TimescaleDB is an open-source time-series database optimized for fast ingest and complex queries. It is engineered up from PostgreSQL and offers the power, reliability, and ease-of-use of a relational database, combined with the scalability typically seen in NoSQL systems. It is particularly suited for storing and analyzing things that happen over time, such as metrics, events, and real-time analytics.

Since TimescaleDB is based on PostgreSQL, it supports blob data and can be used to store a history of unstructured data such as images, binary sensor data, or large text documents. In this article, we will use the database as a time-series blob storage and compare its performance with ReductStore, which is designed specifically for this use case.

TimescaleDB and ReductStore both have Python Client SDKs. We'll create simple Python functions to read and write data, then compare performance with different blob sizes. To repeat these benchmarks on your own machine, use this repository.

InfluxDB works well for robotics metrics such as battery level, temperature, CPU usage, detection counts, and anomaly scores. These numeric values are a good fit for dashboards, alerts, and time-series analytics.

Robots also generate much heavier data: camera frames, LiDAR scans, audio, and high-frequency waveform chunks. This raw data must often be preserved in its original format for incident replay, debugging, and model training.

You do not need to replace InfluxDB. Keep it for the metrics you need to visualize and analyze, and add ReductStore for the raw sensor data. Use the same event time and stable robot and sensor identifiers in both systems so a metric can be traced back to the original records.

Your robot loses its uplink halfway through an eight hour shift. Cameras and sensors keep writing. Sending every frame to the cloud was never an option.

ReductStore and INSAION have formalized their partnership for robotics edge recording. It makes official what already ships in production: ReductStore is the storage engine behind INSAION's edge recording. Every Rolling Buffer, every device recording, and every Surgical Cloud Sync runs on ReductStore embedded directly in the INSAION Agent.