Development of a robust Wi-Fi/4G-based ROS communication platform for an assembly and repair mobile robot with reliable behavior under unstable network or connection failure

This paper presents various perspectives on designing and implementing a communication platform for a teleoperated mobile robot. The deployment of a communication network for a mobile robot and the integration of robot components in the developed communication platform are discussed in this article. A Wi-Fi-based communication network has been established, and to secure remote control over long distances, Internet-based communication via the 4G protocol has been launched using a virtual private network setup. Since an unstable network can damage the robot or the surrounding environment, an algorithm has been developed to monitor the state of the network connection through different protocols. The developed algorithm is able to detect network failure independently of the wireless communication technology used and notify the system of any disruptive communication. The robot's primary reactions to connection failure have been programmed to keep the robot under control until the communication with the control station is restored. Various experiments were carried out to validate the performance of the designed algorithm and statistical analysis was performed for each experiment. One of the main contributions of this study is the development of an algorithm for communication between the mobile robot and the control station based on both Wi-Fi and 4G, which is capable to keep the robot behavior safe and reliable in the presence of an unstable network or connection failure.