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Network robot system (NRS) is a new concept that integrates physical autonomous robots, environmental sensors and human-robot interactions through network-based cooperation. The aim of this paper is to provide a ubiquitous and cooperative service framework for NRS. We first present foundational concepts of semantic map and service abstraction for the framework. Then, in order to generate feasible service configurations to fulfill tasks, we propose service configuration and reconfiguration algorithms, which dynamically search the appropriate service configurations for each task. Additionally, we put forward a service reasoning an enabling process to tackle service unavailable problems. The service configuration΄s cost evaluation function is also proposed to facilitate the choosing against different service configurations. In implementation, we have developed a prototype system comprised of two robots and other various devices. Experiments indicate that the versatile service framework provides self-adaptive capabilities and utilizes available resources efficiently under a range of different scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multi-robot cooperation strategy based on a modified ant colony algorithm (ACA) is proposed. It enables the multi-robot system to search for the odor sources, which exist in the indoor environment, by imitating the forage behavior of the ant society. The modification of ACA includes new definitions of pheromone and heuristic function. And two extra search modes, local traversal search and global random search are added to improve the search performance of the robot system. A verification procedure is introduced into the iteration process to localize multiple odor sources. Simulation results have showed that the modified algorithm can effectively enable the robots to approach and determine the odor sources quickly and accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]