Connection guidance control for industrial systems

Abstract

A method of controlling an industrial system (100), the industrial system includes a material handling subsystem (110) operable at a variable characteristic speed, an industrial robot (120) configured to cooperate with the material handling subsystem (110), at least one sensor (130) configured to capture at least one operating state of the industrial system, and a wireless interface (140) configured to maintain a wireless communication link (141) to a remote processor (190). The method comprises: operating the industrial system while communicating with a remote processor (190) over a wireless communication link (141), including transmitting a sensor signal (S) from at least one sensor (130) and receiving a control signal (C) designated for the industrial robot (120); monitoring performance of the wireless communication link (141); and controlling the characteristic speed of the material handling subsystem on the basis of the monitored performance.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the field of factory automation and proposes a method and a device for controlling an industrial system consisting of a plurality of cooperating subsystems, wherein the control is performed at least partially via a wireless connection. Background Art

[0002] According to the latest trends in factory automation, more and more equipment will be controlled and monitored via wireless links rather than wired connections. The use of wireless communication makes it easier to replace and reconfigure equipment in an existing factory environment, it obviously avoids the cost of installing and maintaining wiring, and it can also be a decisive enabler for connecting dense clusters of or otherwise inaccessible equipment in a factory. Wireless control of mobile automation equipment (such as mobile robots or automated guided vehicles AGVs) is also advantageous because the necessary computing power can be provided by a remote processor (e.g., cloud processing resources) rather than an on-board processor, which may consume a large amount of energy from the battery of the mobile automation equipment.

[0003] However, wireless links are inherently more susceptible to interference than wired connections, including atmospheric and meteorological conditions, radio interference, and the presence of absorbing or reflecting objects near the communication path. These factors limit the transmission capacity of the wireless link and, in the worst case, can cause the wireless link to be disrupted. When wired links between mobile communicating parties are extended, especially in a constantly changing environment such as a factory, interference is difficult to predict and cope with. The delivered transmission capacity of a wireless link may also vary significantly with the current network load, the distance to the base station, and scheduling decisions in the network.

[0004] US20210094177A1 discloses a method for controlling a mobile robotic device to communicate with a cloud platform via a radio link. The quality of the radio link is calculated or estimated. On this basis, the method evaluates whether the radio link to the cloud platform can meet "communication requirements", such as sufficiently low latency or low delay. If it is expected that the radio link will no longer meet the communication requirements, the speed of the mobile robotic device can be reduced to remain in an area with good network coverage, or it can be rerouted from its originally planned path. This is expected to reduce the possibility of failure.

[0005] In other words, US20210094177A1 discloses methods for avoiding poor coverage, but does not address situations where network coverage has already degraded. The applicability of these teachings is also limited to situations where it is acceptable for a mobile robotic device to arrive at its destination with significant delays and / or deviate from its planned path. It is desirable to find methods for handling variations in radio link quality without sacrificing productivity. Summary of the invention

[0006] An object of the present disclosure is to provide a method that enables partial wireless control of an industrial system having multiple cooperating subsystems, which method is more robust to variations in the performance of the wireless link. The method should be more robust in this respect in cases where the likelihood of production failures is reduced and / or a certain degree of productivity is more likely to be maintained by temporarily reducing the performance of the wireless link. Another object is to provide such a method that is applicable when the wireless link is used to control one of the subsystems (e.g., an industrial robot) from a remote processor while another subsystem is directly controlled. Another object is to propose a method that is applicable in cases where the wireless link further transmits sensor signals to the remote processor.

[0007] At least some of these objects are achieved by the invention as defined in the independent claims.The dependent claims relate to advantageous embodiments.

[0008] In a first aspect of the invention, a method for controlling an industrial system is provided. The industrial system includes: a material handling subsystem operable at a variable characteristic speed, at least one industrial robot configured to cooperate with the material handling subsystem, at least one sensor configured to capture at least one operating state of the industrial system, and a wireless interface configured to maintain a wireless communication link to a remote processor. According to the method, the industrial system is operated while communicating with the remote processor via the wireless communication link, including transmitting sensor signals from the at least one sensor and receiving control signals designated for the industrial robot. During operation, the performance of the wireless communication link is monitored, and the characteristic speed of the material handling subsystem is controlled based on the monitored performance of the communication link.

