Methods and systems for multirobotic management

• US 9,026,248 B1
• Filed: 05/07/2012
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Hickman, Ryan, Gharpure, Chaitanya
• Primary Examiner(s): Holwerda, Stephen
• Application Number:
  US13/466,030
• Time in Patent Office: 1,093 Days
• Field of Search: 700/245, 700/246, 700/248, 700/247, 700/250, 700/253, 700/258, 700/259, 318/568.1, 318/568.11, 318/568.12, 318/568.16, 318/568.2
• US Class Current: 700/248
• CPC Class Codes: A01N 25/10 Macromolecular compounds
• CPC Class Codes: A23B 5/06 Coating eggs with a protective layer; Compositions or apparatus therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 3/00 Manipulators of master-slave type, i.e. both controlling unit and controlled unit perform corresponding spatial movements
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/418 Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible manufacturing systems [FMS], integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] or computer integrated manufacturing [CIM]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

Multirobotic management can involve communications between a command or leader robot and one or more client or follower robots through a cloud computing system. In an example implementation, a leader robot can receive first sensory data captured by a first follower robot and second sensory data captured by a second follower robot, determine a command function based on at least one of the first sensory data and the second sensory data, and communicate with at least one of the first follower robot and the second follower robot based on the command function.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

at least a first client robot and a second client robot, wherein the first client robot has a first functionality and the second client robot has a second functionality that is different than the first functionality, and wherein the first client robot has a first sensing capability and the second client robot has a second sensing capability that is different than the first sensing capability; and

a command robot configured to communicate with the first client robot and the second client robot and to direct actions of the first client robot and the second client robot,

wherein each of the first client robot and the second client robot comprises, a processor, a memory, and program instructions stored in the memory that when executed by the processor cause a respective client robot to perform client-robot operations comprising;

capturing sensory data via a respective sensing capability of the respective client robot; and

communicating, based on the sensory data and a respective functionality of the respective client robot, with the command robot, and

wherein the command robot comprises a command-robot processor, a command-robot memory, and command-robot program instructions stored in the command-robot memory that when executed by the command-robot processor cause the command robot to perform command-robot operations comprising;

providing at least a portion of the sensory data captured by the first client robot as a first input to the second client robot, wherein the portion of the data is relevant to the second functionality of the second client robot;

receiving first feedback from the second client robot based on the first input;

in response to the first feedback, receiving further sensory data captured by the second robot;

determining a command function based on the first feedback and the further sensory data captured by the second robot; and

communicating with at least one of the first client robot and second client robot based on the command function.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the first client robot and the second client robot include at least one sensor comprising one or more of an image capture device, an acoustic sensor device, and an electronic data acquisition device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the command function relates to a task to be performed by the first client robot or the second client robot.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the command function further relates to an ongoing activity of the first client robot and the second client robot.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein communicating with at least one of the first client robot and the second client robot based on the command function comprises:

providing the further sensory data captured by the second robot as a second input to the first client robot;

receiving second feedback from the first client robot based on the second input; and

determining an additional command function based on the second feedback.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first sensing capability is related to an image-capture device, and wherein the second sensing capability is related to electronic data capture.