Wi-LiFi: Integrated Optical Wi-Fi for Enhanced Mobile Robotic Communications and Localization

This paper introduces the design and implementation of an omnidirectional optical transceiver designed to enable reliable inter-robot communication in mobile settings. Our system effectively addresses the challenges associated with the directional nature of light, which often results in limited signal coverage and unstable connections during robot movement. We have made significant advancements in three key aspects. First, to our knowledge, we demonstrate the first omnidirectional optical communication system that aligns with the IEEE 802.11bb standard. Our system establishes robust high-speed optical links within a circular coverage zone that exceeds a 3-meter radius. Second, we designed an innovative omnidirectional optical receiver circuit that selects and combines signals from multiple channels, leveraging channel diversity to enhance signal quality. This design is agnostic to analog signal formats and is compatible with Wi-Fi and other wireless signals, without requiring modifications to the underlying wireless system's digital signal processing chain. Third, our system seamlessly integrates interference-free communication and accurate relative localization capabilities, facilitating robots to accomplish cooperative tasks efficiently. Notably, communication and localization are fully decoupled by frequency division to allow simultaneous operation over the same hardware. We have achieved significantly higher communication speeds and superior localization accuracy compared to previous works.