Networking technologies for robotic applications
Vibekananda Dutta
Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering
Warsaw University of Technology
00-665 Warszawa, Poland
E-mail: vibek@meil.pw.edu.pl
Teresa Zielinska
Institute of Aeronautics and Applied Mechanics
Warsaw University of Technology
00-665 Warszawa, Poland
E-mail: teresaz@meil.pw.edu.pl
Abstract— The ongoing progress in networking security,
together with the growing range of robot applications in many
fields of everyday life, makes robotics tangible reality in our near
future. Accordingly, new advanced services, depends on the
interplay between the robotics and cyber security, are being an
important role in robotics world. This paper addresses
technological implications of security enhancement to the
Internet of Thing (IoT) – aided robotics domain, where
networked robots are expected to work in complex environments.
The security enhancement suggested by the NIST (National
Institute of Standards and Technology) creates a security
template for secure communications over the network are also
discussed.
Keywords— Robots; Security policies; Robotic applications;
Internet of Thing (IoT).
I. INTRODUCTION
In the field of safety, security and IoT-aided robotic
applications the number of devices involved in Machine-to-
Machine (M2M) communication is expected to steadily grow
in next few years. Research and applications trends are leading
to the appearance of the IoT-aided robotic applications [1].
Tele-operation
of
mobile
robots
requires
wireless
communication, what increasingly involves multi-robot
network and complex transmission of heterogeneous data.
This
position
paper, highlights
the
technological
implications including communication security caused by
Internet cloud techniques used in robotic systems.
During our recent visit, 2014 IEEE-RAS summer school
and workshop on response robotics (Fig. 2 - a), we observed
that IoT-aided robotics applications are growing in the cyber-
real world crossing, where humans, robots and security
enhancement interact in co-operative basis. The National
Security Agency (NSA) has published security specification
for
IoT-aided
robotic
applications
to
be
preciously
implemented in this complex cyberphysical world. It
addresses
three
important
security
features:
(1)
communication, (2) authentication, and (3) cyber security
policy development and enforcement [2]. The main
challenges in the wireless robotics, is the integration of the
different intelligent capabilities in to an overall system that
support all two teleoperation stages (Fig. 1) [3].
Starting from these premises, and with related to IoT-aided
robotic applications, this position paper:
a) envisions possible scenarios: (1) building smart, (2)
pervasive, and (3) secure environments.
b) highlights the need for improvising the key concepts
of security, privacy, and trust.
c) provides a state of the art, with particular refernce to
the following features: (1) communication networks, (2)
network security, and (3) robotic applications in distributive
and persive environments [4].
The following sections of this paper are organized as
follows: in section 2, the authors give an overview of IoT-
aided robotic applications. In section 3, the authors discussed
network interfacing for robotic applications. In section 4,
feasibility of proposed architectures in current IoT-aided
robotic applications is introduced. In section 5, wraps up the
discussion. Finally, section 6, gives the conclusion.
II. ENVISAGED IOT-AIDED ROBOTIC APPLICATIONS
In modern world, IoT-aided robotic applications have been
successfully applied in several domains, specifically in rescue
robots, assisting robots, health care robots, in industrial plans
and in the so called smart areas. Nevertheless, few works are
carried out on the interaction between these two fields, likely,
robotic applications and IoT-aided domain. However it needs
more in depth investigation.
Most of the modern robots platforms are equipped with
rich sensory sets, complex hardware with advanced computing
and communications capabilities. This, make them able to
execute complex and coordinated operations. Technology that
makes robots human-friendly and adaptable to different
scenario is emerging in several robotic applications [5, 6, 7].
The networked and user interfaced robots, such as rescue
robots, human assisting robots, health care robots and robots
for military applications, have been identified by the U.S.A.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (in
collaboration with Department of Homeland Security - DHS)
as a class of devices in which the hardware, software,
including security functions must be developed concurrently
[8]. Demonstration, test, and evaluation are crucial in this area
because of application of many emerging technologies, Fig. 2-
b, c present’s examples of robots for technologically
demanding tasks.
*Corrosponding author: Nishtha Kesswani, visiting scholar
Information and Decisions Sciences, Cyber Security Center
California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA
E-mail: nishtha@curaj.ac.in
User
Specification of high-level goals
triggering medium to long time
autonomy; e.g., navigation and
multi-robot control
Telecommunications for shot-
time autonomous functions; e.g.,
driving through doorways or
passing through communication
blackout areas.
