The Robot Management System

About

The RMS (Robot Management System) is a remote lab management tool designed to control ROS enabled robots from the web. RMS itself refers to a web-management system written in PHP that is backed by a MySQL database. The system utilizes a model-view-controller (MVC) framework via the popular CakePHP framework. RMS is written in a robot-platform independent manner allowing for the control of a variety of robots. In addition to being cross-platform, RMS allows for basic user and access management, interface management, content management, and remote user studies. RMS is developed as part of the Robot Web Tools effort.

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Who Should Use the RMS?

RMS was designed to be an easy to use, easy to mange, remote lab system for use by robotic researchers and enthusiasts. Developed in PHP, the RMS itself is not considered a light-weight system; however, by using a heavier system, tools such as user management, content management, and interface management become possible.

Does the RMS Itself Require ROS to Install?

No. The RMS was designed as a standalone system that can be easily installed on UNIX based web servers. The decision was made so that it is possible to host the RMS itself on campus, Amazon, or third-party web servers without the need of maintaining and installing ROS on that server. RMS will point to ROS servers which are running rosbridge_server in order to control the robot.

How Does the RMS Communicate with ROS?

The RMS uses the lastest version of roslibjs to communicate with ROS servers. For the ROS server to communicate back to the client, a server running rosbridge_suite should be running.

Cool Widgets! Do I Need RMS to Use Them?

No. Most of the widgets available in the system were developed as standalone widgets as part of the Robot Web Tools effort. The RMS simply wraps these widgets and provides an easy-to-use GUI to customize them to fit your needs.

Is There More to Come?

Yes! The RMS, and all of its widgets, have been, and remain, under active development. Furthermore, contributions are welcome and encouraged!

Who is Using the RMS?

While we do not track the running instances of RMS, two notable projects using the system are the RobotsFor.Me project at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and the PR2 Remote Lab project at Robert Bosch LLC. Other known examples exists at Brown University, Osaka University, and PAL Robotics.

Installing the RMS

To get started with the system, start by following the installation tutorial. Additional tutorials are posted further down this page.

RMS Developer API

This API should be referenced if you want to modify, add to, or debug the RMS system itself. There are two sets of documentation available: the RMS PHP API and the RMS JavaScript API.

Tutorials

This section contains a set of useful tutorials for use with the RMS.

  1. Install the RMS (Robot Management System)

    This tutorial helps you set up a secure LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) server and install the RMS (Robot Management System).

  2. A Guide to Interface Development

    This tutorial servers as a guide to help get started with interface design within the RMS.

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Support

Please send bug reports to the GitHub Issue Tracker. Feel free to contact me at any point with questions and comments.


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Wiki: rms (last edited 2014-06-13 18:39:23 by Russell Toris)