{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,6]],"date-time":"2026-02-06T06:17:02Z","timestamp":1770358622238,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,29]],"date-time":"2022-03-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1648512000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100019920","name":"SATT Nord","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["TalkRoBots Project"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TalkRoBots Project"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100019920","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Future Internet"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This paper proposes a middleware called TalkRoBots that handles interoperability issues, which could be encountered in Industry 4.0. The latter proposes a unified communication approach facilitating the collaboration between heterogeneous equipment without needing to change neither the already used software nor the existing hardware. It allows heterogeneous robots, using both open and proprietary robotic frameworks (i.e., ROS, ABB, Universal Robots, etc.), to communicate and to share information in a transparent manner. It allows robots and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices to communicate together. Furthermore, a resilience mechanism based on an Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach was designed in order to allow automatically replacing a defective robot with an optimal alternatively available robot. Finally, a remote interface, which could be run through the Cloud, allows users to manipulate fleets of robots from anywhere and to obtain access to sensors\u2019 data. A practical scenario using five different robots has been realized to demonstrate the different possibilities. This demonstrates the cost effectiveness of our middleware in terms of its impacts on the communication network. Finally, a simulation study that evaluates the scalability of our middleware clearly shows that TalkRoBots can be used efficiently in industrial scenarios involving a huge number of heterogeneous robots and IIoT devices.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/fi14040109","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,29]],"date-time":"2022-03-29T21:44:52Z","timestamp":1648590292000},"page":"109","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["TalkRoBots: A Middleware for Robotic Systems in Industry 4.0"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2319-3493","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marwane","family":"Ayaida","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"CReSTIC EA 3804, Universit\u00e9 de Reims Champagne Ardenne, 51097 Reims, France"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8248-9839","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nadhir","family":"Messai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CReSTIC EA 3804, Universit\u00e9 de Reims Champagne Ardenne, 51097 Reims, France"}]},{"given":"Frederic","family":"Valentin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CReSTIC EA 3804, Universit\u00e9 de Reims Champagne Ardenne, 51097 Reims, France"}]},{"given":"Dimitri","family":"Marcheras","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"SATT Nord, 25 Avenue Charles Saint-Venant, 59800 Lille, France"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jaloudi, S. (2019). Communication Protocols of an Industrial Internet of Things Environment: A Comparative Study. Future Internet, 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/fi11030066"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"107241","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cie.2021.107241","article-title":"Industry 4.0 reference architectures: State of the art and future trends","volume":"156","author":"Nakagawa","year":"2021","journal-title":"Comput. Ind. Eng."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"153","DOI":"10.1016\/j.robot.2018.07.007","article-title":"Mobility in mobile ad-hoc network testbed using robot: Technical and critical review","volume":"108","author":"Farkhana","year":"2018","journal-title":"Robot. Auton. Syst."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"107174","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cie.2021.107174","article-title":"The evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) over the past 20 years","volume":"155","author":"Wang","year":"2021","journal-title":"Comput. Ind. Eng."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Ayaida, M., Messai, N., Valentin, F., Marcheras, D., and Afilal, L. (2022, February 15). Robot Interconnection Method. WO\/2019\/162595. Available online: https:\/\/patentscope2.wipo.int\/search\/en\/detail.jsf?docId=WO2019162595."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"469","DOI":"10.1287\/opre.49.4.469.11231","article-title":"The Analytic Hierarchy Process\u2014An Exposition","volume":"49","author":"Forman","year":"2001","journal-title":"Oper. Res."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Marcheras, D., Ayaida, M., Messai, N., and Valentin, F. (2020, January 27\u201329). A new middleware for managing heterogeneous robot in ubiquitous environments. Proceedings of the 2020 8th International Conference on Wireless Networks and Mobile Communications (WINCOM), Reims, France.","DOI":"10.1109\/WINCOM50532.2020.9272477"},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"Quigley, M., Conley, K., Gerkey, B., Faust, J., Foote, T., Leibs, J., Wheeler, R., and Ng, A. (2022, February 15). ROS: An Open-Source Robot Operating System. Available online: http:\/\/lars.mec.ua.pt\/public\/LAR%20Projects\/BinPicking\/2016_RodrigoSalgueiro\/LIB\/ROS\/icraoss09-ROS.pdf."},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Joyeux, S., and Albiez, J. (2011, January 24\u201325). Robot development: From components to systems. Proceedings of the Control Architecture of Robots, Grenoble, France."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Osentoski, S., Jay, G., Crick, C., Pitzer, B., DuHadway, C., and Jenkins, O. (2011, January 9\u201313). Robots as web services: Reproducible experimentation and application development using rosjs. Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation, Shanghai, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2011.5980464"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"267","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-16355-5_23","article-title":"A middleware for intelligent environments and the internet of things","volume":"6406","author":"Roalter","year":"2010","journal-title":"Ubiquitous Intell. Comput."