Control system and method for robotic lift taking

Abstract

The application discloses a control system for robot taking an elevator, comprising: a determination unit for determining a robot getting off an elevator or a robot taking an elevator; a generation unit for generating a control instruction for controlling the robot getting off the elevator to leave a car and the robot taking the elevator to enter the car; a first analysis unit for determining a predetermined sequence; a detection unit for detecting the robot getting off the elevator to leave the car and the robot taking the elevator to enter the car; an analysis unit for determining an actual sequence; and a judgment unit for judging whether the actual sequence is consistent with the predetermined sequence and determining that robot taking an elevator is abnormal. The control system for robot taking an elevator can monitor the abnormality of robot taking an elevator as early as possible in the first time when the robot is lost.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the field of elevators, in particular to a robot elevator control system and method. BACKGROUND

[0002] With the advancement of robot technology and the continuous expansion of its application range, robots are being used in a wide range of scenarios. In these application scenarios, robots often need to move between different floors to achieve their intended functions. Robot elevator has become a research and application hotspot in the field of elevators, but the focus of attention is mainly on the interaction and communication between the robot and the elevator during the robot's ride. There are relatively few research results on the problem of robot getting lost due to reasons such as communication delay during the robot's ride. In view of this problem, there have been several related results:

[0003] Document 1 (CN202110390407.X) discloses a method for preventing robot from getting lost, which includes: receiving the state information of the elevator sent by the elevator control system; if it is detected that the robot has not arrived at the destination floor and the robot is located outside the elevator, obtaining the first floor where the robot is currently located according to the state information of the elevator, and sending a command to the elevator control system to go to the destination floor, which is used to instruct the elevator control system to control the elevator to stop at the first floor when it arrives, so that the robot can take the elevator.

[0004] Document 2 (CN202111640681.4) proposes: using the IMU sensor carried by the robot itself, the displacement of the elevator is estimated by an improved integral ranging model, and the accuracy of the integral ranging model is considered. The target floor is divided into directly accessible floors and indirectly accessible floors. When the target floor is located in the indirectly accessible floor, the strategy given by the floor allocation module can reliably reach the target floor. When the floor position is lost due to abnormal elevator ride, the floor repositioning module will give a strategy to let the robot find the correct floor position again.

[0005] Document 3 (CN202210765727.3) discloses a robot elevator control method, which includes: in response to receiving elevator stop target floor information carrying a time stamp, comparing the time information indicated by the time stamp with the current real-time time information to obtain a time difference; if the time difference is greater than a preset time threshold, it is determined that the elevator is currently not stopped at the target floor; send a call instruction to make the elevator stop at the target floor again based on the call instruction. This application can determine whether the elevator actually arrives at the target floor. If not, the robot does not execute the exit action temporarily, so as to avoid the situation that the robot makes a mistake in the elevator.

[0006] The method for positioning the floor where the robot exits the elevator disclosed in document 4 (CN202210785348.0) comprises: obtaining the exit information of the robot, the exit information carrying a first timestamp, the first timestamp being used to indicate the exit time of the robot; obtaining the floor information where the elevator stops at different floors, the floor information carrying a second timestamp, the second timestamp being used to indicate the time when the elevator sends the floor information to the robot; comparing the first timestamp with the second timestamp carried by each floor information respectively to obtain the target second timestamp with the time difference from the first timestamp within a preset time range; determining the floor information corresponding to the target second timestamp as the exit floor of the robot.

[0007] Although documents 1-3 can avoid the robot from getting lost or finding the robot again after the robot gets lost, they cannot monitor the abnormality of the robot taking the elevator as early as possible at the first time when the robot gets lost.

[0008] Therefore, how to monitor the abnormality of the robot taking the elevator as early as possible at the first time when the robot gets lost becomes a technical problem to be solved. SUMMARY

[0009] The technical problem to be solved by the present application is how to monitor the abnormality of the robot taking the elevator as early as possible at the first time when the robot gets lost.

