Mobile robotics virtual laboratory over the Internet

In this paper, we describe a mobile robotics virtual laboratory that allows the user to define and perform remote experiments over the Internet using a mobile minirobot. The user interacts with a user interface, which receives a work space top view from a remote laboratory facility. She defines and draws a C-Space on the image, and provides a destination point. Once C-Space and destination are defined, a potential field based planner draws a path. This path is sent to the laboratory facility and a vision-based computer system makes the robot follow that path. Several capabilities to enhance real-time user´s interaction are provided: grab and drop path modification, virtual obstacles insertion, changeable experiment settings, and a complementary observer system used to get a detailed view of the robot and its workspace.