Impacts of Wireless on Robot Control: The Network Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation Framework and Real-Life Comparisons

As many robot applications become more reliant on wireless communications, wireless network latency and reliability have a growing impact on robot control. This article proposes a network hardware-in-the-loop (N-HiL) simulation framework to evaluate the impacts of wireless on robot control more efficiently and accurately, and then improve the design by employing correlation analysis between communication and control performances. The N-HiL method provides communication and robot developers with more trustworthy network conditions, while the huge efforts and costs of building and testing the entire physical robot system in real life are eliminated. These benefits are showcased in two representative latency-sensitive applications: 1) safe multirobot coordination for mobile robots, and 2) human-motion-based teleoperation for manipulators. Moreover, we deliver a preliminary assessment of two new-generation wireless technologies, the Wi-Fi6 and 5G, for those applications, which has demonstrated the effectiveness of the N-HiL method as well as the attractiveness of the wireless technologies.