[0010] In order to solve the above technical problem, the present application discloses a control system for robot taking the elevator, comprising:

[0011] A determination unit is configured to determine at least one robot getting off the car at a specified floor according to the destination floor information of the robots in the car, and determine a robot taking the elevator at the specified floor according to the elevator call signal of the robot with the specified floor as the departure floor;

[0012] A generation unit is configured to generate a control instruction for controlling the robot getting off the car and the robot taking the elevator;

[0013] A first analysis unit is configured to determine the predetermined order of the robot getting off the car and the robot taking the elevator according to the control instruction;

[0014] A detection unit is configured to detect the robot getting off the car and the robot taking the elevator;

[0015] A second analysis unit is configured to analyze and determine the actual order of the robot getting off the car and the robot taking the elevator according to the detection result of the detection unit;

[0016] The judging unit is configured to judge whether the actual sequence is consistent with the predetermined sequence, and determine that the robot is abnormal when the actual sequence is not consistent with the predetermined sequence.

[0017] Preferably, the specified floor has both the floor-exiting robots and the floor-riding robots; the control instruction controls the floor-exiting robots and the floor-riding robots to be spaced from each other to form at least one floor-exiting robot group and at least one floor-riding robot group, the floor-exiting robot group comprising at least one floor-exiting robot, and the floor-riding robot group comprising at least one floor-riding robot.

[0018] Preferably, when there are multiple floor-exiting robot groups, the number of floor-exiting robots in each floor-exiting robot group is substantially equal; and when there are multiple floor-riding robot groups, the number of floor-riding robots in each floor-riding robot group is substantially equal.

[0019] Preferably, the second analysis unit receives each record from the detection unit detecting the entry or exit of a robot into or out of the car, and combines the records in chronological order to obtain the actual sequence.

[0020] Preferably, the judging unit compares each record in the predetermined sequence with each record in the actual sequence one by one, and determines that the actual sequence is consistent with the predetermined sequence when all the records are the same.

[0021] Preferably, when the number of floor-exiting robots exiting the car and the number of floor-riding robots entering the car do not exceed the maximum value of the base, the predetermined sequence and the actual sequence are defined as the cumulative number of robots that have completed floor-exiting or entering the car when the floor-exiting robots or the floor-riding robots complete floor-exiting or entering the car; the judging unit sets each cumulative number as the sequence value of the robot corresponding to the cumulative number, and then combines the sequence values in the order to obtain a data amount; and the judging unit determines that the actual sequence is consistent with the predetermined sequence when the data amount corresponding to the actual sequence is equal to the data amount corresponding to the predetermined sequence.

[0022] Preferably, the judging unit sets the entry of a robot into the car as a first amplitude a and the exit of a robot out of the car as a second amplitude b, the actual sequence and the predetermined sequence are defined as a waveform plotted by the first amplitude, the second amplitude, and the time interval between two adjacent detections of the entry or exit of a robot into or out of the car, and the judging unit determines that the actual sequence is consistent with the predetermined sequence when the waveform corresponding to the actual sequence is the same as the waveform corresponding to the predetermined sequence.

[0023] Preferably, the actual sequence and the predetermined sequence are defined to include a first result and a second result, the first result being the sum of the sequence numbers of each robot entering the car, and the second result being the sum of the sequence numbers of each robot leaving the car, the judging unit respectively calculates and compares the first result corresponding to the actual sequence and the first result corresponding to the predetermined sequence, and the second result corresponding to the actual sequence and the second result corresponding to the predetermined sequence, and when both comparison results are equal, it is determined that the actual sequence is consistent with the predetermined sequence.

[0024] Preferably, the control system further comprises a diagnosis unit: when the judging unit determines that the actual sequence is inconsistent with the predetermined sequence, the inconsistent waveform corresponding to the group of robots taking the elevator or the group of robots leaving the elevator is determined by waveform comparison.

[0025] Preferably, the generating unit determines the time when the elevator car stops at a floor and completes the door opening, and determines the leaving or entering time of the robots in the predetermined sequence of the robots and the specified time interval; the control instruction contains the robot identifier and the corresponding leaving or entering time; the leaving or entering car condition of the leaving or entering car is determined in advance by the leaving or entering robot before the leaving or entering time, and the action of leaving or entering the car is implemented when the condition is met; the diagnosis unit identifies the robot that should have left the car at the leaving or entering time or the robot that should have entered the car at the leaving or entering time as an abnormal robot.