Stage 2: Behaviour level
Stage 1: Communication level
Fig. 1. Mobile robots - two levels of information procession. Communication concerns the high level within the whole group. Behaviour
(behavioural level) – mean local decision making network.
Fig. 2. IEEE-RAS workshop in Perth, Australia [9] – a. Typical examples of IoT-aided robots: our laboratory bomb disposal and rescue robot
Seekur Jr [10] – b, australian bomb disposal robot, Australia [11] – c. Both robots can operate fully autonomously and perform a coordinated
exploration of the area.
(a)
(b)
(c)
III. NETWORK INTERFACING FOR ROBOTIC APPLICATION
A fundamental issues that researchers focus in the
networks and interfaces domain in robotic applications, is the
system integration when the components use different
Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication standards. To
this direction are going several EU FP7 research projects [12],
such as BETAAS and OPENIOT [13, 14] are focusing: on
cloud computing techniques, on security issues, on context
aware approaches, and on semantic-oriented design (another
examples are RELYONIT [15], ICORE [16], IOT.EST [17],
EBBITS [18], and VITRO [19]).
On the other hand, with reference to IoT-aided robotic
applications several important, not yet answered questions
should be dealt with [20]:
a) to what extent IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6-
recent), and Transport Layer Security (TLS) standard can be
used to deal with complex robotic systems.
b) can the semantic of data excahnge over the network
be directly embedded at the Media Access Control (MAC)
layer, with aims of enforcing security, privacy, and integrity.
c) robotic
communication
systems
are
extremly
heterogeneous, thus deserving further research on congestion
avoidance, reliable routing mechanisms [21], and on efficient
real- time handling of the big data amount.
The secure networking, allows robots to access a huge amount
of data, Transport Layer Security (TLS) is the cryptographic
protocol suggested by the NIST for secure communication.
TLS is put on the top of traditional protocols like e.g., TCP
[22, 23]. About 2010, the term cloud robotics has been
introduced [24], it is novel paradigm in robotic applications,
where robots can take the advantages of the Internet network
as resource for massive parallel computation and for almost
real time knowledge sharing [25, 26].
In the structure of the mobile robot-Internet interface shown in
Fig. 3, the robot subscribes the information from the cloud,
and its sensors - including vision; deliver the information to
the cloud (they are publishers).
In the figure the symbols mean the following:
N – Network controller / monitor,
- cloud data buffers / data packages,
- network controller interfaces for publishers,
- network controller interfaces for subscriber,
- lower layer network interfaces,
- lower layer input buffers of the publishers
(sensors, vision),
- lower layer output buffer of the subscriber (of the
robot,
- higher layer output buffers of the publishers
with Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms,
– higher layer input buffer of the subscriber with
Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms.
The publisher / subscriber module sends the acknowledgement
of status information, Quality of Service (QoS) requirement,
and QoS feedback to the network monitor establishing
communication between Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and
Machine-to-Cloud (M2C) respectively.
IV. FEASIBILTY OF PROPOSED ARCHITECTURES IN CURRENT IOT-
AIDED ROBOTIC APPLICATIONS
This position paper cannot conclude without addressing
the important question if current technologies are mature
enough to let sufficient network interfaces in robotic
applications.
Internet
User program,
*Robot
Application
Programming
Interface (API)
**Effector
/command
Application
of client
Application of
server
Dedicated communication protocol
Robot
Other
sensors
Vision
sensor
Data buffer
Control system
Other control modules
Fig. 3. Shows the structure of mobile robot- Internet interface proposed using
the concept proposed in [42, 28] and adapted in [31].
N Network
Controller / Monitor
Subscriber
Module
Mobile robot
Publisher
Module
Sensory
system
Publisher
Module
Vision
system
(a)
The internet is the data storage. In this case, the robots are
clients requesting the data, and the internets are server
providing it data. The data can be different types: (1) motion
data, (2) maps, (3) image buffer and so on (Fig. 4-b). On other
side, when the internet is the client and robot is the server is
used when controlling multi robots, because all the decision
and motion strategies are provided in internet cloud (Fig. 4-a).
