Robotic interfaces

• US 10,500,717 B2
• Filed: 05/18/2017
• Issued: 12/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eaton Corp. (Wisconsin) (Eaton Corporation PLC.), Stilwell Technologies and Robotics LLC
• Original Assignee: Stilwell Technologies and Robotics LLC
• Inventors: Stilwell, Wayne, Dunn, Dillon, Reeves, Nicholas
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Dalena
• Application Number:
  US15/599,248
• Publication Number:
  US 20180196404A1
• Time in Patent Office: 936 Days
• Field of Search: 700245, 700248, 700264, 31856811, 3185682
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/0084 comprising a plurality of manipulators
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/162 Mobile manipulator, movable base with manipulator arm mounted on it
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1682 Dual arm manipulator; Coordination of several manipulators
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25347 Multitasking machine control
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/39146 Swarm, multiagent, distributed multitask fusion, cooperation multi robots
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0295 by at least one leading vehicle of the fleet
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling

Abstract

A method of robotic collaboration comprises designating a first robot a lead robot and assigning a first task in a task area to the lead robot. Broadcasting a work query in the task area seeks the presence of subordinate robots configured to perform tasks. Receiving a work confirmation signal from a subordinate robot in the task area answers the work query with an affirmation that the subordinate robot is in the task area to perform tasks. Transmitting a task command to the subordinate robot in response to the work confirmation signal comprises a directive to perform the first task. Receiving a task confirmation signal informs the lead robot of the subordinate robot electronic characteristics comprising processing capabilities, transmit signal profile, receive signal profile, and storage device capabilities. Processing confirms whether the subordinate robot can collaborate with the lead robot to do the first task.

Claims

1. A method of robotic collaboration, comprising:

designating a first robot a lead robot;

assigning a first task in a task area to the lead robot;

broadcasting, from the lead robot, a work query in the task area to seek the presence of subordinate robots configured to perform tasks;

receiving, at the lead robot, a work confirmation signal from a subordinate robot in the task area, the work confirmation signal answering the work query with an affirmation that the subordinate robot is in the task area to perform tasks;

transmitting, from the lead robot, a task command to the subordinate robot in response to the work confirmation signal, the task command comprising a directive to perform the first task;

receiving at the lead robot, from the subordinate robot, a task confirmation signal comprising first data confirming the subordinate robot physical characteristics and second data confirming the subordinate robot electronic characteristics, wherein the subordinate robot electronic characteristics comprise processing capabilities, transmit signal profile, receive signal profile, and storage device capabilities;

processing the received first data and the received second data to confirm whether the subordinate robot can collaborate with the lead robot to do the first task; and

completing, by the lead robot, at least a portion of the first task.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the received first data comprises determining that the subordinate robot is not physically capable of performing the first task, and wherein the method further comprises one of reassigning the first task to the lead robot and broadcasting a task support signal seeking task support from a second subordinate robot.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the received second data comprises determining that the subordinate robot does not comprise sufficient storage device capabilities to store algorithms for completing the first task, and wherein the method further comprises downloading task completion algorithms from a remote library source to the lead robot, and streaming the task completion algorithms from the lead robot to the subordinate robot.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the received second data comprises determining that the subordinate robot comprises sufficient processing capabilities to compose task completion algorithms, and wherein the method further comprises composing, at the subordinate robot, task completion algorithms, transmitting the composed task completion algorithms from the subordinate robot to the lead robot, forwarding the task completion algorithms to a remote library source, and deleting the composed task completion algorithms from the subordinate robot and from the lead robot once the task completion algorithms are forwarded to the remote library source.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the lead robot further receives a work confirmation signal from a second subordinate robot in the task area, wherein the lead robot further transmits the task command to the second subordinate robot, wherein the lead robot further receives a task confirmation signal from the second subordinate robot, and wherein the task confirmation signal from the second subordinate robot is processed to confirm whether the subordinate robot can collaborate with the lead robot and the subordinate robot to do the first task, wherein the method further comprises:

comparing the processed received first data and the processed received second data from the subordinate robot to the received task confirmation signal from the second subordinate robot;

determining relative task completion capabilities between the subordinate robot and the second subordinate robot; and

