructure), it enables tremendous flexibility in designing
2009, such as Strategy-as-a-Service, Collaboration-as-a- and implementing new applications for networked robotics.
Service, Business Process-as-a-Service, Database-as-a-
Service. In 2012, network as a service (NaaS) and
communication as a service (CaaS) were officially included IV SYSTEM ARCHITURE
by ITU (International Telecommunication Union) as part of
the basic cloud computing models, recognized service The Cloud robotic architecture mainly consist of M2M or/and
categories of a telecommunication-centric cloud ecosystem. M2C architecture. On the M2M level, a group of robots
communicate via wireless links to form a collaborative
Three basic cloud service models are Infrastructure as a computing fabric (i.e., an ad-hoc cloud). The benefit of
service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a forming a collaborative computing fabric are many. First, the
service (SaaS). In the most basic cloud-service model, computing capability of individual robots can be pooled
providers of IaaS offer computers, both in physical or logical together to form a virtual ad-hoc cloud infrastructure. Next
and other services. In the PaaS models, cloud providers one is among the collaborative computing units, information
deliver a computing platform, typically including operating can be exchanged for collaborative decision making in
system, programming language execution environment, various robot-related applications. Finally, it allows robots
database, and web server. Application developers can that are not within communication range of a cloud access
develop and run their software solutions on a cloud platform
without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
NCETECE`14 Conference Proceedings
ISSN: 2278-0181

point to access information stored in the cloud infrastructure

or send computational requests to the cloud.

On the other hand for M2C level the infrastructure cloud

provides a pool of shared computation and storage resources
that can be allocated elastically for real-time demand. This
method allows individual robots as well as robotic group to
offload computation task for a remote environment resulting
in remote brain. By this method we can also exploit the new
big data analysis for analyzing data to obtain useful
information. This cloud method also helps to create scalable
robots which can do multiple task by downloading the proper
programs as well as library files from the cloud store.

A. Elastic Cloud Computing Architecture

The elastic cloud computing architecture can be viewed as

hybrid model for cloud robotics. The proposed cloud robotics Fig 2: showing clone model
is built on the combination of an ad-hoc cloud formed by a
group of networked robots and an infrastructure cloud. This
unique combination offers us great flexibilities in designing
computing models tailored for specific applications. We
focus on the following three elastic computing models:

 Clone-Based Model: Each robot has a corresponding

system level clone in the cloud. A task can be executed
in the robot or in its clone. The set of robotic clones also
form a peer-to-peer network with better connectivity than
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the physical ad-hoc M2M network. Moreover, this model
allows for sporadic outage in the physical M2M network.
Fig(2) shows clone-based model.
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 Peer-Based Model: Each virtual machine (VM) or robot

in the cloud is considered as a computing unit. These
robots and VMs form a fully distributed computing
mesh. A task can be divided into smaller modules for
execution over a subset of the nodes in the computing Fig3: showing peer to peer model
mesh. By this the computing load is distributed among
the systems. Fig(3) shows peer-peer model.

 Proxy-Based Model: In the group of networked robots,

where one unit functions as a group leader,
communicating with a proxy to bridge the interaction
between the robotic network and the cloud. The set of
computing units are organized into a two-tier hierarchy.
Fig(4) shows proxy model.

Fig4: showing proxy model

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
NCETECE`14 Conference Proceedings
ISSN: 2278-0181

