Wireless Networked Multirobot Systems in Smart Factories

Smart manufacturing based on artificial intelligence and information communication technology will become the main contributor to the digital economy of the upcoming decades. In order to execute flexible production, smart manufacturing must holistically integrate wireless networking, computing, and automatic control technologies. This article discusses the challenges of this complex system engineering from a wireless networking perspective. Starting from enabling flexible reconfiguration of a smart factory, we discuss existing wireless technology and the trends of wireless networking evolution to facilitate multirobot smart factories. Furthermore, the special sequential decision-making of a multirobot manufacturing system is examined. Social learning can be used to extend the resilience of precision operation in a multirobot system by taking network topology into consideration, which also introduces a new vision for the cybersecurity of smart factories. A summary of highlights of technological opportunities for holistic facilitation of wireless networked multirobot smart factories rounds off this article.