API-Based Communication Layer for Robot Control

[Syed-Abbas-Hussain]

This issue tracks the exploration and benchmarking of different methods to communicate between a web-based frontend and a ROS-powered robot. The goal is to identify the most reliable and performant approach for command and telemetry exchange.

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✅ Tasks

🧪 Communication Methods to Explore

• Direct WebSocket via rosbridge (roslibjs)
• REST API via backend (NestJS → Flask → ROS)
• gRPC streaming from backend to robot agent
• WebSocket (custom backend-to-agent)
• MQTT or other message brokers (optional)

📊 Evaluation Criteria

• Latency (command to action)
• Reliability (connection drops, retries)
• Debuggability and logs
• Scalability (multi-robot or multi-client)
• Security and firewall compatibility

📁 Data Collection

• Run real-world latency test for each method
• Log and compare delay patterns (cmd_vel & /odom)
• Research or cite existing benchmarks or papers if available

📌 Output

• Summary table comparing methods
• Recommendation of preferred method
• Replace current direct rosbridge with selected method