[0026] Preferably, the leaving or entering car condition includes one or more of the following conditions:

[0027] Condition 1: the moving path is blocked;

[0028] Condition 2: whether the current time has exceeded the leaving or entering time of the robot;

[0029] Condition 3: the car leveling error exceeds the threshold;

[0030] Condition 4: the robot is in a correct state.

[0031] The application also provides a control method for robot taking the elevator, which takes the sequence of robots entering or leaving the car at at least one specified floor as a kind of encoding information, and judges whether the robot appears abnormal in the process of taking the elevator by comparing the consistency between the predetermined encoding information corresponding to the control instruction and the actual encoding information corresponding to the actual entering or leaving of the robot.

[0032] Compared with the prior art, the application has the following beneficial technical effects:

[0033] 1. The robot can be monitored early in the first time when the robot is lost, and the abnormality of the robot taking the elevator can be determined;

[0034] 2. After determining that the robot taking the elevator is abnormal, it can be determined which specific robot is abnormal. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0035] Figure 1 is a structural diagram of the control system for the robot taking the elevator of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0036] The present application will be further described in detail below in combination with the drawings and specific embodiments.

[0037] Embodiment 1

[0038] As shown in the figure, the control system for the robot taking the elevator of the present embodiment comprises: Figure 1

[0039] A determination unit: determines at least one robot leaving the car at a specified floor according to the destination floor information of the robots in the car, and determines a robot taking the elevator at the specified floor entering the car according to the elevator call signal of the robot with the specified floor as the departure floor;

[0040] A generation unit: for generating a control instruction for controlling the robot leaving the car and the robot taking the elevator entering the car;

[0041] A first analysis unit: determines the predetermined order of the robot leaving the car and the robot taking the elevator entering the car according to the control instruction;

[0042] A detection unit: for detecting the robot leaving the car and the robot taking the elevator entering the car;

[0043] A second analysis unit: analyzes and determines the actual order of the robot leaving the car and the robot taking the elevator entering the car according to the detection result of the detection unit;

[0044] A judgment unit: for judging whether the actual order is consistent with the predetermined order, and when the actual order is not consistent with the predetermined order, it is determined that the robot taking the elevator is abnormal.

[0045] Embodiment 2

[0046] ​The embodiment exemplarily defines the following specific implementation scenarios based on Embodiment 1. The specified floor has both the floor-exiting robots and the floor-riding robots; the control instruction controls the floor-exiting robots and the floor-riding robots to be mutually spaced apart from each other, forming at least one floor-exiting robot group and at least one floor-riding robot group, the floor-exiting robot group at least including one floor-exiting robot, and the floor-riding robot group at least including one floor-riding robot.

[0047] When there are multiple floor-exiting robot groups, the number of floor-exiting robots included in each floor-exiting robot group is approximately equal; when there are multiple floor-riding robot groups, the number of floor-riding robots included in each floor-riding robot group is approximately equal.

[0048] The second analysis unit combines each record received from the detection unit detecting that a robot enters or leaves the car in time sequence to obtain the actual sequence. The judgment unit compares each record in the predetermined sequence and the actual sequence one by one, and when all records are the same, it is determined that the actual sequence is consistent with the predetermined sequence. Each record is in the form of "sequence number-enters" or "sequence number-leaves", for example.

[0049] The detection unit is a weighing device for detecting the load in the elevator car, and outputs the weighing result.

[0050] The second analysis unit receives and analyzes the detection result from the detection unit, and determines that a robot enters the car when the detection result output by the weighing device increases, and determines that a robot leaves the car when the detection result output by the weighing device decreases. It should be noted that the increase or decrease here should be between threshold 1 and threshold 2, threshold 1 should be large enough to filter out small fluctuations in the detection result caused by interference and the like, threshold 2 should be less than the minimum weight of the robot, and threshold 1 is less than threshold 2.

