From Code to Motion: Simulating and Deploying Robots

1. Embedded System Communication Protocols

Used within a robot, mostly for sensor-actuator-microcontroller communication. These are typically wired, low-latency, and real-time.

UART / USART

• Type: Point-to-point, asynchronous
• Use: Serial sensors (e.g., GPS), debug consoles
• Pros: Simple, full-duplex
• Cons: Needs same baud rate, limited distance

I²C (Inter‑Integrated Circuit)

• Type: Multi-slave, two-wire
• Use: Connecting IMUs, temperature sensors
• Pros: Multiple devices on one bus
• Cons: Lower speed, short range

SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface)

• Type: Master-slave, four-wire
• Use: Flash memory, IMUs, ADCs
• Pros: High speed, full-duplex
• Cons: More wires, extra chip-select lines

CAN (Controller Area Network)

• Type: Multi-master bus
• Use: Motor controllers, drive systems
• Pros: Robust, error-checking, priority arbitration
• Cons: Limited speed (~1 Mbps)

RS‑485

• Type: Differential, multi-drop
• Use: Long-range communication
• Pros: Good noise immunity, multiple devices
• Cons: Half-duplex, requires direction control

EtherCAT

• Type: Industrial Ethernet Fieldbus
• Use: Real-time control of actuators
• Pros: Ultra-low latency, jitter control
• Cons: Expensive, complex

Cyphal (UAVCAN v2)

• Type: Real-time pub/sub over CAN or UDP
• Use: Distributed robotic systems
• Pros: Deterministic, open standard
• Cons: Less mainstream adoption

2. IoT / Network Communication Protocols

Used to communicate between robots, to cloud systems, or to user interfaces. These work over Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or Cellular.

MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport)

• Type: Lightweight publish-subscribe
• Use: Cloud telemetry, IoT dashboards
• Pros: Low overhead, works well on low bandwidth
• Cons: Not real-time

DDS (Data Distribution Service)

• Type: Real-time pub-sub middleware
• Use: ROS 2, multi-agent communication
• Pros: Real-time, QoS, reliable
• Cons: Complex, resource-intensive

HTTPS (HTTP Secure)

• Type: Web-based REST API protocol
• Use: Remote control panels, logging, APIs
• Pros: Secure, standard
• Cons: High latency, not for real-time

WebSocket

• Type: Full-duplex over TCP
• Use: Live dashboards, real-time UI ↔ Robot
• Pros: Bi-directional, efficient
• Cons: Client/server model complexity

3. Summary Table