INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20190308317A1
• Filed: 12/01/2017
• Published: 10/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2016
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: NODA, Atsushi, TANAKA, Yasufumi, KOBAYASHI, Yoshiyuki, MATSUNAGA, Hideyuki, TAKAMATSU, Shingo
• Application Number:
  US16/467,597
• Publication Number:
  US 20190308317A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 13/00 Controls for manipulators programme controls B25J9/16; control in general G05
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/0084 comprising a plurality of manipulators
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/16 Programme controls programme controls in general G05B19/00, e.g. numerical pogramme controls G05B19/18; recording or playback systems G05B19/42
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/163 learning, adaptive, model based, rule based expert control
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1661 characterised by task planning, object-oriented languages
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/0265 the criterion being a learning criterion
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41865 characterised by job scheduling, process planning, material flow
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4187 by tool management
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/39117 Task distribution between involved manipulators
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/39167 Resources scheduling and balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/50391 Robot
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

There is provided an information processing apparatus and an information processing method that enable agents with different skills to cooperate with each other to efficiently execute a task, the information processing apparatus including: an allocation section configured to assign at least a part of a task to two or more agents on the basis of a skill model indicating a skill of each of the agents. An information processing method includes an allocation step of assigning at least a part of a task to two or more agents on the basis of a skill model indicating a skill of each of the agents. The present technology can be applied to, for example, an agent system in which a plurality of agents cooperates with each other to execute a task.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

an allocation section configured to assign at least a part of a task to two or more agents on a basis of a skill model indicating a skill of each of the agents.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a presentation control section configured to control presentation of information regarding at least one of the task and agents.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the presentation control section controls presentation of a skill of an agent capable of increasing efficiency of the task.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the presentation control section controls presentation of a skill necessary for the task.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the presentation control section controls presentation of skills of agents configured to execute the task.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the presentation control section further controls presentation of a skill of an agent capable of serving as an addition or a replacement.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a communication section configured to receive, from each of the agents, a work report that includes information including;

an action executed;

a state before execution of the action; and

a reward for the action.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

a learning section configured to learn, on the basis of the work report, data to be used for allocation of the task.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the learning section learns a type of a skill defining the skill model on the basis of a result of clustering of data distributed, the data including a combination of the state and the action and being generated on the basis of the work report.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the learning section learns data indicating a skill necessary for each of tasks on the basis of the work report.

11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the learning section learns the skill model of each of the agents on the basis of the work report.

12. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a communication section configured to receive the skill model of each of the agents.

13. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the allocation section assigns at least the part of the task to the agents further on the basis of a state of each of the agents.

14. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the allocation section divides the task into a plurality of subtasks and assigns the subtasks to the agents.

15. The information processing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the allocation section further divides the subtasks into actions and assigns the actions to the agents, the actions being execution units of the agents.

16. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an execution section configured to execute the task,

wherein each of the two or more agents includes the information processing apparatus.

17. An information processing method comprising:

an allocation step of assigning at least a part of a task to two or more agents on a basis of a skill model indicating a skill of each of the agents.