RT Middleware

By Takeshi Sasaki

Going back to explaining a little bit on what we do here in the lab, we have a great introduction and a little video of what RT Middleware is by our resident researcher.

Recently, OMG (Object Management Group, http://www.omg.org/) adopted the RTC (Robotic Technology Component) Specification that defined a component model for development of robotic systems.
In module or component based systems, independent elements (module or component) of functions of the systems are first developed and the systems are then built by combining the modules.
The modularization increases maintainability and reusability of the elements.
Moreover, flexible and scalable system can be realized since the system is reconfigured by adding or replacing only related components.
OpenRTM-aist (http://www.is.aist.go.jp/rt/OpenRTM-aist/) is a middleware that complies with the standard.
It also includes a template code generator which makes a source code of a component from the specification of the component (e.g. number of I/O ports, etc.) and a system design tool which provides graphical user interface to change the connection of components and start/stop the system.
The attached video shows an example of system construction using the OpenRTM-aist.