[0051] For example, the current up elevator stops at the 5th floor and finishes opening the door, at this time, there are A, B, C and D four robots in the car, and the destination floors of B, C and D are the 5th floor, that is, they want to leave the car at the 5th floor, and there are E, F and G three robots at the 5th floor station to enter the elevator car to go up. The control instruction generated by the generation unit makes the predetermined order of each robot entering / leaving the car as follows: 1-B, 2-E, 3-C, 4-F, 5-D, 6-G. According to the detection result output by the weighing device, the analysis unit can determine after analysis that: 1-enter, 2-leave, 3-enter, 4-leave, 5-enter, 6-leave, wherein the number before the dash is the serial number, and the text after the dash indicates whether the robot of the serial number enters the car or leaves the car. Each x-enter / leave is taken as a record, and all the records corresponding to the 5th floor (1-enter, 2-leave, 3-enter, 4-leave, 5-enter, 6-leave) are combined according to the serial number to obtain the actual order: enter, leave, enter, leave, enter, leave. The predetermined order can be obtained in the same way. When everything is normal, robots B, C and D and robots E, F and G complete the entering and leaving the car according to the respective instructions, and the actual order obtained by the analysis unit should be enter, leave, enter, leave, enter, leave. Since the predetermined order is also enter, leave, enter, leave, enter, leave, the judgment unit determines that they are consistent.

[0052] Obviously, the control system in this embodiment is mainly aimed at the case where there are multiple robots at a certain floor that need to enter or leave the car, and the two different possible actions of entering the car or leaving the car are combined to form a code, and then the consistency of the actual value and the predetermined value of the code is compared to realize the monitoring of whether the robot takes the elevator abnormally.

[0053] Embodiment 3

[0054] This embodiment is based on embodiment 1, and the specific form of the predetermined order and the actual order is further explained.

[0055] Since the form of enter, leave, enter, leave, enter, leave in embodiment 2 is not very convenient when comparing whether the actual order and the predetermined order are consistent, the following alternative form is proposed, and the following form does not limit that there are both down robots and up robots at the specified floor, and the specified floor can only have down robots or up robots:

[0056] Form 1, when the number of down robots leaving the car and the number of up robots entering the car does not exceed the maximum value of the system, the predetermined order and the actual order are defined as the cumulative number of robots that have completed down or entering the car when the down robots or the entering the car robots complete down or entering the car;

[0057] The judging unit sets each cumulative number as an order value of the robot corresponding to the cumulative number, and then combines each order value together according to its order to obtain a data amount;

[0058] When the data amount corresponding to the actual order is equal to the data amount corresponding to the predetermined order, it is determined that the actual order is consistent with the predetermined order.

[0059] For example, for the example in Embodiment 1, when using hexadecimal, the maximum value of a single digit is F, which is obviously more than the number of robots that need to enter or leave the car, so the requirement is met. For example, the mapping relationship of the entering robots is to directly take the serial number as the order value of the entering robots; the mapping relationship of the leaving robots is to take the difference between F and the serial number as the order value of the leaving robots. In this way, two sets of order values corresponding to the predetermined order and the actual order can be obtained, and the whole of each set of order values can be regarded as a data amount, and whether the data amounts are equal is compared.

[0060] Form 2, the judging unit sets the robot entering the car as a first amplitude a (such as 1) and the robot leaving the car as a second amplitude b (0), the actual order and the predetermined order are defined as waveforms drawn according to the first amplitude, the second amplitude and the time interval between the adjacent two times of detecting the robot entering or leaving the car, and when the waveform corresponding to the actual order is equal to the waveform corresponding to the predetermined order, it is determined that the actual order is consistent with the predetermined order. The time interval can be a specified fixed value, an average value, or the actual length of the time interval between the adjacent two times of detecting the robot entering or leaving the car.

[0061] Form 3, the actual order and the predetermined order are defined as including a first result and a second result, the first result is the sum of the serial numbers of each robot entering the car, and the second result is the sum of the serial numbers of each robot leaving the car, the judging unit respectively calculates and compares the first result corresponding to the actual order and the first result corresponding to the predetermined order and the second result corresponding to the actual order and the second result corresponding to the predetermined order, and when the two comparison results are equal, it is determined that the actual order is consistent with the predetermined order.

[0062] Embodiment 4

[0063] This embodiment is based on the foregoing embodiments, and further describes the subsequent processing when the judging unit determines that the predetermined order and the actual order are inconsistent.

[0064] The control system further comprises:

[0065] The diagnostic unit diagnoses the abnormal robot when the determination unit determines that the actual sequence is inconsistent with the predetermined sequence.

