one6G at IEEE CSCN 2026 Panel: Connected Intelligence Maps the Future of Connected Robotics

At the IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications and Networking (IEEE CSCN 2026), held on 7–9 September 2026 as part of London 6G Week at King’s College London, the conference panel “6G, Connected Intelligence, and the Future of Connected Robotics” brought together leading experts from the telecommunications and robotics communities to examine how emerging 6G technologies will shape the next generation of connected robots.

The session took place on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, at the Edmond J. Safra Lecture Theatre, co-located with the one6G Summit 2026, which anchored a week of 6G standardisation and ecosystem activities in London with strong participation from academia, industry, and standardisation experts.

About the Panel

Aligned with ongoing activities in the one6G “6G Empowering Robotics” Work Item and the one6G × euRobotics collaboration, the panel was moderated by Dr. Toktam Mahmoodi (Centre for Telecommunications Research, King’s College London) and featured perspectives from equipment vendors, research institutes, and academia:

• Arman Shojaeifard (InterDigital, UK)
• Periklis Chatzimisios (International Hellenic University, Greece)
• Mona Ghassemian (eSense Ltd & King’s College London, UK)
• Howard Thomas (VIAVI Solutions, UK)
• Erik Nordell (Ericsson Research, UK)
• Kaspar Althoefer (Queen Mary University of London, UK)

Framing the Discussion: A Four-Plane Architecture for Connected Robotics

Opening the discussion, Dr. Mona Ghassemian, co-lead of the one6G “6G Empowering Robotics” Work Item, presented the architectural foundations from the joint one6G × euRobotics white paper: 6G Architectural Foundations and AI-Native Solutions for Future Connected Robotics.

The presentation outlined the five technology pillars for connected robotics — 6G integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), AI-native architecture, real-time digital twins, fleet management and multi-robot control, and cyber-physical systems for immersive human–robot interaction — and the four-plane system architecture (service, control, user, and management planes), showing how 6G capabilities such as native AI, ISAC, edge/cloud computing, and network programmability can be composed for robotic systems.

Connectivity Dimension: Key Questions for the Panel

The discussion was structured around three questions at the heart of the connectivity dimension for robotics:

• What is fundamentally different in 6G? With 6G creating the backbone of connected intelligence — AI-native architectures, integrated sensing and communication, real-time digital twinning, and network exposure services — which capability will be the true game changer for connected robots?
• Where should the intelligence reside? As 6G moves from connecting people and devices to connecting intelligence, what does this mean for a robot operating in the physical world: intelligence on the robot, at the edge, in the network, or distributed across all three?
• Is deterministic wireless connectivity within reach? For many robotic applications, low latency is not enough — robots need predictable latency, extremely high reliability, and bounded jitter. Can 6G evolve toward truly deterministic wireless connectivity, and which technical innovations are required?

The panel framed the value of 6G for robotics as extending beyond raw throughput, focusing instead on assured, intelligence-rich connectivity that can support safety-critical robotic perception, decision-making, coordination, and actuation — allowing robots to operate as first-class network citizens.

Complementing one6G and euRobotics Activities

The panel built on a series of one6G-affiliated discussions at major IEEE events, including ICC, GLOBECOM, and PIMRC. It also complemented the co-located half-day workshop “6G Empowering Polyfunctional Robotics”, jointly organized by one6G and euRobotics at IEEE CSCN 2026, which featured a keynote by Dr. Kamran Sayrafian (NIST, USA), together with an interactive poster pitch session showcasing research on 6G networks, connected robotics, and Physical AI.

Looking Ahead

The panel reinforced the message at the core of the one6G × euRobotics collaboration: aligning telecommunications and robotics communities around a common architectural foundation is essential for scalable, interoperable, and trustworthy connected robotics. The insights from the discussion will inform ongoing work in the one6G “6G Empowering Robotics” Work Item, the euRobotics Connected Robotics Topic Group, and related standardisation efforts such as the IEEE P1955 standard on 6G empowering robotics at ERF 2027.