| Leading Japanese Robotics Institute Selects Objective Interface Middleware For Next-Gen Robotics |
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TOKYO, Japan—October 27, 2008—Faced with a society where more than forty percent of the population will be over the age of 65 in 2055, Japan is investing heavily in advanced robotics to alleviate worker shortages and provide in-home assistance to the elderly. This early investment by both Japanese government and manufacturers is critical for creating new advanced robots in the required time frame. Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has selected ORBexpress® as the core communications architecture for AIST’s new advanced robotics platform, OpenRTM-aist. This robotics framework is now available to Japanese industry for the development of advanced high-performance robotics systems. Robotics developers use a standard communications architecture—the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA)—to quickly process the massive amounts of visual, auditory and sensory programming and data required for robotics systems. Objective Interface Systems’ (OIS) real-time CORBA product, ORBexpress, speeds the development of these high-performance systems. In addition to providing the highest possible throughput for robotics systems, ORBexpress also offers the highest levels of safety and security in the industry. This is valuable for mission-critical applications such as next-generation robots—which operate independently and interact with each other. “A robot in the living room is more realistic than most of us would imagine,” said Joe Jacob, senior vice president of OIS. “AIST is truly a worldwide leader in this area. Their robotics development platform will speed the design and delivery of high-performance robots that work cooperatively with people in order to enrich their quality of life. We are extremely honored to be working with them.” “Reflecting our core mission to offer a ‘common platform technology for next-generation robots,’ we have been working to develop a fundamental and infrastructure-level technology which accelerates R&D of next-generation robots,” said Noriaki Ando, Dr. Eng., AIST. “Through our collaboration with OIS—a company known for providing fast, mature and secure communications middleware for advanced embedded systems—we are now able to provide a high-performance, secure robotics platform to developers of robotics systems.” About AIST’s Robotics Development Framework OpenRTM-aist is AIST’s high-performance implementation of RT-Middleware, an open-standard distributed middleware for robotics based on CORBA and the Object Management Group RTC (Robotic Technology Component) specification. A serious problem in the development of software supporting robotic systems, compared to the development of traditional software, is the lack of code reuse due to the specifics of each robotic system. RT-Middleware establishes a common platform for Robot Technology (RT) based on distributed object technology. This supports the construction of networked robotic systems through the integration of network-enabled robotic elements: RT-Components. RT-Middleware enables the development of robotic systems in which a large number of users can be involved, and it promotes code reusability via the modularization of the RT software. RT-Middleware also boosts the efficiency of research and development in robotics, extending the scope of its applications and fostering the emergence of new markets. For more information about OpenRTM-aist, please visit: http://www.openrtm.org. About AIST The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) consists of about 60 research institutes and centers. One of these research institutes, the Intelligent Systems Research Institute (ISRI), consists of researchers from intelligent robotics who have for many years pursued basic research into humanoids, Ambient Intelligence, robot manipulation, mobile robots, distributed robots, robot vision and ITS (Intelligent Transport System). The researchers specialize in robotics, computer vision, human interfaces, control engineering and mechanics. AIST has more than 2,500 research scientists and conducts research and development that partly contribute to the economic and industrial administration of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. For more information, please visit: http://unit.aist.go.jp/is/. About ORBexpress ORBexpress is used wherever systems require an extremely fast, small-footprint communications infrastructure where failure is not an option. Thousands of customers worldwide have used the ORBexpress communications infrastructure to build more flexible, upgradeable and capable products. ORBexpress is used in a wide range of systems, including mission-critical avionics systems, robotics, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems, nuclear fusion control systems and software defined radios. Available in C++, Java and Ada, ORBexpress has been recognized repeatedly as the smallest and fastest ORB in the industry by a variety of independent benchmark tests. About OIS Objective Interface Systems (OIS) is the worldwide leader in high-performance, real-time and embedded communications middleware solutions. The company provides ORBexpress, a family of high-performance CORBA ORBs, and PCSexpress™, secure communications middleware development tools based on the Multiple Independent Levels of Safety/Security (MILS) architecture, to meet the high-performance requirements of military and aerospace, telecommunications, medical devices, data communications, industrial automation and process control, transportation, robotics and consumer electronics markets. For more information on ORBexpress and the OIS portfolio of products, please visit: www.ois.com/products/ois-products.html, call 1 800-800-OIS7 in the U.S., +33 (0) 6 68 35 15 45 in Europe or +81 (0)3-5623-2112 in Japan or e-mail inquiries to: info@ois.com. Visit Objective Interface at www.ois.com. # # # ORBexpress is a registered trademark and PCSexpress and Objective Interface are trademarks of Objective Interface Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. PRESS CONTACTS: OIS Yuichi Miyamoto Phone: 81 (0)3-5623-2112 Email: yuichi.miyamoto@ois.com |