Cloud Robotics Experimentation Testbeds: a Cloud-Based Navigation Case Study

Cloud robotics is expected to play an important role in Industry 4.0 automation processes. Nevertheless, cloud robotics research still lacks comprehensive analysis on implementation issues and standardization. Experimentation testbeds designed for cloud robotics may accelerate research by providing a range of solutions while relieving researchers from implementing the whole cloud robotics stack. In this work, we present a case study over a cloud robotics testbed infrastructure in which we implement a cloud-based real-time autonomous navigation service for autonomous unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). An UGV located 4600 km away from the cloud platform makes use of such service to navigate throughout its environment, delegating to the cloud almost all computation. Results indicate the feasibility of real world cloud robotics implementations and we discuss the challenges and benefits of such approach.