A Smart Network of Service Robots: Technical Challenges and Design Considerations

Recent advancement in communication technology to support cloud robotics is expected to bring a remarkable evolution in industry automation. As another big opportunity for research, this article is intended to provide implications of what service robots, as opposed to industrial robots used in a structured setting, can bring into our daily lives in the near future. With a brief review of recent research and standardization activities, several technical challenges and design consideration points on service robot operation are discussed with the focus on some of the key aspects such as autonomic networking for service disruption minimization, robot utilization improvement, and cybersecurity.