[0066] When Form 2 in Embodiment 2 is adopted, if the determination unit determines that the actual sequence is inconsistent with the predetermined sequence, the inconsistent waveform corresponding to the group of boarding robots or the group of alighting robots can be determined through waveform comparison.

[0067] It is noted here that, due to the lack of time information, the diagnostic result can only determine which group of robots is abnormal. When there are multiple robots in the group of abnormal robots, it cannot be further diagnosed which specific robot is abnormal in the process of boarding the elevator (entering the car or leaving the car).

[0068] Embodiment 5

[0069] This embodiment further describes the subsequent processing when the determination unit determines that the actual sequence is inconsistent with the predetermined sequence on the basis of the foregoing embodiments.

[0070] In this embodiment, the control system further comprises:

[0071] The diagnostic unit diagnoses the abnormal robot when the determination unit determines that the actual sequence is inconsistent with the predetermined sequence.

[0072] The generation unit determines the time when the elevator car stops at a floor and completes door opening, and determines the leaving or entering time of the alighting robot and the boarding robot according to the predetermined sequence of the robots and the specified time interval;

[0073] The control instruction contains the robot identifier and the corresponding leaving or entering time;

[0074] The alighting robot and the boarding robot determine whether the leaving or entering car condition is met a certain amount of time in advance at the leaving or entering time, and implement the action of leaving or entering the car when the condition is met;

[0075] The diagnostic unit identifies the alighting robot that should have left the car at the leaving or entering time or the boarding robot that should have entered the car at the leaving or entering time as the abnormal robot.

[0076] The leaving or entering car condition includes one or more of the following conditions:

[0077] Condition 1: The movement path is blocked.

[0078] Condition 2: Whether the current time has exceeded the leaving / entering time of the robot;

[0079] Condition 3, the car leveling error exceeds a threshold value;

[0080] Condition 4, the robot is in a correct state (e.g. a delivery robot should have carried the goods to be delivered when it performs the delivery).

[0081] Embodiment 6

[0082] The control method for robot taking the elevator can be implemented by using the control system of the aforementioned embodiments 1 to 5.

[0083] The control method is specifically as follows:

[0084] When there are multiple robots entering or leaving the car at a certain specified floor, the control system usually generates corresponding control instructions for each robot respectively, and controls each robot according to the control instructions, so that the robots in the car and the landing complete the action of entering or leaving the car by moving, and the combination of the actions of all the robots forms a queue of robots entering or leaving the car. Since the action of the robot contains two values of entering and leaving, arranging these values according to their order in the queue forms a specific value queue, which in fact forms a code information containing the corresponding information of the robots in the car leaving the car at the specified floor or the landing robots entering the car.

[0085] When the robot fails to perform the response action due to abnormality during taking the elevator (including entering the car and leaving the car) (e.g. fails to perform the moving action in time due to communication delay, does not meet the moving condition, etc.), the corresponding code information will also change accordingly. Therefore, by comparing whether the code information composed of the control instructions (equivalent to the predetermined order in the aforementioned embodiments) is consistent with the actual code information (equivalent to the actual order in the aforementioned embodiments), the monitoring of whether the robot taking the elevator abnormally can be realized. The control method of the present embodiment is based on the above principle, and judges whether the robot abnormally during taking the elevator by analyzing the code information corresponding to the control instructions and the code information corresponding to the actual moving action of the robot, and comparing whether they are consistent.

[0086] The present application has been described in detail by specific embodiments and examples, but these do not constitute a limitation on the present application. Those skilled in the art can make many modifications and improvements without departing from the principles of the present application, and these should also be considered as falling within the scope of protection of the present application.

Claims

1. A control system for robots riding elevators, characterized in that, The control system includes: Determination Unit: Determines at least one descending robot that leaves the car at a designated floor based on the destination floor information of the robot in the car, and determines the riding robot that enters the car at the designated floor based on the call signal of the robot that takes the designated floor as its departure floor. Generation unit: used to generate control commands for controlling the descending robot to leave the elevator car and the ascending robot to enter the elevator car; First analysis unit: Determines the predetermined order of the descending robot leaving the elevator car and the ascending robot entering the elevator car according to the control command; Detection unit: used to detect when the robot descending the elevator leaves the elevator car and when the robot ascending the elevator enters the elevator car; The second analysis unit analyzes and determines the actual order in which the descending robot leaves the elevator car and the ascending robot enters the elevator car based on the detection results of the detection unit. Judgment unit: used to determine whether the actual order is consistent with the predetermined order, and when the actual order is inconsistent with the predetermined order, it is determined that the robot is abnormally riding the elevator.