subdividing the task command in to first task commands and second task commands to allocate robotic collaboration based on the determined relative task completion capabilities.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising advancing the subordinate robot to lead robot status for purposes of issuing subordinate task commands after determining the relative task completion capabilities, and assigning the second subordinate robot to receive and execute subordinate task commands issued by the subordinate robot.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the lead robot is one of deactivated, demoted to subordinate robot status, or assigned to a new task after completing at least a portion of the first task.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein each of the lead robot, the subordinate robot, and the second subordinate robot are heterogeneous with respect to electronic characteristics, and wherein the lead robot is configured to interface among the heterogeneous electronic characteristics, and wherein the method further comprises issuing, from the lead robot, heterogeneous task completion algorithms to the subordinate robot and to the second subordinate robot, and the heterogeneous task completion algorithms are respectively tailored to the electronic characteristics of the subordinate robot and of the second subordinate robot.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising one of the steps of the lead robot generating the heterogeneous task completion algorithms, or the lead robot downloading the heterogeneous task completion algorithms from a remote library source networked to the lead robot.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising, receiving, at the lead robot, at least a portion of the heterogeneous task completion algorithms from human-on-the-loop computing capabilities networked to the lead robot.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein each of the lead robot, the subordinate robot, and the second subordinate robot are heterogeneous with respect to physical characteristics, and wherein the lead robot is configured to interface among the heterogeneous physical characteristics, and wherein the method further comprises issuing, from the lead robot, heterogeneous task completion algorithms to the subordinate robot and to the second subordinate robot, and the heterogeneous task completion algorithms are respectively tailored to the physical characteristics of the subordinate robot and of the second subordinate robot.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein the first task commands and the second task commands are heterogeneous so that the step of subdividing the task command in to first task commands and second task commands to allocate robotic collaboration based on the determined relative task completion capabilities comprises minimizing redundancies between the subordinate robot and the second subordinate robot.

13. The method of claim 5, further comprising, subdividing, at the lead robot, the first task in to a sequence of sub-tasks, the sequence of sub-tasks optimized to maximize use of lead robot, subordinate robot and second subordinate robot aggregated processing capabilities, while minimizing impact on subordinate robot and second subordinate robot aggregated storage device capabilities, and wherein transmitting the task command comprises sequentially transmitting the sequence of sub-tasks.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein designating a first robot a lead robot comprises steps of comparing electronic characteristics of the first robot and the subordinate robot, comparatively weighting the electronic characteristics of the first robot and the subordinate robot, and ranking the first robot to have superior electronic characteristics over the subordinate robot.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising, subdividing, at the lead robot, the first task in to a sequence of sub-tasks, the sequence of sub-tasks optimized to maximize use of subordinate robot electronic characteristics, and wherein transmitting the task command comprises sequentially transmitting the sequence of sub-tasks.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising, subdividing, at the lead robot, the first task in to a sequence of sub-tasks, the sequence of sub-tasks optimized to maximize use of subordinate robot processing capabilities, transmit signal profile, and receive signal profile, while minimizing impact on subordinate robot storage device capabilities, and wherein transmitting the task command comprises sequentially transmitting the sequence of sub-tasks.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning a first task in a task area to the lead robot comprises pre-processing task area data and predictive-mapping a sequence of subroutines necessary to complete the first task.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising collecting and processing additional task area data and iteratively adjusting the sequence of subroutines necessary to complete the first task as the lead robot completes at least a portion of the first task.

19. A method of robotic collaboration, comprising:

designating a first robot a lead robot;

assigning a first task in a task area to the lead robot;

broadcasting, from the lead robot, a processing capabilities query in the task area to seek processing capabilities of a subordinate robot in the task area;

receiving, at the lead robot, a processing capabilities confirmation signal from the subordinate robot in the task area;

broadcasting, from the lead robot, a work query to the subordinate robot;

receiving, at the lead robot, a work confirmation signal from the subordinate robot, the work confirmation signal answering the work query with an affirmation that the subordinate robot is in the task area to perform the task;

transmitting, from the lead robot, a task command to the subordinate robot in response to the work confirmation signal, the task command comprising a directive to perform the first task;

receiving at the lead robot, from the subordinate robot, a task confirmation signal comprising first data confirming the subordinate robot physical characteristics and second data confirming the subordinate robot electronic characteristics;

processing the received first data and the received second data to confirm whether the subordinate robot can collaborate with the lead robot to do the first task; and

completing, by the lead robot, at least a portion of the first task.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising transmitting formatting algorithms from the lead robot to the subordinate robot in response to the processing capabilities confirmation signal, the formatting algorithms configured to format the processing capabilities of the subordinate robot to complete the first task.