The paper describes a common object request broker architecture (CORBA)-based middleware system to control mobile service robots. The framework builds on the robot technology middleware (RTM) proposed by AIST. The main contribution of the paper is the description of robotic functional component (RFC) modules and their application in the design of the control and programming software for a dual-arm mobile service robot. RFC components are state machines that are created, initialized, activated, and that exit either through normal exit or on error conditions. RFCs are used in the architecture both at the low abstraction and the high abstraction levels, communicating via CORBA ORB. The paper then goes on to describe some of the RFCs the authors have implemented for a mobile service platform and presents some experimental results obtained on that robot platform. The system operates on three computers, one running the 3D viewer, one the graphical programming tool, and one controlling the robot. The message latency reported is on the order of microseconds.

The paper is well organized and easy to read. Fewer acronyms would have made the reading even easier. The work is valuable and interesting, but it raises two questions: (1) Outside the contribution to the middleware architecture, are there any aspects of the application reported that are novel? The related work part covers only middleware architectures. (2) Which parts of the software (if any) are available to other users? The best way of obtaining adoption of software architectures is to document the software well and make it freely available.