RCAN Protocol Specification

Robot Communication & Addressing Network

An open, federated protocol for addressing, discovering, and authenticating robotic agents across local networks and the internet.

Overview

RCAN provides:

• Robot URI (RURI): Globally unique identifiers for robots
• Role-Based Access Control: 5-level hierarchy (Guest → Creator)
• mDNS Discovery: Works offline via _rcan._tcp.local
• Federation: Anyone can run a registry (like email servers)
• Safety Invariants: Local safety always wins, graceful degradation

Quick Start

from rcan import RURI, RCANClient, Role

# Parse a robot's address
ruri = RURI.parse("rcan://continuon.cloud/continuon/companion-v1/d3a4b5c6")

# Connect and authenticate
client = RCANClient(client_id="my-app")
await client.connect(ruri)
await client.claim(Role.USER, credential="my-key")

# Send a command
await client.command("/arm", "move", {"x": 0.5, "y": 0.2})

# Clean up
await client.release()

Documentation

• Full Specification
• Conformance Tests
• Reference Implementations

Development

This is an Astro static site.

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start dev server
npm run dev

# Build for production
npm run build

# Preview production build
npm run preview

Deployment

Deploy to any static hosting:

• GitHub Pages: Push to gh-pages branch
• Netlify: Connect repo, build command npm run build, publish dist/
• Vercel: Connect repo, framework Astro

For custom domain (rcan.dev):

1. Add CNAME file to public/
2. Configure DNS A/CNAME records

License

This specification is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Reference implementations are licensed under MIT.

Links

• Blog: We Need an ICANN for Robotics
• ContinuonAI