Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance: An Open Architecture Approach To Integrated Research

The Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance (RCTA) seeks to provide adaptive robot capabilities which move beyond traditional metric algorithms to include cognitive capabilities [1]. Research occurs in 5 main Task Areas: Intelligence, Perception, Dexterous Manipulation and Unique Mobility (DMUM), Human Robot Interaction (HRI), and Integrated Research (IR). This last task of Integrated Research is especially critical and challenging. Individual research components can only be fully assessed when integrated onto a robot where they interact with other aspects of the system to create cross-Task capabilities which move beyond the State of the Art. Adding to the complexity, the RCTA is comprised of 12+ independent organizations across the United States. Each has its own constraints due to development environments, ITAR, "lab" vs "real-time" implementations, and legacy software investments from previous and ongoing programs. We have developed three main components to manage the Integration Task. The first is RFrame, a data-centric transport agnostic middleware which unifies the disparate environments, protocols, and data collection mechanisms. Second is the modular Intelligence Architecture built around the Common World Model (CWM). The CWM instantiates a Common Data Model and provides access services. Third is RIVET, an ITAR free Hardware-In-The-Loop simulator based on 3D game technology. RIVET provides each researcher a common test-bed for development prior to integration, and a regression test mechanism. Once components are integrated and verified, they are released back to the consortium to provide the RIVET baseline for further research. This approach allows Integration of new and legacy systems built upon different architectures, by application of Open Architecture principles.