Interoperability Issues Reduction in Command and Control for Multi-robot Systems

Multirobot systems are a promising step forward in supporting human operators, since they can provide a wider set of capabilities and an improved system performance in terms of adaptability, resilience and scalability, without increasing the complexity of the single system element. Team heterogeneity is a multirobot system strength, but it raises interoperability problems which need to be solved to avoid the overall system performance and costs to be impacted by issues such as vendor dependency, high integration costs, high system maintenance costs. Moreover, interoperability is mandatory for a sound integration of multirobot systems as components of System of System architecture where both legacy and innovative segments need to coordinate each others. This paper describes the outcome of the Simulated Interactive Robotics Initiative (SIRI), a project aimed at providing a first assessment of the interoperability between Multirobot and legacy Command & Control Systems. The project developed an interoperability solution which is based upon the following key standards: the Data Distribution Services for Real Time Systems (DDS), which addresses the data exchange service interoperability, and the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM), which addresses the data models interoperability. SIRI provides a preliminary demonstration of the interoperability advantages stemming from the synergic adoption of the mentioned standards in multirobot system and paves the way for a more consolidated and robust framework which follows the system architecture drivers of Interoperable Open Architecture (IOA) a set of guidelines which has been already resulted in cost saving in the procurement of many large defence systems.