2. The control system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The designated floor has both a robot that descends the elevator and a robot that rides the elevator. The control command controls the descending robot and the ascending robot to be spaced apart from each other, forming at least one descending robot group and at least one ascending robot group. The descending robot group contains at least one descending robot, and the ascending robot group contains at least one ascending robot.

3. The control system according to claim 2, characterized in that, When there are multiple groups of robots that descend stairs, the number of robots in each group is approximately equal; when there are multiple groups of robots that ascend stairs, the number of robots in each group is approximately equal.

4. The control system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The second analysis unit receives each record from the detection unit that detects the robot entering or leaving the car, and combines the records in chronological order to obtain the actual order.

5. The control system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The judgment unit compares each record in the predetermined order and the actual order one by one. When all records are the same, it determines that the actual order is consistent with the predetermined order.

6. The control system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, When the number of robots leaving the car and the number of robots entering the car do not exceed the maximum value of the base, the predetermined order and the actual order are defined as the cumulative number of robots that have completed leaving the car or entering the car when the robots leaving the car or entering the car complete leaving the car or entering the car. The judgment unit sets each cumulative quantity as an order value corresponding to the robot with the cumulative quantity, and then combines each order value in order to obtain the data volume. When the amount of data corresponding to the actual order is equal to the amount of data corresponding to the predetermined order, it is determined that the actual order is consistent with the predetermined order.

7. The control system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The judgment unit sets the entry of a robot into the car as a first amplitude a and the exit of a robot from the car as a second amplitude b. The actual order and the predetermined order are defined as waveforms drawn according to the first amplitude, the second amplitude and the time interval between two adjacent detections of a robot entering or leaving the car. When the waveform corresponding to the actual order is the same as the waveform corresponding to the predetermined order, it is determined that the actual order is consistent with the predetermined order.

8. The control system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The actual order and the predetermined order are defined as including a first result and a second result. The first result is the sum of the serial numbers of each robot entering the car, and the second result is the sum of the serial numbers of each robot leaving the car. The judgment unit calculates and compares the first result corresponding to the actual order with the first result corresponding to the predetermined order, and the second result corresponding to the actual order with the second result corresponding to the predetermined order. When both comparison results are equal, it is determined that the actual order is consistent with the predetermined order.

9. The control system according to claim 7, characterized in that, The control system further includes: Diagnostic Unit: When the judgment unit determines that the actual order is inconsistent with the predetermined order, it determines the elevator-riding robot group or the elevator-descending robot group corresponding to the inconsistent waveform by waveform comparison.

10. The control system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The generation unit determines the moment when the elevator car stops at the floor and opens the door, and determines the departure or entry time of the descending robot and the riding robot according to the predetermined order of the robots and the specified time interval. The control command includes the robot identifier and its corresponding departure or entry time; The descending robot and the ascending robot determine whether the conditions for leaving or entering the car are met a certain amount of time before the departure or entry time, and perform the action of leaving or entering the car when the conditions are met. The judgment unit identifies the descending robot, which should have left the car at the departure or entry time, or the ascending robot, which should have entered the car at the departure or entry time, as a robot that has malfunctioned.

11. The control system according to claim 10, characterized in that, The conditions for leaving or entering the car include one or more of the following conditions: Condition 1: The movement path is blocked; Condition 2: Has the current time exceeded the robot's stated departure or entry time? Condition 3: The leveling error of the elevator car exceeds the threshold. Condition 4: The robot is in the correct state.

12. A control method for robots riding elevators, characterized in that, The control method uses the order in which the robot enters or leaves the elevator car at at least one designated floor as a type of encoded information. It determines whether the robot has encountered any abnormalities during the elevator ride by comparing the consistency between the predetermined encoded information corresponding to the control command and the actual encoded information corresponding to the robot's actual entry or exit from the elevator car.

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