Overview
Service robots are increasingly being used in residential communities to support delivery and other everyday services. For these robots to operate reliably at scale, they need more than onboard intelligence; they also need a communication layer that can connect distributed devices, support real-time control, and coordinate multiple robots.
EVENTEC develops service robots for residential communities, covering applications such as delivery, security, and cleaning. As its deployments expanded, EVENTEC needed a scalable IoT communication platform to connect its growing robot fleet and support real-time operations.
EVENTEC chose EMQX as the MQTT messaging layer for its robot platform, providing bidirectional communication between robots and the cloud while supporting device telemetry, remote commands, task dispatch, and multi-robot coordination.
The Challenge: Moving from Robot Deployments to Scalable Operations
Operating robots in residential communities presents a range of connectivity and coordination challenges. Robots need to work reliably in environments with dense buildings, mixed pedestrian and vehicle traffic, and varying network conditions. At the same time, operators need to monitor distributed robots, exchange data in real time, send commands, and coordinate multiple robots working in the same environment.
As the fleet grew, EVENTEC needed a communication layer that could:
- Maintain reliable, bidirectional robot-to-cloud communication
- Support real-time multi-robot coordination
- Secure device access and remote control
- Scale with growing robot fleets
- Support repeatable deployments across different communities and scenarios
The Solution: A Unified MQTT Platform for Robot Fleets
EVENTEC uses EMQX as the underlying MQTT messaging layer for its robot platform. The architecture provides a common communication foundation for device connectivity, remote control, and multi-robot operations.
Unified Communication Between Robots and the Cloud
EMQX provides persistent MQTT connections for bidirectional communication between robots and the cloud.
Robots continuously report data such as online status, motion information, energy consumption, location, and task logs. The cloud can send commands for OTA updates, device assignment, task dispatch, and site or environment data synchronization.
This unified communication channel helps support real-time data exchange and remote control across the robot fleet while reducing the latency and bandwidth overhead associated with device communication.
Secure Device Access and Remote Control
Remote robot operations require secure connections and controlled access.
EMQX supports username/password authentication, dynamic device authentication through integration with business systems, topic-level access control through ACLs, and encrypted communication. These capabilities help prevent unauthorized access, privilege abuse, and malicious commands.
Real-Time Multi-Robot Communication
With MQTT's publish/subscribe model, EMQX can route messages between the cloud and individual or groups of robots.
The platform supports point-to-point, point-to-many, and broadcast communication for scenarios such as location sharing, active avoidance, and coordinated operations. Messages can be routed directly through EMQX without being relayed by business services, helping reduce backend processing pressure and keep communication responsive.
Scalable Architecture for Growing Deployments
EMQX uses a distributed architecture that supports horizontal scaling as the number of connected robots grows.
By separating the messaging layer from business applications, the architecture avoids requiring business services to maintain large numbers of TCP connections directly. This helps reduce development and operational overhead while providing a scalable communication foundation for expanding robot deployments.
Results: Building a Scalable Model for Community Robot Services
With EMQX as its communication foundation, EVENTEC can deploy robot services without relying on large-scale infrastructure changes, while simplifying ongoing operations and reducing the cost of maintaining distributed robot deployments.
EVENTEC has successfully deployed its multi-robot solutions across multiple cities and community environments, including a deployment serving more than 4,000 residents. The lightweight architecture can adapt to different community types and service scenarios, making the solution easier to replicate and scale.
This helped EVENTEC establish a standardized model for deploying and operating multi-robot services across residential communities.