Wi-LiFi: Integrated Optical Wi-Fi for Enhanced Mobile Robotic Communications

This work investigates the design of an omnidirectional optical transceiver, to enable reliable inter-robot communication in mobile settings. The design addresses challenges stemming from the intrinsic directional nature of light, which can restrict signal coverage area and destabilize connections during robot movement. Our experiments demonstrate the system's capability to establish reliable high-speed optical communication links within a circular coverage zone of over 3 meters in radius. Our work advances the state-of-the-art in two significant ways: First, to our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an omnidirectional optical communication system aligned with the IEEE 802.11bb standard. Second, the system leverages channel diversity to enhance signal quality by incorporating hardware-based omnidirectional signal combinations at the receiver, an analog signal-format agnostic method compatible with Wi-Fi and other wireless signals without modifying the underlying wireless system's digital signal processing chain.