IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2010 - 68

Mobile-C API
Access Point
Agency

Network

Mobile Robotic
System

Knowledge
Base

Mobile Robotic
System

MA
Stationary
Camera System
Mobile-C API

Mobile-C API

Agency

Hardware
Interface

Agency

Hardware
Interface

Camera

Mobile-C API

Mobile Robotic
System

Agency

Mobile-C API
Agency

Hardware Interface

Hardware
Interface

MA = Mobile Agent
Robotic System

Camera

Figure 1. The architecture for mobile agent-based distributed vision fusion.

router, as in normal office network deployments, use an ad hoc
network infrastructure, or both.
Not all devices need to be connected to the same network.
Some distributed systems may detract from or be strategically
deployed out of communication range of the main network.
A mobile robot may be instructed to survey an area out of
communication range to deploy stationary vision systems. Also,
some devices may use different forms of communication methods. Stationary systems may use radio-based communication,
where the mobile systems may contain both radio and standard
wireless devices, thereby allowing them to interact with both
the stationary systems and overall network.

Implementation
The following sections describe in detail the implementation
of the architectural components, including the mobile agent
systems, vision systems, and knowledge bases mentioned in the
previous section.
Mobile Agent Systems
Among all of the mobile agent systems that have been developed
over the past decade, JADE [11] is a notable representative with
regard to active maintenance and research use. It is IEEE
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IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine

Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) standard
compliant [14]. However, developed in Java with a very large
footprint, JADE has been focused toward IT and would require developing specialized modules for integrating with
low-level hardware. To facilitate the implementation of the
mobile agent-based distributed vision fusion architecture, a
mobile agent platform geared toward interfacing with low-level
mechatronic hardware is needed. Therefore, the mobile agencies
discussed in the architecture are implemented using Mobile-C
[12], [13]. Mobile-C is an IEEE FIPA standard compliant multiagent platform for supporting C/Cþþ mobile agents in networked intelligent mechatronic and embedded systems. It was
originally developed as a stand-alone mobile agent system. To
provide distributed applications with significant code mobility,
a Mobile-C library [15] was developed, which allows MobileC to be embedded into applications to support C/Cþþ mobile
agents. The Mobile-C library is an implementation of the IEEE
FIPA standard-compliant mobile agent system using Ch, an
embeddable C/Cþþ interpreter, as its agent execution engine
[16], [17]. Mobile-C agents containing mobile C/Cþþ code
are structured in XML for portability and flexibility [18]. The
Mobile-C library facilitates code mobility in C/Cþþ programs and the development of multiagent systems that can
SEPTEMBER 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2010