Hybrid Wireless–Local Communication via Information Propagation for Modular Robotic Synchronization Applications
Modular robots hold promise of adaptability, robustness, and versatility. Synchronization of modules is critical; if a module is asynchronous, not only will the robot fail to perform tasks properly, but its behavior may be self‐destructive through self‐collision. To avoid this, modern modular robots...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Advanced Intelligent Systems |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202100226 |
| _version_ | 1811239457086504960 |
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| author | Kevin Holdcroft Christoph Belke Alexander Sigrist Samir Bennani Jamie Paik |
| author_facet | Kevin Holdcroft Christoph Belke Alexander Sigrist Samir Bennani Jamie Paik |
| author_sort | Kevin Holdcroft |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Modular robots hold promise of adaptability, robustness, and versatility. Synchronization of modules is critical; if a module is asynchronous, not only will the robot fail to perform tasks properly, but its behavior may be self‐destructive through self‐collision. To avoid this, modern modular robots tend to have several separate communication systems. Wireless communication is used for interfacing with an external controller and synchronizing all modules, but is power‐hungry and prone to congestion with a large number of modules. Neighbor‐to‐neighbor (local) communication is necessary for configuration discovery and for synchronizing orientations, but cannot connect to wireless. As it stands, local communication is underutilized and wireless communication struggles with scalability due to number. A novel hybrid protocol is presented, where only a fraction of the modules connect to wireless and act as hubs which propagate messages through the local system. This method reduces both energy consumption and global network traffic while maintaining functionality and adding redundancy in communication. Through careful selection of hubs, it is shown that the operational time of a modular robot can be extended by 20%. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T13:00:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6257ea0be00c4fab8242d7bed62ea9b6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2640-4567 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T13:00:07Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Advanced Intelligent Systems |
| spelling | doaj.art-6257ea0be00c4fab8242d7bed62ea9b62022-12-22T03:32:10ZengWileyAdvanced Intelligent Systems2640-45672022-06-0146n/an/a10.1002/aisy.202100226Hybrid Wireless–Local Communication via Information Propagation for Modular Robotic Synchronization ApplicationsKevin Holdcroft0Christoph Belke1Alexander Sigrist2Samir Bennani3Jamie Paik4Reconfigurable Robotics Lab École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 1015 Lausanne SwitzerlandReconfigurable Robotics Lab École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 1015 Lausanne SwitzerlandReconfigurable Robotics Lab École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 1015 Lausanne SwitzerlandGuidance Navigation and Control Attitude Orbit Control and Pointing Systems Division European Space Research and Technology Centre European Space Agency NL-2200 AG Noordwijk The NetherlandsReconfigurable Robotics Lab École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 1015 Lausanne SwitzerlandModular robots hold promise of adaptability, robustness, and versatility. Synchronization of modules is critical; if a module is asynchronous, not only will the robot fail to perform tasks properly, but its behavior may be self‐destructive through self‐collision. To avoid this, modern modular robots tend to have several separate communication systems. Wireless communication is used for interfacing with an external controller and synchronizing all modules, but is power‐hungry and prone to congestion with a large number of modules. Neighbor‐to‐neighbor (local) communication is necessary for configuration discovery and for synchronizing orientations, but cannot connect to wireless. As it stands, local communication is underutilized and wireless communication struggles with scalability due to number. A novel hybrid protocol is presented, where only a fraction of the modules connect to wireless and act as hubs which propagate messages through the local system. This method reduces both energy consumption and global network traffic while maintaining functionality and adding redundancy in communication. Through careful selection of hubs, it is shown that the operational time of a modular robot can be extended by 20%.https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202100226cellular and modular robotscommunication architecturescontrol architectures and programmingnetworked robots |
| spellingShingle | Kevin Holdcroft Christoph Belke Alexander Sigrist Samir Bennani Jamie Paik Hybrid Wireless–Local Communication via Information Propagation for Modular Robotic Synchronization Applications Advanced Intelligent Systems cellular and modular robots communication architectures control architectures and programming networked robots |
| title | Hybrid Wireless–Local Communication via Information Propagation for Modular Robotic Synchronization Applications |
| title_full | Hybrid Wireless–Local Communication via Information Propagation for Modular Robotic Synchronization Applications |
| title_fullStr | Hybrid Wireless–Local Communication via Information Propagation for Modular Robotic Synchronization Applications |
| title_full_unstemmed | Hybrid Wireless–Local Communication via Information Propagation for Modular Robotic Synchronization Applications |
| title_short | Hybrid Wireless–Local Communication via Information Propagation for Modular Robotic Synchronization Applications |
| title_sort | hybrid wireless local communication via information propagation for modular robotic synchronization applications |
| topic | cellular and modular robots communication architectures control architectures and programming networked robots |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202100226 |
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