Supervision and control of heterogeneous autonomous operations

• US 9,046,892 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2009
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Jang, Jung Soon, Vian, John Lyle, Clark, Gregory John, Saad, Emad W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Bao Long T
• Application Number:
  US12/560,569
• Publication Number:
  US 20100312388A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,085 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/39377 Task level supervisor and planner, organizer and execution and path tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0088 characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours using knowledge based models G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

The different advantageous embodiments may provide an apparatus that may include a number of robotic machine groups, a mission planner, and a mission control. The mission planner may be capable of generating a mission for the number of robotic machine groups. The mission control may be capable of executing the mission using the number of robotic machine groups.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of robotic vehicles;

a mission planner configured to generate a mission for the plurality of robotic vehicles, decomposing the mission into a plurality of tasks, and allocating at least one task of the plurality of tasks to one robotic vehicle group, wherein the mission comprises at least one of maintenance of an aircraft, service of the aircraft, component manufacturing of the aircraft, and subassembly manufacturing of the aircraft;

a plurality of mission controls configured to receive the mission from the mission planner and to execute the mission using the plurality of robotic vehicles, acting in concert;

an operator interface comprising an adaptive decision making module configured to determine whether a decision to be made by the adaptive decision making module with respect to the mission is critical or non-critical, wherein for a critical decision the decision must be made by an operator and for a non-critical decision the decision may be made by the adaptive decision making module or by the operator; and

a wireless communications system configured to provide communications among the plurality of robotic vehicles, the mission planner, the operator interface, and the mission control, wherein each of the robotic vehicles is in communication with each other, the mission planner, and the mission control, and each robotic vehicle in the plurality of robotic vehicles has an individual mission control from the plurality of mission controls, the individual mission control being configured to receive information about the mission from the robotic vehicles, identify a conflict in the mission; and

determine whether the individual mission control can resolve the conflict;

wherein the individual mission control is further configured to either resolve the conflict to form a solution and send the solution to the robotic vehicle in response to the determination that the individual mission control can resolve the conflict, or send a conflict report to the mission planner in response to the determination that the individual mission control cannot resolve the conflict.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the mission planner is further configured to perform a dynamic replication process.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the dynamic replication process duplicates the mission planner.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the mission planner is scalable and configured to duplicate itself using the replication process, wherein the mission planner further comprises a logistic planner configured to identify a plurality of tasks to execute the mission and a reflexive planner configured to modify the mission in response to a plurality of messages from the plurality of robotic vehicles.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a display device in communication with the operator interface, the display device configured to display information in order of importance to enable the operator to understand a situation and take action or make an informed decision.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the adaptive decision making module is configured to determine criticality of the decision based on information from a database, and wherein the database contains at least one of a table of non-critical decisions and a rule-based system for deciding whether the decision is critical.

7. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of robotic machine groups;

a mission planner configured to generate a mission for the plurality of robotic machine groups, and to decompose the mission into a plurality of tasks, and allocate at least one task of the plurality of tasks to one robotic vehicle group in the plurality of robotic machine groups, wherein the mission comprises at least one of maintenance of an aircraft, service of the aircraft, component manufacturing of the aircraft, and subassembly manufacturing of the aircraft;

a plurality of mission controls configured to execute the mission using the plurality of robotic machine groups;

an operator interface comprising an adaptive decision making module configured to determine whether a decision to be made by the adaptive decision making module with respect to the mission is critical or non-critical, wherein for a critical decision the decision must be made by an operator and for a non-critical decision the decision may be made by the adaptive decision making module or by the operator; and

a wireless communications system configured to provide communications with the plurality of robotic machine groups, the mission control, the operator interface, and the mission planner, wherein each robotic machine in the plurality of robotic machine groups is in communication with other robotic machines in a particular group, and each robotic vehicle in the plurality of robotic machine groups has an individual mission control from the plurality number of mission controls, the individual mission control being configured to receive information about the mission from the robotic vehicles, identify a conflict in the mission; and

determine whether the individual mission control can resolve the conflict,

wherein the individual mission control is further configured to either resolve the conflict to form a solution and send the solution to the robotic vehicle in response to the determination that the individual mission control can resolve the conflict, or send a conflict report to the mission planner in response to the determination that the individual mission control cannot resolve the conflict.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the mission planner further comprises a logistic planner configured to identify a number of tasks to execute the mission.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the mission planner further comprises:

a reflexive planner configured to modify the mission in response to a number of messages from the plurality of robotic machine groups.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the plurality of robotic machine groups comprises a heterogeneous plurality of robotic machine groups.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 further comprising:

a number of programs configured to run on the plurality of machine groups, wherein the number of programs comprises at least one of a numerical control program, a neural network, fuzzy logic, and artificial intelligence.

