Adoption of vehicular ad hoc networking protocols by networked robots

This paper focuses on the utilization of wireless networking in the robotics domain. Many researchers have already equipped their robots with wireless communication capabilities, stimulated by the observation that multi-robot systems tend to have several advantages over their single-robot counterparts. Typically, this integration of wireless communication is tackled in a quite pragmatic manner, only a few authors presented novel Robotic Ad Hoc Network (RANET) protocols that were designed specifically with robotic use cases in mind. This is in sharp contrast with the domain of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET). This observation is the starting point of this paper. If the results of previous efforts focusing on VANET protocols could be reused in the RANET domain, this could lead to rapid progress in the field of networked robots. To investigate this possibility, this paper provides a thorough overview of the related work in the domain of robotic and vehicular ad hoc networks. Based on this information, an exhaustive list of requirements is defined for both types. It is concluded that the most significant difference lies in the fact that VANET protocols are oriented towards low throughput messaging, while RANET protocols have to support high throughput media streaming as well. Although not always with equal importance, all other defined requirements are valid for both protocols. This leads to the conclusion that cross-fertilization between them is an appealing approach for future RANET research. To support such developments, this paper concludes with the definition of an appropriate working plan

Feasibility of Warehouse Drone Adoption and Implementation

While aerial delivery drones capture headlines, the pace of adoption of drones in warehouses has shown the greatest acceleration. Warehousing constitutes 30% of the cost of logistics in the US. The rise of e-commerce, greater customer service demands of retail stores, and a shortage of skilled labor have intensified competition for efficient warehouse operations. This takes place during an era of shortening technology life cycles. This paper integrates several theoretical perspectives on technology diffusion and adoption to propose a framework to inform supply chain decision-makers on when to invest in new robotics technology

Introducing autonomous aerial robots in industrial manufacturing

Although ground robots have been successfully used for many years in manufacturing, the capability of aerial robots to agilely navigate in the often sparse and static upper part of factories makes them suitable for performing tasks of interest in many industrial sectors. This paper presents the design, development, and validation of a fully autonomous aerial robotic system for manufacturing industries. It includes modules for accurate pose estimation without using a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), autonomous navigation, radio-based localization, and obstacle avoidance, among others, providing a fully onboard solution capable of autonomously performing complex tasks in dynamic indoor environments in which all necessary sensors, electronics, and processing are on the robot. It was developed to fulfill two use cases relevant in many industries: light object logistics and missing tool search. The presented robotic system, functionalities, and use cases have been extensively validated with Technology Readiness Level 7 (TRL-7) in the Centro Bahía de C´ adiz (CBC) Airbus D&S factory in fully working conditions.Comisión Europea 60884Horizonte 2020 (Unión Europea) 871479Plan Nacional de I+D+I DPI2017-8979-

Future Roles for Autonomous Vertical Lift in Disaster Relief and Emergency Response

System analysis concepts are applied to the assessment of potential collaborative contributions of autonomous system and vertical lift (a.k.a. rotorcraft, VTOL, powered-lift, etc.) technologies to the important, and perhaps underemphasized, application domain of disaster relief and emergency response. In particular, an analytic framework is outlined whereby system design functional requirements for an application domain can be derived from defined societal good goals and objectives

Aerostack2: A Software Framework for Developing Multi-robot Aerial Systems

In recent years, the robotics community has witnessed the development of several software stacks for ground and articulated robots, such as Navigation2 and MoveIt. However, the same level of collaboration and standardization is yet to be achieved in the field of aerial robotics, where each research group has developed their own frameworks. This work presents Aerostack2, a framework for the development of autonomous aerial robotics systems that aims to address the lack of standardization and fragmentation of efforts in the field. Built on ROS 2 middleware and featuring an efficient modular software architecture and multi-robot orientation, Aerostack2 is a versatile and platform-independent environment that covers a wide range of robot capabilities for autonomous operation. Its major contributions include providing a logical level for specifying missions, reusing components and sub-systems for aerial robotics, and enabling the development of complete control architectures. All major contributions have been tested in simulation and real flights with multiple heterogeneous swarms. Aerostack2 is open source and community oriented, democratizing the access to its technology by autonomous drone systems developers