Light Fidelity (Li-Fi) Communications Applied to Telepresence Robotics

Telepresence robots are becoming more and more useful in fields such as education and medicine. Existing applications in telepresence robotics use Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) communications for remote control of the robot and for real-time data exchange. In the Li-Fi system, the data can be transmitted via Visible Light Communication (VLC) system with speeds up to 100 times faster then Wi-Fi. This can be an advantage for robots that have direct visual field for a short period of time (a few seconds) and must transmit mutually consistent data packets. In this paper we are testing the possibility of using the Li-Fi technology on telepresence robots with different mechanical mobility possibilities. An experimental prototype was developed to test the functionality of Li-Fi communications and compare it with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, for the telepresence robots used in education and medicine. Further research will focus on adapting communications protocol so that the large amount of data transmitted by the sender in a short time can be stored and used later by the receiver.