Intelligent space with time sensitive applications

Intelligent space (iSpace) is a relatively new concept to effectively use distributed sensors, actuators, robots, computing processors and information technology over communication networks. iSpace is a large scale mechatronics system by integrating sensors, actuators, and control algorithms in a communication system using knowledge from various engineering disciplines such as automation and control, hardware and software design, image processing, communication and networking. This paper describes a project "Johnny6 plays fetch in iSpace" to prototype an iSpace at North Carolina State University. The description includes hardware, software and networking algorithms used for this project. Different challenges such as time delay issues in the time sensitive application of iSpace is also discussed