{"title":"A Critical Review of Communications in Multi-robot Systems.","authors":"Jennifer Gielis, Ajay Shankar, Amanda Prorok","doi":"10.1007/s43154-022-00090-9","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>This review summarizes the broad roles that communication formats and technologies have played in enabling multi-robot systems. We approach this field from two perspectives: of robotic applications that <i>need</i> communication capabilities in order to accomplish tasks, and of networking technologies that have enabled newer and more advanced multi-robot systems.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Through this review, we identify a dearth of work that holistically tackles the problem of co-design and co-optimization of robots and the networks they employ. We also highlight the role that data-driven and machine learning approaches play in evolving communication pipelines for multi-robot systems. In particular, we refer to recent work that diverges from hand-designed communication patterns, and also discuss the \"sim-to-real\" gap in this context.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>We present a critical view of the way robotic algorithms and their networking systems have evolved, and make the case for a more synergistic approach. Finally, we also identify four broad <i>Open Problems</i> for research and development, while offering a data-driven perspective for solving some of them.</p>","PeriodicalId":93426,"journal":{"name":"Current robotics reports","volume":"3 4","pages":"213-225"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9666305/pdf/","citationCount":"14","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Current robotics reports","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s43154-022-00090-9","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2022/8/22 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 14
Abstract
Purpose of review: This review summarizes the broad roles that communication formats and technologies have played in enabling multi-robot systems. We approach this field from two perspectives: of robotic applications that need communication capabilities in order to accomplish tasks, and of networking technologies that have enabled newer and more advanced multi-robot systems.
Recent findings: Through this review, we identify a dearth of work that holistically tackles the problem of co-design and co-optimization of robots and the networks they employ. We also highlight the role that data-driven and machine learning approaches play in evolving communication pipelines for multi-robot systems. In particular, we refer to recent work that diverges from hand-designed communication patterns, and also discuss the "sim-to-real" gap in this context.
Summary: We present a critical view of the way robotic algorithms and their networking systems have evolved, and make the case for a more synergistic approach. Finally, we also identify four broad Open Problems for research and development, while offering a data-driven perspective for solving some of them.