12. A method for mission management, the method comprising:

generating a mission plan for a mission comprising at least one of maintenance of an aircraft, service of the aircraft, component manufacturing of the aircraft, and subassembly manufacturing of the aircraft, wherein the mission plan is for a plurality of robotic vehicles groups;

decomposing the mission plan into a plurality of tasks, and allocating at least one task of the plurality of tasks to one robotic vehicle group of the plurality of robotic vehicle groups;

using a wireless communications system to provide communications with the plurality of robotic machine groups comprising groups of robotic vehicles, one of a plurality of mission controls, and a mission planner, wherein each robotic vehicle in a given group of robotic vehicles is in communication with each other;

sending the mission plan to the plurality of robotic machine groups, including sending the at least one task to the one robotic vehicle group and wherein each robotic vehicle in the plurality of robotic vehicle groups has an individual mission control from the plurality of mission controls, the individual mission control being configured to receive information about the mission from the robotic vehicles, identify a conflict in the mission; and

determine whether the individual mission control can resolve the conflict;

monitoring progress of the mission plan by the plurality of robotic machine groups;

receiving data from the plurality of robotic machine groups about the mission plan;

determining, by an adaptive decision making module in communication with the wireless communication system, whether a decision with respect to the mission plan is critical or non-critical, wherein for a critical decision the decision must be made by an operator and for a non-critical decision the decision may be made by the adaptive decision making module or by the operator; and

either resolving the conflict to form a solution and sending the solution to a given robotic vehicle in response to the determination that the individual mission control can resolve the conflict, or sending a conflict report to the mission planner in response to the determination that the individual mission control cannot resolve the conflict.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein generating the mission plan further comprises:

retrieving information from a plurality of databases, wherein the information retrieved includes at least one of mission schedules, mission histories, and resource information.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein generating the mission plan further comprises:

decomposing the mission plan into a number of tasks; and

allocating a number of resources for the number of tasks.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein sending the mission plan to the plurality of robotic machine groups further comprises:

sending commands to the plurality of robotic machine groups to execute a number of tasks.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of robotic machine groups comprising groups of robotic vehicles;

a mission planner configured to generate a mission for the plurality of robotic machine groups, and to decompose the mission into a plurality of tasks, and allocate at least one task of the plurality of tasks to one robotic vehicle group of the plurality of robotic machine groups, wherein the mission comprises at least one of maintenance of an aircraft, service of the aircraft, component manufacturing of the aircraft, and subassembly manufacturing of the aircraft, and wherein the mission planner is further configured to perform a dynamic replication process;

a plurality of mission controls configured to execute mission using the plurality of robotic machine groups;

a wireless communications system configured to provide communications with the plurality of robotic machine groups, the mission control, and the mission planner, and each robotic vehicle in the plurality of robotic vehicle groups has an individual mission control from the plurality number of mission controls, the individual mission control being configured to receive information about the mission from the robotic vehicles, identify a conflict in the mission, and determine whether the individual mission control can resolve the conflict;

wherein the individual mission control is further configured to either resolve the conflict to form a solution and send the solution to the robotic vehicle in response to the determination that the individual mission control can resolve the conflict, or send a conflict report to the mission planner in response to the determination that the individual mission control cannot resolve the conflict;

a logistic planner configured to identify a number of tasks to execute the mission;

a reflexive planner configured to modify the mission in response to a number of messages from the plurality of robotic machine groups; and

an operator interface comprising an adaptive decision making module configured to determine whether a decision to be made by the adaptive decision making module with respect to the mission is critical or non-critical, wherein for a critical decision the decision must be made by an operator and for a non-critical decision the decision may be made by the adaptive decision making module or by the operator.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the dynamic replication process duplicates the mission planner.

18. A method for mission management, the method comprising:

generating a mission plan for a mission, wherein the mission comprises at least one of maintenance of an aircraft, service of the aircraft, component manufacturing of the aircraft, and subassembly manufacturing of the aircraft, wherein the mission plan is for a plurality of robotic vehicles groups;

decomposing the mission plan into a plurality of tasks, and allocating at least one task of the plurality of tasks to one robotic vehicle group of the plurality of robotic vehicle groups;

retrieving information from a plurality of databases using a wireless communications system;

allocating a plurality of resources for the plurality of tasks in the mission plan;

sending the mission plan to a plurality of robotic machine groups using the wireless communications system, wherein the plurality of robotic machines groups comprise groups of robotic vehicles, and wherein each robotic vehicle in a given group of robotic vehicles is in communication with each other, including sending the at least one task to the one robotic vehicle group and wherein each robotic vehicle in the plurality of robotic vehicle groups has an individual mission control from the plurality of mission controls, the individual mission control being configured to receive information about the mission from the robotic vehicles, identify a conflict in the mission; and

determine whether the individual mission control can resolve the conflict;

monitoring progress of the mission plan by the plurality of robotic machine groups using the wireless communications system;

receiving data from the plurality of robotic machine groups about the mission plan, using the wireless communications system; and

determining, by an adaptive decision making module in communication with the wireless communication system, whether a decision with respect to the mission plan is critical or non-critical, wherein for a critical decision the decision must be made by an operator and for a non-critical decision the decision may be made by the adaptive decision making module or by the operator; and

either resolving the conflict to form a solution and sending the solution to a given robotic vehicle in response to the determination that the individual mission control can resolve the conflict, or sending a conflict report to the mission planner in response to the determination that the individual mission control cannot resolve the conflict.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the information retrieved includes at least one of mission schedules, mission histories, and resource information.