Title: An information model for modular robots: the Hardware Robot Information Model (HRIM),
Abstract: Today's landscape of robotics is dominated by vertical integration where
single vendors develop the final product leading to slow progress, expensive
products and customer lock-in. Opposite to this, an horizontal integration
would result in a rapid development of cost-effective mass-market products with
an additional consumer empowerment. The transition of an industry from vertical
integration to horizontal integration is typically catalysed by de facto
industry standards that enable a simplified and seamless integration of
products. However, in robotics there is currently no leading candidate for a
global plug-and-play standard.
This paper tackles the problem of incompatibility between robot components
that hinder the reconfigurability and flexibility demanded by the robotics
industry. Particularly, it presents a model to create plug-and-play robot
hardware components. Rather than iteratively evolving previous ontologies, our
proposed model answers the needs identified by the industry while facilitating
interoperability, measurability and comparability of robotics technology. Our
approach differs significantly with the ones presented before as it is
hardware-oriented and establishes a clear set of actions towards the
integration of this model in real environments and with real manufacturers.