A System Prototype with Multiple Robots for Finding u-Objects in a Smart Space

A smart space that can offer automatic services mainly relies on sensing devices to acquire contextual information, and on actuation devices to take responsive actions. Because such devices are usually fixed in some locations in the physical environment and canpsilat move by themselves, they can only sense information or act only in specific locations/directions. Different from these devices, are robots which can carry sensors and/or actuators, and are capable of moving from one location to another in a space. Because of their capability to move, robots can therefore be utilized to add flexible location-related service functions to smart spaces. To realize these new functions, robots must collaboratively work with a smart space manager and other devices/u-objects in the space. This paper presents the design and development of a system prototype with multiple robots with focus on how to manage the multiple robots and their collaborative work in finding RFID tagged u-objects in a smart room. Some experiments have been conducted and the result verifies and evaluates the aforementioned functionalities.