Wireless Characteristics Study for Indoor Multi-Robot Communication System

Abstract

Mobile robots are greatly influencing the growth of autonomous service and management in large e-commerce warehouses, modern-day smart factories, and industries in compliance with Industry 4.0 standards. The application requirements varies from low rate sensor data flows to high data-rate image and video transmissions. Co-ordination and communication among robots are vital for various applications in such indoor deployments. Due to the dynamic work-flow and mobility of the robots, wireless networks are being used as the underlying mode for communication among robots and between the robots and other network devices such as routers, gateways, etc. However, wireless behavior of the last-mile communication link is greatly affected due to various indoor constraints such as multi-path, blockage, interference, and mobility. In this paper, we present characteristics study of the wireless communication behavior in large-scale and complex multi-robot indoor systems. We also validate and select appropriate channel model for such robotic indoor communication systems. Through extensive simulations on ROS-OMNeT platform, we demonstrate effects of obstacles, their material types, node's mobility on the communication coverage as well as Signal To Noise Ratio (SNR), Packet Reception Rate (PRR), and throughput performances.