The Internet of Cooperative Agents Architecture (X-IoCA) for Robots, Hybrid Sensor Networks, and MEC Centers in Complex Environments: A Search and Rescue Case Study.

Juan Bravo-Arrabal,Anthony Mandow,Jose Antonio Gomez-Ruiz,Alfonso García-Cerezo,Manuel Toscano-Moreno,J J Fernandez-Lozano

doi:10.3390/s21237843

Juan Bravo-Arrabal, Anthony Mandow + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/s21237843

Copy DOI

Journal: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)	Publication Date: Nov 25, 2021
Citations: 13	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Universidad de Málaga

Abstract

Cloud robotics and advanced communications can foster a step-change in cooperative robots and hybrid wireless sensor networks (H-WSN) for demanding environments (e.g., disaster response, mining, demolition, and nuclear sites) by enabling the timely sharing of data and computational resources between robot and human teams. However, the operational complexity of such multi-agent systems requires defining effective architectures, coping with implementation details, and testing in realistic deployments. This article proposes X-IoCA, an Internet of robotic things (IoRT) and communication architecture consisting of a hybrid and heterogeneous network of wireless transceivers (H2WTN), based on LoRa and BLE technologies, and a robot operating system (ROS) network. The IoRT is connected to a feedback information system (FIS) distributed among multi-access edge computing (MEC) centers. Furthermore, we present SAR-IoCA, an implementation of the architecture for search and rescue (SAR) integrated into a 5G network. The FIS for this application consists of an SAR-FIS (including a path planner for UGVs considering risks detected by a LoRa H-WSN) and an ROS-FIS (for real-time monitoring and processing of information published throughout the ROS network). Moreover, we discuss lessons learned from using SAR-IoCA in a realistic exercise where three UGVs, a UAV, and responders collaborated to rescue victims from a tunnel accessible through rough terrain.

Highlights

Cloud robotics exploits the Internet of things (IoT) for the convergence of shared infrastructure and services for robotics, ranging from using computational resources in the cloud to having a repertoire of algorithms to deploy on a robot on a task-based basis [1]
The feedback information system (FIS) for this application consists of an search and rescue (SAR)-FIS and an robot operating system (ROS)-FIS
This work has proposed the Internet of cooperative agents architecture (X-IoCA), a cloud robotics architecture that enables the cooperation of robotic and human agents in a common mission

Summary

Introduction

Cloud robotics exploits the Internet of things (IoT) for the convergence of shared infrastructure and services for robotics, ranging from using computational resources in the cloud (infrastructure as a service, IaaS) to having a repertoire of algorithms to deploy on a robot on a task-based basis (platform as a service, PaaS) [1]. The DAvinCi project [3] proposed a software framework to parallelize the FastSLAM algorithm to share the computational load among several robots. The RoboEarth project [4] focused on knowledge representation and storage of shared environment information, so that various robots could create semantic maps and perform visual SLAM. Proposed an integration of robots and sensors by using the cloud for sharing information through an architecture that is highly focused on communications between the various elements. The algorithm presented in [6] improved the efficiency of smart factories based on multi-robot services hosted in the cloud, which can run at different speeds and with different workloads

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion