Standardisation landscape for 6G robotic services

Abstract

With the increasing usage of robots in numerous vertical industries, the need for standardised solutions has intensified. A number of research and industrial communities and other Standards Developing Organisations (SDOs) have been actively working to identify areas in the robotics and automation sector that are suitable for standardisation. On top of that, each generation of mobile communications brings in new features and a wealth of new standardisation possibilities. While the deployment of 5G New Radio (5G NR) networks is expanding, the race for 6G is already starting to take shape with a number of proposed enabling technologies such as the integrated communication and sensing (ISAC) which can revolutionize the robotic technology. Since the two sectors of robotic and communication technologies advancements have overlapping areas for research and development, the SDOs’ activities need to address the commonalities, to allow a harmonized and unified platform that formally adopts and confirms best practices in 6G and robotics as standards. In this work, we present relevant industry standardisation, associations, and fora for both mobile communication and robotic industries based on the ETSI Classification of SDOs. We present the standardisation landscape for 6G and robotics and highlight the gap in this multidisciplinary standardisation, sharing key recommendations.