Light Communication for Controlling Industrial Robots

TL;DR

This paper explores the application of Optical Wireless Communication using LED lights to wirelessly control industrial robots, aiming to overcome limitations of radio waves in certain environments through experimental validation.

Contribution

It investigates the feasibility and performance of OWC technology for industrial robot control in various line-of-sight conditions and barriers, providing experimental insights.

Findings

OWC can reliably control robots in LoS conditions.

Performance degrades with non-line-of-sight and barriers.

System throughput varies with environmental factors.

Abstract

Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) is regarded as an auspicious communication approach that can outperform the existing wireless technology. It utilizes LED lights, whose subtle variation in radiant intensity generate a binary data stream. This is perceived by a photodiode, that converts it to electric signals for further interpretation. This article aims at exploring the use of this emerging technology in order to control wirelessly industrial robots, overcoming the need for wires, especially in environments where radio waves are not working due to environmental factors or not allowed for safety reasons. We performed experiments to ensure the suitability and efficiency of OWC based technology for the aforementioned scope and "in vitro" tests in various Line-of-Sight (LoS) and Non-Line-of-Sight (NLoS) configurations to observe the system throughput and reliability. The technology performance in the "clear LoS" and in the presence of a transparent barrier, were also analyzed.