Proposal for a Research Project (or M.Sc.):
Design and Evaluation of a Java Real-time Client-Server System for Telesurgery

Background: A telesurgery system consists of a station in which the surgeon holds a master arm (client) interconnected by the Internet or other networks to a slave arm (server) whose motion is a replica of the surgeon hand motion. Relaying of stereo vision between the two stations allows the surgeon to sees the remote slave scene in 3D. A primary version of this approach has been successfully implemented but needs further R&D to optimize performance. The mechanical and electronic sub-systems of a master and slave arms have been developed at the Robotics Lab, computer engineering dept. ( see http://www.ccse.kfupm.edu.sa/researchgroups/robotics/).
Project Proposal: The project deals with the design and evaluation of a Java-based real-time Client-Server System for telerobotics. The transmitted real-time streams are the stereo vision, motion command, and a sensor data. The problem is to software engineer the implementation of the client and server to allow the minimizing of the effects of protocol delay, transmission delay, and other overheads on some predefined quality-of-service (QOS), i.e. a rate-controlled real-time traffic. The QOS is basically the data rate of each stream and the allowed delay jitter. The student tasks are: (1) implementing the client-server programs in Java, (2) simulate the real-time streams using a few controlled parameters (data rate, volume of data, and allowed delay jitter), (3) Implement both TCP/IP and UDP versions of the system, (4) write an evaluation module to monitor each stream with respect to its features, measured inter-arrival time, and associated distribution. The Client-server will be tested and evaluated on the KFUPM Campus Network.