[网络领域顶会追踪系列#21][NSDI'22]工业机械臂的网内速率控制

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In-Network Velocity Control of Industrial Robot Arms

背景

随着可编程数据面的出现，网内计算（In-network computing）已经兴起为一种新的计算范式。将计算从传统的服务器计算迁移至网络的好处已经在不同的应用中有所演示。

工作

在本文中，作者认为，可编程数据面应该是云和边缘云机器人科学的关键使能技术，可以赋予工业互联网新生。

作者提出了一种针对实时机器人控制的网内方法，将时延敏感型任务从高层的控制进程中分离出来。

提出的系统将实时机械臂速率控制卸载至P4可编程数据面上，并且仅仅在工业控制器上保持高层控制和规划。

这样的分离让工业控制能够部署在非实时环境中，例如运行在远程云获者边缘基础设施上的虚拟机或服务容器。

实验

作者演示了他们的方法可以使用单个P4交换机流畅地控制机械臂100s，允许在轨迹间快速地重路由；通过设计和支持工业系统有中即插即用地新机器人设备，解决了多机器人间地精确同步问题，减少了操作和管理开销。

原文摘要

In-network computing has emerged as a new computational paradigm made possible with the advent of programmable data planes. The benefits of moving computations traditionally performed by servers to the network have recently been demonstrated through different applications. In this paper, we argue that programmable data planes could be a key technology enabler of cloud and edge-cloud robotics, and in general could revitalize industrial networking. We propose an in-network approach for real-time robot control that separates delay sensitive tasks from high-level control processes. The proposed system offloads real-time velocity control of robot arms to P4-enabled programmable data planes and only keeps the high-level control and planning at the industrial controller. This separation allows the deployment of industrial control in non-real-time environments like virtual machines and service containers running in a remote cloud or an edgecomputing infrastructure. In addition, we also demonstrate that our method can smoothly control 100s of robot arms with a single P4-switch, enables fast reroute between trajectories, solves the precise synchronization of multiple robots by design and supports the plug-and-play deployment of new robot devices in the industrial system, reducing both operational and management costs.