Safety-guaranteed and Goal-oriented Semantic Sensing, Communication, and Control for Robotics

Abstract: Wirelessly-connected robotic system empowers robots with real-time intelligence by leveraging remote computing resources for decision-making. However, the data exchange between robots and base stations often overwhelms communication links, introducing latency that undermines real-time response. To tackle this, goal-oriented semantic communication (GSC) has been introduced into wirelessly-connected robotic systems to extract and transmit only goal-relevant semantic representations, enhancing communication efficiency and task effectiveness. However, existing GSC approaches focused primarily on optimizing effectiveness metrics while overlooking safety requirements, which should be treated as the top priority in real-world robotic systems. To bridge this gap, we propose safety-guaranteed and goal-oriented semantic communication for wirelessly-connected robotic system, aiming to maximize the robotic task effectiveness subject to practical operational safety requirements. We first summarize the general safety requirements and effectiveness metrics across typical robotic tasks, including robot arm grasping, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted tasks, and multi-robot exploration. We then systematically analyze the unique safety and effectiveness challenges faced by wirelessly-connected robotic system in sensing, communication, and control. Based on these, we further present potential safety-guaranteed and goal-oriented sensing, communication, and control solutions. Finally, a UAV target tracking case study validates that our proposed GSC solutions can significantly improve safety rate and tracking success rate by more than 2 times and 4.5 times, respectively.