[0009] As described in the first aspect of the invention, by controlling the characteristic speed of the material handling subsystem, the negative effects of a degradation in wireless link performance can be mitigated. In particular, the characteristic speed of the material handling subsystem can be temporarily reduced until the wireless link performance is restored. Thanks to the speed regulation, it is possible to temporarily reduce the difficulty of the industrial robot control task (thereby reducing the risk of failure). The difficulty can be quantified, for example in terms of: the maximum allowable delay between an event captured by (multiple) sensors and the corresponding reaction of the industrial robot, the number of movements per unit time of the robot in a stable state, or the expected cost of an erroneous robot movement (e.g., the number of workpieces to be discarded). The significant robustness improvements achieved by the present invention can make wireless control an attractive option for a larger set of use cases.

[0010] In some embodiments, the material handling subsystem includes a conveyor. In some embodiments, the material handling subsystem includes one or more mobile robots or one or more automated guided vehicles (AGVs).

[0011] In a second aspect of the present invention, a processor is provided, the processor being configured to be communicatively connected to an industrial system and to execute the above method.

[0012] In a third aspect, an industrial system is provided, which, in addition to the processor, includes: a material handling subsystem operable at a variable characteristic speed; an industrial robot configured to collaborate with the material handling subsystem; at least one sensor configured to capture at least one operating state of the industrial system; and a wireless interface configured to maintain a wireless communication link to a remote processor.

[0013] The second and third aspects of the present invention generally share the effects and advantages of the first aspect, and they can be achieved through corresponding degrees of technical changes.

[0014] The invention also relates to a computer program comprising instructions for causing a computer (or in particular a processor configured to be communicatively connected to an industrial system) to perform the above method. The computer program may be stored or distributed on a data carrier. As used herein, a "data carrier" may be a transient data carrier, such as a modulated electromagnetic or light wave, or a non-transient data carrier. Non-transient data carriers include volatile and non-volatile memories, such as permanent and non-permanent storage media of the magnetic, optical or solid-state type. Still within the scope of a "data carrier", such a memory may be fixedly mounted or portable.

[0015] In the present disclosure, it should be understood that a material handling system may have components that move at different speeds. Speed ​​in this sense may include linear speed, angular velocity, number of working cycles per unit time, etc. Pairs or groups of components may move in a mutually synchronized manner, for example due to mechanical gears, electronic triggers or complex logic circuits. A "characteristic speed" in the sense of the claims is a representative speed from which another speed of at least the main components can be derived. In this sense, the main component may be a conveyor with equally spaced compartments that supplies workpieces for processing by an industrial robot, since a higher supply speed will make the robot more susceptible to faults and delays in the control loop. The intended effect of the present invention can be achieved even if the material handling system includes components (non-main components) that are not affected by changes in the characteristic speed or are only indirectly affected by changes in the characteristic speed, such as cooling fans.

[0016] In general, all terms used in the claims should be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the technical field, unless otherwise explicitly defined in this application. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, all references to "a / an / the element, device, component, means, step, etc." should be publicly interpreted as referring to at least one instance of the element, device, component, means, step, etc. Unless explicitly stated, the steps of any method disclosed in this protocol do not need to be performed in the exact order described. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] Various aspects and embodiments will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 An industrial system having a plurality of subsystems is shown, including a material handling subsystem and a remotely controlled industrial robot cooperating with the material handling subsystem;

[0018] Figure 2 is a flow chart of a control method according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

[0019] Figure 3 A pick-and-place robot is described that receives items from a container carried by an automated guided vehicle (AVG), which container forms an upstream portion of a material handling subsystem, wherein the robot is configured to place the items in a box traveling on a conveyor, which forms a downstream portion of the material handling subsystem. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0020] Various aspects of the present disclosure will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which certain embodiments of the present invention are shown. However, these aspects may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limiting; rather, these embodiments are provided by way of example so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and fully convey the scope of all aspects of the present invention to those skilled in the art.

