Title:

The Future of Robotics in the 6G Era

Abstract:

6G is envisioned as a transformative communication technology, delivering capabilities that far exceed those of 5G. These advanced features are critical for enabling seamless integration and intelligent coordination across different technical and business domains. For robotics, 6G’s potential impact is profound: it can support large‑scale swarm coordination, tele‑operation with near‑instant responsiveness, and seamless integration of robots into cyber‑physical ecosystems such as smart factories, healthcare, and autonomous mobility. Yet, key challenges remain, including ensuring deterministic communication in dynamic wireless environments, safeguarding security and privacy in distributed robotic networks, etc. Potential research directions include developing closed‑loop orchestration frameworks powered by Agentic AI for real‑time intent translation, designing resilient network slicing tailored to robotic workloads, exploring semantic communication for task‑oriented collaboration, and advancing cross‑layer optimization to balance performance with sustainability. Together, these efforts will be essential to fully realize the promise of 6G‑enabled robotics.
one6G Association is an international non‑profit organization that brings together telecom operators, vendors, research institutes, and universities to shape the future of 6G and ensure its alignment with societal and industrial needs. In the field of robotics, one6G has published dedicated white papers analysing how 6G capabilities can enable advanced robotic applications across different industry sectors. Their work highlights the importance of seamless integration between communication, sensing, and native AI, and positions 6G as a key enabler for autonomous robotic systems. By identifying requirements and promoting cross‑industry cooperation, one6G is laying the groundwork for standardization and ecosystem development that will allow robotics to thrive in the 6G era. This talk will introduce one6G’s vision for 6G‑enabled robotics.

Speaker’s Bio:

Dr. Xueli An is the Head of 6G Network Architecture Research Group at Huawei Technologies Duesseldorf GmbH, Munich Research Center, Germany. Her main research focus is on AI-native 6G network architecture design and corresponding new business sectors that could be enabled by 6G, e.g. industry automation, robotics, etc. Other than research domain, she is actively involved in many industry platforms. She serves as 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA) working group “Use cases and Requirements” Vice Chair since 2018. She is the Vice Chair of NetworldEurope Enabling Technologies for Future Vertical Ecosystem Transformation Working Group since 2020. She also takes the role as working group “Communication and Dissemination” co-chair position in one6G Association since 2021. She has many peer-reviewed international journal/conference publications and filed/granted patent applications in the field of mobile communication, networking, etc. She received her Master and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), The Netherland.