A Highly Reliable Communication System for Internet of Robotic Things and Implementation in RT-Middleware With AMQP Communication Interfaces

Daishi Yoshino,Keitaro Naruse,Yutaka Watanobe

doi:10.1109/access.2021.3136855

Abstract

Since the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) is composed of robots with actuators, interferences with the real-world activities are necessary, and safety is essential. In addition, some IoRT services may require bidirectional communication between multiple machines. One of the communication protocols that satisfy these requirements is AMQP, a broker architecture that emphasizes reliability and high functionality in communication. Therefore, using AMQP as the communication infrastructure between components in an IoRT system, it can contribute to improving the reliability of robot operations in IoRT and diversifying messaging between robots. To verify AMQP’s communication advantages, we have implemented the communication interface of AMQP in RT-Middleware, which is one of the robot middlewares, and have conducted performance and reliability tests on the effectiveness of RT-Middleware as a platform for constructing a reliable IoRT system. In the tests, we compared the communication performance of the platform with CORBA and MQTT communication interfaces implemented in RT-Middleware. The results show that although AMQP causes a small amount of latency compared to other communication interfaces, the distribution range of the latency is small, and relatively stable communication is performed. Furthermore, in the messaging quality test results, the data loss during communication by AMQP is almost a hundred times better than CORBA, and ten times better than MQTT, which mean that highly reliable messaging is possible. Based on this study’s findings, we conclude that AMQP should be fully used as a communication protocol for constructing IoRT systems.

Highlights

Robots make decisions about their actions based on environmental data obtained from onboard sensors and their internal states
Following our discussion on the differences between Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) and Internet of Things (IoT) in Section 2, we present the advantages of advanced message queuing protocol (AMQP) in IoRT and the features of the RabbitMQ server, a message broker that augments AMQP, with a functional comparison with message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) and related research
We have discussed the state of communication in IoRT systems and have proposed a communication model and system configuration method for realizing it

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Robots make decisions about their actions based on environmental data obtained from onboard sensors and their internal states. By combining the AMQP communication interface with the RabbitMQ server, AMQP’s main message broker, it is possible to construct a more reliable and robust IoRT system using only RT-Middleware. B. ENHANCE SYSTEM RELIABILITY AND ROBUSTNESS BY CLUSTERING THE BROKER ARCHITECTURE The advantage of AMQP in IoRT has been found in the characteristics of the protocol, but high-quality and advanced messaging can be realized only with system sustainability. The consumer module of the sending out-port implements push-type communication using the service provided by the provider module of the receiving in-port This tightly coupled client/server architecture is a communication model suitable for robotic systems, as it is expected to ensure real-time performance through direct communication between endpoints. AMQP, a protocol designed to maintain the quality of messaging, is adopted as a new communication interface in this study

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE WITH AMQP COMMUNICATION INTERFACE

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF COMMUNICATION INTERFACES

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK