Communication latency is the delay between sending and receiving data in a network. It can affect the performance, safety, and reliability of industrial robots, especially in complex and dynamic environments. In this article, you will learn how to optimize communication latency in industrial robots by following some practical tips and best practices.
The first step to optimize communication latency is to understand the sources of delay in your industrial robot system. These can include physical factors, such as the distance, bandwidth, and interference of the communication medium; protocol factors, such as the overhead, error handling, and security of the data transmission; and application factors, such as the complexity, frequency, and priority of the data exchange. By identifying and measuring the sources of latency, you can find the bottlenecks and optimize them accordingly.
The second step to optimize communication latency is to choose the right communication method for your industrial robot system. There are different types of communication methods, such as wired, wireless, serial, parallel, point-to-point, and networked. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of speed, reliability, cost, and flexibility. You should consider the requirements and constraints of your industrial robot application and select the communication method that best suits your needs.
Edge computing should be set as the basic hardware setup. Communication with lowest latency is guaranteed when well scaled hardware allows to execute e.g. containerized tasks.
The third step to optimize communication latency is to reduce the data size that you send and receive in your industrial robot system. The larger the data size, the longer it takes to transmit and process it. You can reduce the data size by using compression, encryption, filtering, or aggregation techniques. For example, you can compress the images or videos that you capture with your industrial robot sensors, encrypt the sensitive or confidential data that you exchange with your industrial robot controllers, filter out the irrelevant or redundant data that you generate with your industrial robot algorithms, or aggregate the data that you collect from multiple industrial robot devices.
The fourth step to optimize communication latency is to use real-time protocols in your industrial robot system. Real-time protocols are designed to ensure timely and reliable data delivery in time-critical applications. They can reduce communication latency by using techniques such as preemptive scheduling, priority-based routing, or deadline-based acknowledgment. Some examples of real-time protocols are Real-Time Ethernet, Real-Time Transport Protocol, or Real-Time Publish-Subscribe Protocol. You should choose the real-time protocol that matches the characteristics and requirements of your industrial robot system.
Well, OPC UA should be set as standard communication protocol. Utilizing highly performant brokers will add to handling communication.
The fifth step to optimize communication latency is to implement feedback and control loops in your industrial robot system. Feedback and control loops are mechanisms that allow you to monitor and adjust the performance and behavior of your industrial robot system based on the data that you receive from the sensors, controllers, or actuators. They can help you to cope with communication latency by using techniques such as buffering, caching, or prediction. For example, you can buffer the data that you send or receive in your industrial robot system to avoid data loss or overflow, cache the data that you frequently access or update in your industrial robot system to reduce data retrieval or transmission time, or predict the data that you need or expect in your industrial robot system to compensate for data delay or uncertainty.
The sixth and final step to optimize communication latency is to test and optimize your industrial robot system. Testing and optimization are essential processes that allow you to evaluate and improve the performance and quality of your industrial robot system. You can test and optimize your industrial robot system by using tools such as simulators, analyzers, or debuggers. For example, you can simulate the communication latency in your industrial robot system to verify its functionality and robustness, analyze the communication latency in your industrial robot system to identify its causes and effects, or debug the communication latency in your industrial robot system to fix its errors and issues.