Communication-Aware Robot Execution for Cloud Inference under Spatially Heterogeneous Connectivity

Abstract

Cloud-hosted foundation models enable robots to use semantic reasoning beyond onboard computational limits. In this setting, the robot executes a currently available primitive generated by the cloud, and continued task progress requires the next cloud result before this primitive is exhausted. This execution becomes fragile under spatially heterogeneous connectivity, because the current primitive determines when the next result is needed, whereas the wireless environment determines where the next request can be submitted and where the response can be retrieved. Strategies that reduce latency or improve individual transmissions can shorten this dependency, but they do not determine a submission location that supports reliable upload and leaves a feasible opportunity for response retrieval. To address this problem, we introduce the request--response window, which characterizes the time required for the next cloud cycle, including uplink transmission, cloud inference, downlink retrieval, and inference uncertainty. Building on this window and an available communication map, the proposed framework treats the next request point as a motion decision during ongoing primitive execution, selecting it to provide sufficient communication quality for cloud request submission while preserving progress within the finite support of the current primitive. The selected request point is incorporated into a local planner, which guides the robot toward the request point before submission and then continues task execution while maintaining sufficient connectivity for retrieving the next cloud result. Experiments in an indoor wireless scenario built from measurements show that the proposed method achieves the best or tied-best task success among the compared methods, while using fewer request attempts and producing lower request failure rates.