Cloud Computing

Cloud computing refers to the provision of computational resources on demand via a network. Cloud computing can be compared to the supply of electricity and gas, or the provision of telephone, television and postal services. All of these services are presented to the users in a simple way that is easy to understand without the users needing to know how the services are provided. This simplified view is called an abstraction. Similarly, cloud computing offers computer application developers and users an abstract view of services that simplifies and ignores much of the details and inner workings. A provider's offering of abstracted Internet services is often called "The Cloud".

Several research groups are exploring the idea of robots that rely on cloud-computing infrastructure to access vast amounts of processing power and data. This approach which some are calling "cloud robotics", would allow robots to off-load compute-intensive tasks like image processing and voice recognition and even download new skills instantly.

       CLOUD ROBOTICS PROJECTS :

   RoboEarth is a European project led by the Eindhoven University of Technology, in the Netherlands, to develop a "World Wide Web for robots", a giant database where robots can share information about objects, environments, and tasks.

   Researchers at Singapore's ASORO (A-Star Social Robotics Laboratory) have built a cloud-computing infrastructure that allows robots to generate 3-d maps of their environments much faster than they could with their onboard computers.

   Google engineers developed Android-powered robot software that allows a smartphone to control robots based on platforms like Lego Mindstorms, iRobot Create ,and Vex Pro.

   Researchers at the Laboratory of Analysis and Architecture of Systems, in Toulouse, France,are creating "user manual" repositories for everyday objects to help robots with manipulation tasks.

   At a children's hospital in Italy, Nao humanoid robots, created by the French firm Aldebaran Robotics, will rely on a cloud infrastructure to perform speech recognition, face detection, and other tasks that might help to improve their interaction with patients.