METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING MULTIPLE SMALL ROBOTS

• US 20130123980A1
• Filed: 08/28/2012
• Published: 05/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: SEO, Beom-Su
• Application Number:
  US13/596,149
• Publication Number:
  US 20130123980A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/248
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1669 characterised by special application, e.g. multi-arm co-operation, assembly, grasping
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1689 Teleoperation
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41815 characterised by the cooperation between machine tools, manipulators and conveyor or other workpiece supply system, workcell
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/39146 Swarm, multiagent, distributed multitask fusion, cooperation multi robots
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/40417 For cooperating manipulators
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0027 involving a plurality of vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling fleet control of land vehicles from a control room G05D1/0297; traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00; for marine craft G08G3/00; for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A method for controlling multiple small robots includes generating cooperation missions to be performed through cooperation with cooperation robots according to the manipulation of a main operator, generating an operator recruiting message including mission outline information for the cooperation missions, transmitting the operator recruiting message to neighboring robot mission units. The method further includes receiving participation information including robot situation information from at least one of the neighboring robot mission units, which participates in the cooperation, assigning divided missions to operators participating in the cooperation based on the robot situation information, and transmitting the assigned divided missions to the at least one of the neighboring robot mission units participating in the cooperation.

Claims

1. A method for controlling multiple small robots, the method comprising:

generating cooperation missions to be performed through cooperation with cooperation robots according to the manipulation of a main operator;

generating an operator recruiting message including mission outline information for the cooperation missions, and transmitting the operator recruiting message to neighboring robot mission units;

receiving participation information including robot situation information from at least one of the neighboring robot mission units, which participates in the cooperation;

assigning divided missions to operators participating in the cooperation based on the robot situation information; and

transmitting the assigned divided missions to the at least one of the neighboring robot mission units participating in the cooperation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting of the operator recruiting message comprises:

generating, by a mission generator, the mission outline information so as to perform an operator recruiting request to inquire about whether or not participating in the cooperation for fulfilling the cooperation missions;

generating, by a cooperation unit, the operator recruiting message including the mission outline information according to the operator recruit request; and

transmitting, by an information transmitter/receiver, the operator recruiting message to the neighboring robot mission units.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the mission outline information comprises a summary of the cooperation missions, mission area information, mission time information, and mission details.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the assigned divided missions using a graphical user interface (GUI) window dedicated for the mission generation when assigning the divided missions.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the robot situation information comprises location information of the operators participating in the cooperation, robot location information, mission progressing status information, and mission equipment status information.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving mission progressing status information from the at least one of mission robot units participating in the cooperation, and displaying the mission progressing status information.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requesting information sharing from the mission robot units participating in the cooperation;

requesting the cooperation robots controlled by the robot mission units participating in the cooperation to transmit robot state information when the robot mission units participating in the cooperation accept the information sharing; and

displaying the robot state information received from the cooperation robots.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the cooperation robots transmit the robot state information when receiving a request for transmission cooperation from the robot mission units participating in the cooperation.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the robot state information comprises video information, audio information and sensor information of the cooperation robots.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the sensor information comprises coordinate information of the cooperation robots, obstacle information, and dangerous situation information.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a robot control request to the mission robot units participating in the cooperation;

transmitting a control command to the cooperation robots if the mission robot units participating in the cooperation accept the robot control request; and

displaying control state information received from the cooperation robots.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the control state information is simultaneously transmitted to the robot mission units participating in the cooperation.

13. A system for controlling multiple small robots, the system comprising:

a control command generator configured to generate a remote control command for controlling a main robot controlled by a main operator or cooperation robots controlled by cooperation operators participating in the cooperation according to the manipulation of the main operator, and transmit the remote control command to the main robot or the cooperation robots through a network interface;

a mission generator configured to generate cooperation missions according to the manipulation of the main operator, generate mission outline information for the cooperation missions, and, when participation information including robot situation information is received from at least one cooperation robot mission unit participating in the cooperation, assign divided missions to the cooperation operators according to the robot situation information;

a cooperation unit configured to generate an operator recruiting message including the mission outline information;

an information transmitter/receiver configured to transmit the operator recruiting message to neighboring robot mission units through the network interface, and transfer the participation information received from the at least one cooperation robot mission unit to the mission generator;

a mission conducting unit configured to transmit the divided missions to the at least one cooperation robot mission unit, or receive and fulfill missions assigned thereto; and

a video/audio transceiver configured to output robot state information of the cooperation robots controlled by the cooperation operators, which is received through the information transmitter/receiver, through the use of an video display and a speaker.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the mission outline information comprises a summary of the cooperation missions, mission area information, mission time information, and mission details.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the mission generator is configured to display the assigned divided missions through the use of a GUI window dedicated for the mission generation when the divided missions are assigned to the cooperation operators.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the robot situation information comprises location information of the cooperation operators, robot location information, mission progressing status information, and mission equipment status information.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the video/audio transceiver is configured to output the robot state information, which is received from the cooperation robots controlled by the at least one cooperation robot mission unit, using the video display and the speaker according to a request of the cooperation unit.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the robot state information comprises video information, audio information and sensor information of the cooperation robots.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the sensor information comprises coordinate information of the cooperation robots, obstacle information, and dangerous situation information.

20. The system of claim 13,

wherein the control command generator is configured to transmit the control command to the cooperation robots when the at least one cooperation robot mission unit permits robot control, according to a request of the cooperation unit, and

wherein the video/audio transceiver is configured to display control state information received from the cooperation robots using the video display.