one6G at at PIMRC 2023 in Toronto

On September 7, 2023, one6G organized a panel “Tactile and Multimodal Communications for 6g Enabled Robotics: Requirements, Architectural Impact, Standardization, and Challenges” at the PIMRC 2023 in Toronto. The panel was organized by one6G WG1 Vice-Chair, Prof. Periklis Chatzimisios (International Hellenic University) and Dr. Mona Ghassemian (Huawei, UK), and moderated by Prof. Toktam Mahmoodi (King’s College London).

The panel featured distinguished speakers from industry and academia, including Dr. Adnan Aijaz (Toshiba, UK), Dr. Riccardo Trivisonno (Huawei, Germany), Dr. Ulises Olvera-Hernandez (Interdigital, Canada), and Prof. Mahdi Tavakoli (University of Alberta, Canada).

The proposal for this panel was developed within the newly created one6G Work Item covering 6G and robotics. Speakers’ presentations and the discussion that followed touched on a number of compelling use cases related to haptic-controlled connected robots, technical challenges, and ongoing and possible future standardization activities that need to be addressed to bring multimodal communication for haptic robots control into the next-generation communication system.

Abstract

There is a growing demand for robotic applications and remote operation in post pandemic era mainly in healthcare and automation systems which have driven further developments of the Tactile Internet (IEEE 1918.1).  Robotic applications are envisioned to penetrate several application areas and societal sectors. Alongside this growth, there are several ongoing developments in mobile communications industry towards enabling diverse services in vertical industries. This panel includes discussions related to integrating mobile communication capability in to robotics systems had gained significant momentum and how this integration can give rise to new possibilities to address relevant industrial and societal challenges.

While 5G ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) capability is well aligned with the TI low latency requirements, TI applications in different vertical industries have unique requirements on top of URLLC, such as global connectivity, high mobility, low jitter and multimodal synchronicity. The panel further discusses where the current communication systems fall short to satisfy these requirements and what needs to be overcome in 6G for future multimodal communication solutions to be ready for the full vision of the Tactile Internet with a focus on robotic applications.

About PIMRC

PIMRC is one of the flagship conferences of the IEEE Communications Society with special focus on the cutting-edge wireless technology research and innovation. 2023 edition focused on the next horizon for 6G systems, moving from connecting people and things, to connecting intelligence.