Google aims to bridge Android, cloud computing with robotics

Google launched rosjava, a ROS (robot OS) framework in Java that is Android compatible. The plan: Meld Android, cloud computing and robotics.

Cloud computing and robotics could create one fine mashup that preserves battery life, adds capabilities and allows robots to form groups.

That's the high-level takeaway from Google's I/O conference this week. Google launched rosjava, a ROS (robot OS) framework in Java that is Android compatible. The move coupled with Google's Android Open Accessory API, which aims to connect a bevy of devices---phones, bikes, cameras, clocks and other household items highlights how it is positioning the Android operating system as a robotics tool.

At various stations, Google I/O highlighted robotics work with the likes of companies such as iRobot, Willow Garage and toymaker Hasbro. iRobot had robots that used tablets as heads and control units---think R2D2 with a crew cut. Willow Garage and Google demonstrated how an Android tablet could be the eyes and ears of the PR2 (right). The PR2 subscribed to the tablet's orientation and the tablet subscribed to the PR2's camera images (the eyes).


I asked Hickman about latency. What would these robots do under clunky 3G connections and areas where there wasn't access. Hickman's reply is that the robot's memory could retain necessary data so it wouldn't suddenly go limp without a connection.


Those use cases---along with these cute little Hasbro robots that learn as a group via the cloud---raised at least a dozen "birth of Skynet" quips at the I/O robotics talk. If I heard a dozen Skynet quips just in ear shot it's safe to say there were thousand more in the field.


A few observations:



Here's a video of the I/O robotics talk:


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