Taking into account of above, the authors presented the
features of most current diffused robots (see Table. 1), trying
to address this question with reference to the different
scenarios. Nowadays there are several robots available in the
markets designed for a wide spectrum of IoT-aided robotic
applications [27, 6]. According to [29], specialized robots are
classified to two categories: service robots and field robots,
executing supportive task for humans (e.g., domestic, personal
mobility assistance, and rescue). The International Federation
of Robotics (IFR) [43] expects that nearest future will bring, a
rapid development of field robots, what - due to high level of
such robots complexity and autonomy will stimulate the
development of new communication techniques.
Table-1
proposes
an
outlook
on
the
current
commercialized robots belonging to both service robots and
field robots categories, taking into account type, principal
features, network interfacing [44], and application areas. Such
information can be explicitly revealed from the references
(freely downloaded from the corresponding websites).
TABLE I. ROBOTS ENABLING THE ENVISAGED IOT – AIDED ROBOTIC APPLICATIONS
Type of robots
Model
Description
Network interface
Computation
al Mobility
Applications
WiFi
Ethernet
Humanoid
NAO [32]
Support for human-
robot interaction
activities, in wide
range of indoor
environments.
Supporting
both
features
Medium
Health care, Home
REEM [33]
Supporting
both
features
+
3G
(UMTS)
High
Health care, Home,
Industrial
PR2 [34]
Supporting
both
features
Medium
Home and Research
Domestic
/
Service
Care-o-bot
3
[35]
Assisting humans in
their
daily
life
activities and also in
industrials
environments.
Supporting
both
features
High
Health care, Home,
Industrial
PeopleBot
[36]
Supporting
both
features
High
Home , Industrial
StockBot [37]
Only supporting
WiFi features
Medium
Industrial
Field / Ground
Husky [38]
General
purpose
robots for both indoor
and
outdoor
environments.
Also
used
for
R
&D
section.
Supporting
both
features
High
R
&D,
Military,
Rescue
Guardian [39]
Supporting
both
features
High
R
&D,
Military,
Rescue
Pioneer 3-AT
[40]
Supporting
both
features
Medium
R &D, Military
Seekur [41]
Supporting
both
features
High
Military,
Rescue,
bomb disposal
Marine
Kingfisher
[42]
Control marine areas.
Supporting
both
features
High
Military, Rescue
Internet
*Motion
commands
*Maps
*Image buffer
Providing data
Application
of server
Application of
client
Dedicated communication protocol
Robot _1
requesting data
Robot_2
requesting data
States/r
esult of
movem
ents
(b)
Fig. 4. General concept of internet architecture: communication medium between
client (Internet) and server (Robot) – a, communication medium between server
(Internet) and client (Robot) – b [46].
V. DISCUSSION
This position paper identified the challenges concerning
IoT-aided robotic applications, with particular reference
(Table-1) to their technological and scientific implications.
Basis on the state of art the following observations,
important for developing the robotic oriented Internet tools
were made:
a) robots are expected to act in complex scenarios
(e.g.,
outdoor
environments),
the
short-range
communication
methods,
sematic-based
services,
information centric networking, and security problems are
here significant [20].
b) the largest challenge for wireless communications
over the network are the links quality, when controling by
cloud many moving robots [30].
c) there is the need for protocol able to deliver
messages in a secure manner within the secure network in
outdoor sceanrios with user-robot interfacing, while
assuring a high communication effeciency with high
transmission and processing speed. Due to hazards in the
networks traffic conditions, such requirements is difficult to
achieve [45].
d) it is needed to investigate a secure
communication in order to achieve goals in complex
scenarios. Information Technology (IT) is required also the
introduction of specific netwrok interfaces that cloud
indentify untrusted devices with inhibit their actions within
the whole system.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the authors addressed challenging topics in
IoT-aided
robotic
applications:
(1)
communication
networks, (2) network interfacing and (3) security policies.
Those
problems
with reference
to
the
traditional
communication
networks
with
information
centric
architecture are very worth to investigate. In-addition, the
redefinition of security – primitive’s represents cornerstone
of the network interfacing techniques for IoT-aided
robotics-world. Nevertheless, to fully exploit the potential of
advanced technology in the next years, a solid effort in both
protocols and applications design is required in order to
make the envisioned IoT-aided robotics world a reality in
the near future.
\
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the HERITAGE project
(Erasmus Mundus Action 2 Strand 1 Lot 11, EAECA/42/11)
funded by the European Commission.
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