[0021] Figure 1 An industrial system 100 consisting of multiple subsystems, sensors 130, and wireless interfaces 140 is shown. Each subsystem can be a sensor system, an actuator system, or a combination of an actuator and a sensor. The subsystem includes at least a material handling subsystem 110 and an industrial robot 120 that cooperates with the material handling subsystem 110. In operation, the components of the material handling subsystem 110 move at the same or different speeds. At each point in time, the speed (s) of at least the main components of the material handling subsystem 110 can be summarized or collectively described with respect to a characteristic speed, as described in the previous part of this disclosure. In addition, it is assumed that the characteristic speed can vary. A change in the characteristic speed may mean that the speeds of other components change at the same time, and these changes can be related by a constant proportional factor.

[0022] like Figure 3As shown, the material handling subsystem 110 may have an upstream part 112 and a downstream part 111. In principle, such an upstream part 112 is responsible for feeding the workpieces into a working area 123, where the workpieces will be processed by a robotic manipulator 121 of an industrial robot 120. As used herein, "robotic manipulator" may refer to all components of an industrial robot except the robot controller, such as an AGV, a fixed robot arm, a mobile robot with an arm. Processing may include picking, placing, flipping, packaging, inspecting, processing, cutting, painting, etc. The downstream part 111 is in principle responsible for transporting the processed workpieces out of the working area 123. Figure 3 In the example shown, a pick-and-place robot 121 receives items from a container carried by an AGV 112 (the upstream portion of the material handling subsystem 110) and is configured to place the items into a box traveling on a conveyor 111 (the downstream portion of the material handling subsystem 110). One possible control strategy is to send a constant set point number of loading AGVs into the work area 123 per unit time, and have each AGV stay in the work area 123 for a predetermined time, during which time an item will be picked up. Although the AGVs may have interactive functions, such as collision avoidance based on local sensors, the control strategy is essentially open-loop. Note that the characteristic speed of the upstream portion of the material handling subsystem 110 determines the minimum number of work cycles per unit time of the industrial robot 120, otherwise there will be an overflow of incoming workpieces to be processed. Similarly, the characteristic speed of the downstream portion of the material handling subsystem 110 determines the maximum number of work cycles per unit time of the industrial robot 120; exceeding this number may mean that processed workpieces accumulate in the work area 123, which means that there is a lack of sufficient capacity to transport the workpieces away.

[0023] continue Figure 1 As described above, the industrial robot 120 is controlled by a remote processor 190 via a wireless communication link 141, which has a wireless interface 140 and a processor-side wireless interface 191 as its endpoints. It should be understood that the wireless communication link 141 can operate as a communication protocol stack from the physical layer through various intermediate layers to the application layer. For example, the intermediate layer may include a data link layer, a network layer, and a transport layer, such as in the OSI model. The endpoints of the upper layer may be wider than the wireless interfaces 140, 191 themselves; for example, the application layer endpoints may be a software process executed in the industrial robot 120 and a software process executed in the remote processor 190.

[0024] The processor 190 is "remote" relative to the industrial robot 120, i.e., it is not a component of the industrial robot 120 and / or it communicates with the industrial robot 120 via a wireless communication link 141 (rather than, for example, via an internal bus or a local data network). Optionally, the remote processor 190 can also be located at a considerable physical distance from the industrial robot 120. Other subsystems of the industrial system 100 (including the material handling subsystem 110) can be monitored or controlled by other processors 150, which can be included in the industrial system 100 or located outside the industrial system 100. The other subsystems of the industrial system 100 can be connected to the processor 150 via a wired data network or a dedicated cable, or they can be controlled by a wireless link similar to the wireless link of the industrial robot 120. In other words, the material handling subsystem 110 and the industrial robot 120 are controlled by two independent processors. In a typical configuration, the industrial robot 120 is controlled according to the current operating state of the material handling subsystem 110 (e.g., mechanical settings, load carried), while the material handling subsystem 110 operates autonomously. In other words, the material handling subsystem 110 operates in an open loop manner, and the industrial robot 120 is controlled according to its operating state. Since the operating state of the material handling subsystem 110 is somewhat uncertain, especially with respect to the number and position of the workpieces carried, successful control of the industrial robot 120 requires a fast reaction, which in turn may require accurate information about the operating state. The sensor 130 is arranged to capture such operating state.

