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Computer Engineering ›› 2025, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (10): 37-52. doi: 10.19678/j.issn.1000-3428.0069708

• Research Hotspots and Reviews • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Survey of Communication and Programming Frameworks for Multi-Robot Systems

PENG Long1, GAO Yuanjun2, LIU Xiaodong1, YU Jie1,*()   

  1. 1. College of Computer Science and Technology, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, Hunan, China
    2. Kylin Software Co., Ltd., Tianjin 300450, China
  • Received:2024-04-08 Revised:2024-07-10 Online:2025-10-15 Published:2024-08-21
  • Contact: YU Jie

群体机器人系统通信编程框架综述

彭龙1, 高元钧2, 刘晓东1, 余杰1,*()   

  1. 1. 国防科技大学计算机学院, 湖南 长沙 410073
    2. 麒麟软件有限公司, 天津 300450
  • 通讯作者: 余杰
  • 基金资助:
    国家自然科学基金(61872377); 湖南省科技创新计划项目(2021GK2001); 天津市自然科学基金重点项目(22JCZDJC00420)

Abstract:

Advances in computational power and network technologies have driven robots toward miniaturization, swarm intelligence, and autonomous capabilities. Robot software deployed on robotic hardware must integrate diverse modules from low-level device drivers and controls to high-level motion planning and reasoning, resulting in increasingly complex architectures. A communication and programming framework for multi-robot systems—focusing on standardization, modularization, and platformization—can alleviate the complexity of programming robotic software. The development trends in robotic software and hardware architecture show that a swarm robotic system is a multi-domain, heterogeneous, and distributed system composed of computing nodes, actuators, sensors, and other hardware devices interconnected through wired or wireless networks. The heterogeneity of hardware devices makes it difficult to integrate software components into a single framework. This survey summarizes and analyzes existing robotic communication frameworks in terms of ease of use and portability, comparing their core features, such as programming models, heterogeneous hardware support, communication and coordination mechanisms between components, and programming languages. The survey then highlights the technical trends of advanced topics such as real-time virtualization, component orchestration, and fault tolerance. Moreover, this survey focuses on building a next-generation framework on a meta Operating System (OS) foundation, aiming to build a ubiquitous and integrated multi-robot software architecture for human-machine-object interactions.

Key words: multi-robot system, communication and programming framework, fog robot, meta Operating System (OS)

摘要:

算力和网络技术的发展使得机器人逐渐向小型化、群体化、智能化方向发展,部署在硬件设备上的机器人软件需要集成从底层设备驱动和控制到上层运动规划和推理等多种软件模块,软件架构日益复杂。群体机器人通信编程框架从机器人软件标准化、模块化、平台化等目标出发,减轻了机器人通信编程的复杂度。分析总结机器人软硬件架构发展趋势,得出群体机器人系统是由各类计算节点、执行器、传感器等硬件设备通过有线或无线网络互联构成的多域异构分布式系统。这种硬件设备的异构性使得软件模块难以通过单一框架集成。归纳分析现有群体机器人系统通信编程框架在易用性、可移植性等方面的特点,从编程模型、异构硬件平台支持、组件间通信机制、编程语言等核心能力方面对通信编程框架进行对比,并在实时性、虚拟化、组件编排和容错支持等扩展能力方面展望通信编程框架的发展趋势,聚焦于以元操作系统(OS)为底座的下一代编程框架,以期构建人机物泛在融合的群体机器人软件架构。

关键词: 群体机器人, 通信编程框架, 雾机器人, 元操作系统