2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2024) - 5G-ERA Tutorial

Connected Robotics Platform for ROS Deployment in Real-world Network Settings

 

Date & Time: 13th May 2024 from 13:00-17:30PM (JST GMT+9)

Venue: Room G404, Pacifico Yokohama North, Pacific Convention Plaza Yokohama(PACIFICO Yokohama) 

Address: 1-1-1, Minato Mirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama 220-0012, JAPAN

Summary:
Internet is a dynamic and unstructured network with multi-domain and multi-administration. ROS and ROS2(DDS) are not designed for the unstructured network, hence won’t work in real-world deployment. We need an effective mechanism to unblock ROS traffic and orchestrate internet resources for autonomous robots. The mechanism could accelerate the transformation from existing cloud robotics into the future of 5G/6G enabled connected robotics. This tutorial presents a ROS extension called Connected Robotics Platform (CROP) to extend the ROS from only working in structured lab environments into fully scalable at real-world CONNECT+ settings. CROP is an open source, cloud native implementation of Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) which optimised specifically for robot development. Existing ROS applications enhanced by CROP can be deployed natively into large-scale distributed systems without modification, at the same time maintain the necessary performance and security. Furthermore, a radioaware semantic mapping framework is introduced. By combining radio signal quality information with semantic mapping techniques, the framework creates a comprehensive understanding of the network environment, which enhances the decision-making of the autonomous robots. The development is a step forward to 5G/6G enabled connected robotics on supporting robot deployment in real-world settings at the same time optimising behaviours of robots according to digital infrastructures.

Pre-requirement:

  • You can enjoy our talks and demonstrations, explore networking and DevOp aspects of ROS under the connected robotics platform (CROP) without any preparation.
  • To follow the hand-on session fully, please take a laptop with Ubuntu 22.04 and ROS2 Humble installed.

Agenda:

13:00-13:15 Registration and environment setup

13:15-13:30 Opening and introduction

Connected Robotics Platform (CROP) – Network softwarization and virtualization for robotics – Prof Renxi Qiu (University of Bedfordshire, UK)

13:30-14:50 Demonstration of the Connected Robotics

Scenario: Network-based SLAM in unstructured real-world network using CROP

  • Offloading SLAM to remote Cloud and local Edge – Dr Michal Kapinus (Brno University of Technology, Czechia)
  • Quality-aware robot operations, robot selecting optimal resource based on quality signals – Dr Lanfranco Zanzi (NECLab, Germany)
  • Resilient and robust service by autonomous Edge switch over – Mr. Bartosz Bratus (University of Bedfordshire, UK)

Integrated demonstration (hybrid):

  • Remote demonstration: Summit XL connected to AWS Cloud for PPDR surveillance tasks – Mr. Guillem Garí and Ms. Sandra Moreno Olivares (RobotNik Automation SLL, Spain), Mr. Adrian Lendínez (Telefonica, Spain) and Mr. Vladimir Guroma (University of Bedfordshire, UK)

Presentations:

  • Applications of Connected Robotics in Transportation – Mr. Jan Kubálek (BringAuto, Czechia)
  • Applications of Connected Robotics in Manufacturing – Mr. Kandarp Amin and Prof Darren Williams (TWI, UK), Mr. Sebastian Andraos (HAL-Robotics, UK)

14:50-15:40 Hand on experience of ROS under the Connected Robotics

Scenario: Breaking the barrier of ROS2 DDS into real-world networks

  • Limitation of ROS2 and DDS (BUT) and Hand on experience of remote object detection in unstructured networks – Dr Michal Kapinus (Brno University of Technology, Czechia)
  • Hand on experience of obstacle avoidance in unstructured networks – Dr Michal Kapinus (Brno University of Technology, Czechia)
  • Demonstration: Behind scene story, fully orchestrated infrastructure automation – Mr. Bartosz Bratus and Mr. Radu Popescu (University of Bedfordshire, UK)

15:40-16:00 Break

16:00-17:20 Building your own ROS applications for the Connected Robotics

Scenario: Accelerated ROS application development

  • Demonstration: Relay in connected robotics – Dr Michal Kapinus (Brno University of Technology, Czechia)
  • Demonstration: How to build a networked object detector in unstructured network and use it in an industrial Robot – Dr Michal Kapinus (Brno University of Technology, Czechia) and Mr. Paul McHard (HAL-Robotics, UK)
  • Demonstration: How to build a tele-operation app in unstructured network – Mr. Angelos Stathis (WINGS ICT Solution, Greece)
  • Demonstration: Onboarding and deploying the newly created network applications with orchestration – Mr Bartosz Bratus and Mr. Radu Popescu (University of Bedfordshire, UK)
  • Hand on experience to the newly created ROS applications for connected robotics Users, assisted by all

17:20-17:30 Closing remarks

Additional information also available at GitHub.

Previous events:

 Hackathon: 5G Enhanced Robot Autonomy hackathon, April 2023, organised by 5G-ERA consortium. The event was specifically designed for ROS developers to use 5G infrastructure. The event had around 50 participants  

Workshop: 6G enabled Network Applications for the Future of Connected Robotics, June 2023, organised by 5G-ERA consortium and one6G Association. The event had around 100 participants 

 
Accessibility by WAH