Internet of Robotic Things: Concept, Technologies, and Challenges

Internet of Things allow massive number of uniquely addressable “things” to communicate with each other and transfer data over existing internet or compatible network protocols. This paper proposes a new concept which tackles the issues for supporting control and monitoring activities at deployment sites and industrial automations, where intelligent things can monitor peripheral events, induce sensor data acquired from a variety of sources, use ad hoc, local, and distributed “machine intelligence” to determine appropriate course of actions, and then act to control or disseminate static or dynamic position aware robotic things in the physical world through a seamless manner by providing a means for utilizing them as Internet of robotic things (IoRT). Although progressive advancements can be seen in multi-robotic systems, robots are constantly getting enriched by easier developmental functionalities, such vertical robotic service centric silos are not enough for continuously and seamlessly supporting for which they are meant. In this paper, a novel concept-IoRT is presented that highlights architectural principles, vital characteristics, as well as research challenges. The aim of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the architectural assimilation of IoRT and identify important research directions on this term.