A Scalable Heterogeneous Interoperable Communication Framework for Multi Unmanned Systems

Robotics technology is rapidly advancing across various fields, including manufacturing, logistics, defense, surveillance, and disaster response. However, the integrated operation of heterogeneous robotic systems remains challenging due to differences in communication protocols and system architectures. This study proposes the Scalable Heterogeneous Interoperable Communication Framework (SHICF), which adapts the interoperability concepts of STANAG 4586 to unmanned ground vehicle systems. The proposed framework employs a unified binary message structure incorporating a common header, message identifiers, and vehicle identifiers to enable data exchange across heterogeneous systems. Platform-specific interfaces collect robot status information, including position, velocity, battery level, and inertial sensor data, and encode it into standardized binary messages for transmission to a web-based Ground Control System over UDP. SHICF was implemented on heterogeneous UGVs running ROS Melodic and ROS 2 Humble and evaluated against corresponding Native communication configurations based on rosbridge, JSON serialization, and WebSocket transport. The experimental evaluation compared the Native and SHICF configurations independently within each ROS environment rather than directly comparing the two ROS platforms. The results demonstrated that a single GCS could identify and monitor heterogeneous UGVs in real time. In ROS Melodic, the measured message loss rate decreased from 0.45% in the Native configuration to 0.20% with SHICF. Similarly, in ROS 2 Humble, the message loss rate decreased from 1.42% to 0.20%. These findings demonstrated the feasibility of integrated communication and monitoring among heterogeneous UGVs.