HORUS: Architecture and Performance Characterization of an Open-Source Mixed-Reality Platform for Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Operations

Omotoye Shamsudeen Adekoya1*, Simone D'Angelo2,3, Francesca Pagano2,3, Vincenzo Lippiello2, Antonio Sgorbissa1, Carmine Tommaso Recchiuto1
1DIBRIS Department, RICE Laboratory, University of Genoa, Italy
2DIETI, PRISMA Lab, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
3CeSMA, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
* Corresponding author: omotoye.adekoya@edu.unige.it
Accepted at I-RIM 3D 2026
SPAR Papers track · Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics
RICE Lab logo1 University of Genoa logo1 PRISMA Lab logo2 University of Naples Federico II logo2,3
Final paper forthcoming Conference Code APK Project updates
H-CoRE aerial-ground robot team represented in HORUS

HORUS is presented as an open-source, registration-driven mixed-reality operations platform for heterogeneous robot teams, combining a Meta Quest runtime, SDK, and ROS 2 bridge.

Publication Update

This HORUS architecture and performance-characterization paper has been accepted at I-RIM 3D 2026 in the SPAR Papers track.

Papers in this track will appear in the Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics series.

The final paper link will be added after the proceedings metadata are available.

BRIEF Biorobotics Research and Innovation Engineering Facilities logo

Supported by the BRIEF Biorobotics Research and Innovation Engineering Facilities project (IR0000036), funded under NRRP Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 3.1 by the Italian Ministry of University and Research and the European Union NextGenerationEU.

Abstract

Mixed reality can support multi-robot supervision by presenting robot state, maps, sensing, and commands in the operator's workspace. Existing systems are often tied to specific robots, missions, or visualization pipelines. HORUS addresses this by using a registration-driven architecture in which robots declare their frames, sensors, maps, task interfaces, models, and teleoperation channels, and the MR runtime constructs the corresponding operator workspace.

The paper describes the HORUS stack, including the MR runtime, Python SDK, and ROS 2 bridge; shared and private multi-operator workspaces; and bridge-enforced per-robot control leases. It also characterizes latency, camera streams, map representations, command and transform rates, robot/operator workload configurations, bridge restart recovery, and an H-CoRE aerial-ground robot-team integration.

System Focus

  • Registration-driven capability model for heterogeneous robot teams.
  • Mixed-reality workspace generation from declared robot capabilities instead of robot-specific scenes.
  • ROS 2 bridge and SDK architecture for state, map, sensor, task, and teleoperation channels.
  • Shared/private multi-operator workspaces and per-robot command leases.
  • System-level performance characterization and H-CoRE integration demonstration.

BibTeX

Provisional citation entry until the final Springer proceedings metadata are released. 

@inproceedings{adekoya2026horusarchitecture,
  title     = {HORUS: Architecture and Performance Characterization of an Open-Source Mixed-Reality Platform for Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Operations},
  author    = {Adekoya, Omotoye Shamsudeen and D'Angelo, Simone and Pagano, Francesca and Lippiello, Vincenzo and Sgorbissa, Antonio and Recchiuto, Carmine Tommaso},
  booktitle = {I-RIM 3D 2026, SPAR Papers Track},
  year      = {2026},
  note      = {Accepted; to appear in Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics}
}