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Beetz, M., Mosenlechner, L., and Tenorth, M. (2010, January 18\u201322). CRAM\u2014A Cognitive Robot Abstract Machine for Everyday Manipulation in Human Environments. Proceedings of the IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Taipei, Taiwan.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2010.5650146"},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Collett, T., Macdonald, B., and Gerkey, B. (,  2008). Player 2.0: Toward a Practical Robot Programming Framework. Proceedings of the 2005 Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation, ACRA 2005, Available online: http:\/\/users.isr.ist.utl.pt\/~jseq\/ResearchAtelier\/papers\/collet.pdf."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"189","DOI":"10.1007\/s11721-008-0014-4","article-title":"Massively multi-robot simulations in Stage","volume":"2","author":"Vaughan","year":"2008","journal-title":"Swarm Intell."},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"Koenig, N., and Howard, A. (October, January 28). Design and use paradigms for gazebo, an open-source multi-robot simulator. Proceedings of the IEEE\/RSj International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Sendai, Japan."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"494","DOI":"10.1109\/TASE.2014.2368997","article-title":"Inside the Virtual Robotics Challenge: Simulating Real-Time Robotic Disaster Response","volume":"12","author":"Koenig","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Autom. Sci. Eng."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Whitbrook, A. (2010). Programming Mobile Robots with Aria and Player: A Guide to C++ Object-Oriented Control, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-84882-864-3"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"321","DOI":"10.1109\/TMECH.2010.2042722","article-title":"ASEBA: A Modular Architecture for Event-Based Control of Complex Robots","volume":"16","author":"Magnenat","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE\/ASME Trans. Mechatron."},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"Magnenat, S., and Mondada, F. (2009, January 15). ASEBA Meets D-Bus: From the Depths of a Low-Level Event-Based Architecture into the Middleware Realm. Proceedings of the IEEE TC-Soft Workshop on Event-Based Systems in Robotics (EBS-RO), St. Louis, MO, USA."},{"key":"ref_20","unstructured":"Montemerlo, M., Roy, N., and Thrun, S. (2003, January 27\u201331). Perspectives on standardization in mobile robot programming: The Carnegie Mellon Navigation (CARMEN) Toolkit. Proceedings of the Proceedings 2003 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453), Las Vegas, NV, USA."},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Calisi, D., Censi, A., Iocchi, L., and Nardi, D. (2008, January 22\u201326). OpenRDK: A framework for rapid and concurrent software prototyping. Proceedings of the International Workshop on System and Concurrent Engineering for Space Applications (SECESA), Nice, France."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Calisi, D., Censi, A., Iocchi, L., and Nardi, D. (2008, January 22\u201326). OpenRDK: A modular framework for robotic software development. Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Nice, France.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2008.4651213"},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Makarenko, A., and Brooks, A. (,  2006). Orca: Components for robotics. Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS\u201906), Available online: https:\/\/citeseerx.ist.psu.edu\/viewdoc\/download?doi=10.1.1.456.7562&rep=rep1&type=pdf."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Brugali, D. (2007). Orca: A Component Model and Repository. Software Engineering for Experimental Robotics, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-540-68951-5"},{"key":"ref_25","unstructured":"Makarenko, A., Brooks, A., and Kaupp, T. (November, January 29). On the Benefits of Making Robotic Software Frameworks Thin. Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Diego, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Bruyninckx, H. (2001, January 21\u201326). Open robot control software: The OROCOS project. Proceedings of the 2001 ICRA IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No. 01CH37164), Seoul, Korea."},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"Li, W., Christensen, H.I., Oreback, A., and Chen, D. (May, January 26). An architecture for indoor navigation. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA \u201904, New Orleans, LA, USA."},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Baillie, J.C., Demaille, A., Duceux, G., Filliat, D., Hocquet, Q., and Nottale, M. (2011, January 24\u201325). Software architecture for an exploration robot based on Urbi. Proceedings of the 6th National Conference on Control Architectures of Robots, INRIA Grenoble Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes, Grenoble, France."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103438","DOI":"10.1016\/j.robot.2020.103438","article-title":"Semantic approach to RIoT autonomous robots mission coordination","volume":"126","author":"Nejkovic","year":"2020","journal-title":"Robot. Auton. Syst."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103329","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compind.2020.103329","article-title":"A Middleware Platform for Intelligent Automation: An Industrial Prototype Implementation","volume":"123","author":"Coito","year":"2020","journal-title":"Comput. Ind."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mouradian, C., Errounda, F.Z., Belqasmi, F., and Glitho, R. (2014, January 6\u20138). An infrastructure for robotic applications as cloud computing services. Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT), Seoul, Korea.","DOI":"10.1109\/WF-IoT.2014.6803195"}],"container-title":["Future Internet"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1999-5903\/14\/4\/109\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T22:45:37Z","timestamp":1760136337000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1999-5903\/14\/4\/109"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,29]]},"references-count":31,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4]]}},"alternative-id":["fi14040109"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/fi14040109","relation":{},"ISSN":["1999-5903"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1999-5903","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,29]]}}}