Limit of BLE controlled robots in one room?

❔Questions
1

Is there a limit of how many robots can be controlled over BLE in one room?

Also, does the presence of Bluetooth Classic controllers (e.g. a PS3 game pad) for each robot, push that limit down?

We’re planning on deploying 6 Mini Troopers, each connected over BLE to an ESP32 inside a PS3 controller. The ESP32 to PS3 link will be over Bluetooth Classic.
Later we would like to add 4-6 more robots.

2

In theory it’s a lot. In practice it depends on amount of 2.4Ghz devices in the room, signal strength, antennas and distance between devices. This includes WiFi, Bluetooth headsets, or someone microwaving their lunch. Bluetooth is designed to work in noisy environment. It always retransmits packets if they were lost.
Best would be to test in a real world, but 10 robots + 10 controllers shouldn’t be a problem. Robots transmits low amount of data, so all together doesn’t spam much.
Also robots shouldn’t disconnect, because a few seconds has to pass without any communication to register as “disconnected” (BLE connection timeout).

Radio problems can be noticed by:

  • Latency from button press and robot start to move increases
  • Shorter responsive distance between robot and controller
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