Client/Server Framework for robot control in medical assistance systems

Purpose In medical applications, robots help physicians and surgeons in positioning and motion compensation issues. Existing robotized systems benefit from new developments in robotics research. Due to different attributes and features, it is nearly impossible to switch to a different robot in an existing application without fundamentally changing the application itself. In this work, we present a client/server framework for different robot types to separate the application from direct robot communication. Since this framework is based on a TCP/IP interface, programming language, platform and computer independent development and use is possible. The C++-source-code is available on request.