A Networking Perspective of Multi-Robot Systems & Telerobots
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Abstract
When a fleet of robots performs a set of tasks in a certain collaborative way, they form a multi-robot system. There is a wide variety of applications of multi-robot systems ranging from the factory floor to warehouse, farming, search & rescue, etc. Any multi-robot systems consist of a robust subsystem to exchange data, information, control commands, etc., among themselves and a central controller, if available. Similarly, there are many robotic applications where a robot operates autonomously/semi-autonomously/manually based on the instruction of a remote user. A robust communication mechanism is the backbone of telerobots. Depending on the application, the requirements and constraints of the communication mechanism vary significantly. Hence, the question is, are traditional communication protocols and architecture sufficient for different networking needs of robotic applications? Surely, there is a scope for developing efficient communication mechanisms to cater to various robotic application needs.
Chayan Sarkar, TCS Research
Dr. Chayan Sarkar is a scientist at the TCS Research. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degree in Computer Science from Jadavpur University in 2009 and IIT Bombay in 2011, respectively. He completed his doctoral studies at the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands in 2016. He briefly worked as a researcher at SICS Swedish ICT in Sweden. Currently, he is part of the robotics & autonomous systems research area of TCS Research. His research interest includes multi-robot systems, human-robot interactions, and networked embedded systems.