V APPLICATIONS AND ON GOING RESEARCH While robotics play an important function in the fabrication
PROJECTS of aircraft engines, aerospace companies are increasingly
investing in robots to perform drilling, painting and other
Future robotic applications will benefit from cloud robotics, tasks on airframes. Robot‟s ability to repeatedly position very
which provides the following advantages over traditional large aerospace components with a high degree of precision
networked robots. ensures that flexible automation has potential market growth.
 Ability to offload computation-intensive tasks to the Comparing to other industries aerospace industries took
cloud. much time to exploit the use of robots. But now they are also
 Access to vast amounts of data. using robots in a large extend. For example, OC Robotics is
working with Airbus UK and KUKA to develop aerospace
 Access to shared knowledge and new skills.
robots to deliver end effector packages capable of inspection,
drilling, sealing and swaging.
A. Cloud Robots In Assembly Line Production
The new technology of cloud robot is opening a new research
area for robots in aerospace industries. Since the work like
Manufacturing industry is experiencing a large amount of
drilling and the use of Snake-arm robot[5] can use the cloud
drastic changes since the introduction of robots. The main
robotic technology to achieve much higher efficiency.
advantage of robots are they can do hard dead line work
which is much hazardous work. Industries that uses assembly
C. Cloud Robots In Healthcare
line production is using networked robot which can share
information and achieve the task in a remarkable manner.
Robots are widely used to assist humans in repetitive and
Robots which can do group task are also employed much in
physically demanding work or for things that need accuracy
large scale.
and precision in nearly every industry. Although currently
healthcare robots are more widespread in professional clinical
Replacing these robots by cloud robot has many advantages.
services, they can potentially become popular for personal
The scalable nature of cloud robots helps to keep very less
use as well.
resource within the robotic system. Keeping the resource and
There is growing interest in healthcare robotics and several
sharing the information and data will help to perform group
areas of innovation have been identified. A report by The
task in much cooperative manner. Also the big data analysis
European Foresight Monitoring Network identified main
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can be used much to derive information which can be shared.
innovation themes: robotics for medical
In such a system the data from different robots are collected
interventions, robotized technology, professional care
in the cloud and is then processed using a database server
support, robots assisted preventative therapy[8], diagnosis
with big data analysis. So that the large amount of data can be
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and rehabilitation treatment. Further six areas of support were

used to get some useful information. And this data as well as
announced by the European Commission Programme. They
the information can be shared to other group of networked
identified smart medical capsules, intelligent
robot.
prosthetics, monitoring systems, robotized surgery,
robotized motor coordination analysis systems and robot
For example the data collected by a robot which preforms
assisted cognitive and social therapies as particularly relevant
pick and place can be used by robots that perform the
based on the market, industrial and socio-economic potential.
assembling job. Even this information can be used by the
The robotic assistance or robots used in medical field can be
robots which are working in the painting chamber. The
networked or clouded to enhance the use of knowledge. Each
collective cloud data can be analyzed using big data analysis
hospital or hospital group can be consider as a public or
to get some useful information that can be used by
privet cloud group and each robot, i.e., cloud robot that is
mechanics, who work in the local work station.
associated with it can share information. Research is focusing
on implementing new architecture that can be scalable to
B. Cloud Robots In Aerospace Application
enhance the use of cloud robots. By doing this even the robot
itself can diagonals the disease and can prescribe medicine.
Compared to the automotive industry, the aerospace industry
Even the robots used in surgical area can share information
has been slow to introduce industrial robotics onto its
with the cloud and can be scalable by downloading new
assembly lines. Recently, however, there has been a general
library file for different application.
move towards automation in order to increase throughput and
standardize processes. The slow introduction of industrial
D. Ongoing Research Projects
robots into the aerospace industry is largely due to the need
for high accuracy over large structures. For example, holes
There are number of research project ongoing in the field of
have to be drilled within large structures with both high
„Cloud Robotics‟.
absolute and relative accuracy relative to other holes and
features of the aircraft assembly. Airbus has been researching
low cost, highly flexible automation for several years.
1) Roboearth
However, tasks within rib bays and other low access areas
found throughout aircraft structures have remained practically
This is a European project lead by Eindhoven University of
inaccessible to automation.
technology, Netherland. The project‟s main goal is to develop

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
NCETECE`14 Conference Proceedings
ISSN: 2278-0181

a „Word Wide Web for robots‟, which could be seen as huge worldwide. The new technology such as big data is also being
database over the network where robots can share discussed in the research environment. Incorporating the
information about objects, its environment and various other cloud as well as the big data analysis can further increase the
tasks. application of the robots in the future world.

2) Related work REFERENCES

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