%0 Journal Article
%T Robotics Middleware: A Comprehensive Literature Survey and Attribute-Based Bibliography
%A Ayssam Elkady
%A Tarek Sobh
%J Journal of Robotics
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/959013
%X Autonomous robots are complex systems that require the interaction between numerous heterogeneous components (software and hardware). Because of the increase in complexity of robotic applications and the diverse range of hardware, robotic middleware is designed to manage the complexity and heterogeneity of the hardware and applications, promote the integration of new technologies, simplify software design, hide the complexity of low-level communication and the sensor heterogeneity of the sensors, improve software quality, reuse robotic software infrastructure across multiple research efforts, and to reduce production costs. This paper presents a literature survey and attribute-based bibliography of the current state of the art in robotic middleware design. The main aim of the survey is to assist robotic middleware researchers in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches and their appropriateness for their applications. Furthermore, we provide a comprehensive set of appropriate bibliographic references that are classified based on middleware attributes. 1. Introduction Robot middleware is an abstraction layer that resides between the operating system and software applications (as shown in Figure 1). It is designed to manage the heterogeneity of the hardware, improve software application quality, simplify software design, and reduce development costs. A developer needs only to build the logic or algorithm as a component, after which the component can be combined and integrated with other existing components. Furthermore, if he wants to modify and improve his component, he needs only to replace the old one with the new one. Therefore, experiment efficiency will improve. In [1], the authors outline some of the problems faced in the development of some robotics middleware. A survey of robot development environments (RDEs) by Kramer and Scheutz [2] described nine open source, freely available RDEs for mobile robots, evaluated and compared them from various points of view with suggestions of how to use the results of the survey, and concluded with a brief discussion of future trends in RDE design. Mohamed et al. [3] provide a short overview of several research projects in middleware for robotics and their main objective. Mohamed et al. [4] provide an overview study of networked robot middleware and different criteria for evaluating networked robot middleware. Furthermore, in [5], some freely available middleware frameworks for robotics are addressed, including their technologies within the field of multirobot systems. Figure 1: Middleware
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jr/2012/959013/