[0025] Over the wireless link 141, sensor signals S indicative of the operating state of the industrial system 100 are transmitted to the remote processor 190, and control signals C destined for the industrial robot 120 are transmitted to the wireless interface 140. The exact manner in which the remote processor 190 generates the control signals C is not important to the invention; for example, the remote processor 190 may be executing a PickMaster 3D printer sold by the applicant. TM Software version. It should be understood that the remote processor 190 is configured to provide a high-level control signal C, and the robot controller 122 is configured to generate machine-level signals to the actuators in the robot manipulator 121 based on and according to the control signal C. The robot controller 122 may be further equipped with power electronics for generating electrical drive signals suitable for these actuators, such as modulated alternating current (AC) signals. If the industrial robot 120 is a mobile robot or an AGV, the robot controller 122 is typically integrated in the robot manipulator 121.

[0026] In some embodiments, the wireless interface 140 is an autonomous component of the industrial system 100, wherein a (wireless) data connection is provided from the wireless interface 140 to the industrial robot 120. In other embodiments, the wireless interface 140 is carried by the industrial robot 120 or integrated in the industrial robot 120. This is particularly useful if the industrial robot 120 is a mobile robot or an AGV. The wireless interface 140 can be configured to establish a wireless link 141 directly to the processor-side wireless interface 191, or the wireless link 141 can be supported by a network infrastructure 142. The network infrastructure 142 can be a cellular network (e.g., a 3GPP NR network or a "5G" network) or a non-cellular network. As is well known to those skilled in the art, an uplink / downlink pair each relies on two parties communicating through a cellular network, each uplink / downlink pair extends from the user equipment (UE) of the corresponding party to a base station (BS) in the radio access network (RAM) of the cellular network, and the communicated data will be routed between base stations through the RAN and / or through the core network. Therefore, the wireless link 141 will be composed of multiple segments including the network infrastructure 142. For simplicity, the wireless link 141 is Figure 1 191. Similarly, in non-cellular networks such as IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi TM ) network), two communicating mobile stations (MS) can be connected to a common access point (AP), but each is connected to the AP through a corresponding uplink / downlink pair.

[0027] On the remote processor 190 side, the wireless interface 191 can be collocated with the remote processor 190. Specifically, the wireless interface 191 can be a component thereof, such as a UE subscriber module and associated hardware. Note that two UEs in a cellular network do not communicate directly, but rather communicate via the RAN. Alternatively, the wireless interface 191 may belong to a network infrastructure that is not dedicated to the remote processor 190. For example, if the remote processor 190 is directly connected to a host in the core network, the second option is applicable, in which case the uplink / downlink pair between the wireless module 140 and the BS will be the only wireless segment of the data connection between the wireless module and the remote processor 190. In either case, the position of the remote processor 190 relative to the industrial robot 120 can be selected within a wide range according to the implementer's expectations without significantly affecting the performance and characteristics of the wireless link 141.

[0028] exist Figure 1In the example shown, the material handling subsystem 110 is shown as a conveyor arranged to transport workpieces. The characteristic speed of the conveyor can be considered to be the linear speed of the upper surface of the conveyor belt. If the conveyor belt is driven by an electric motor, there is usually a stable linear relationship between the angular speed of the motor and the linear speed of the conveyor belt, as defined by the gear ratio, cylinder radius, etc. By speeding up or slowing down the electric motor by an equal percentage, the speed of the conveyor belt can be increased or decreased by a desired percentage.

[0029] As a comparison, Figure 3 The characteristic speed of the AGV 112 shown in can be considered as a set point number of loading AGVs that arrive in the work area 123 per unit time. Compared with a typical conveyor, AGVs can provide a more flexible solution because the flow rate can be locally changed by controlling a single AGV. In a conveyor solution, if the speed of the conveyor changes, the entire process will be affected. In the present disclosure, the characteristic speed can be controlled by sending commands to a single AGV or a subgroup of AGVs out of the total number.

[0030] exist Figure 1 In the example of , the industrial robot 120 consists of a multi-axis robot manipulator 121 and a robot controller 122 connected thereto by a wired communication link (solid line). The robot manipulator 121 may carry a tool or an end effector. The industrial robot 120 is configured to cooperate with the conveyor by picking up the workpiece from the conveyor when the workpiece enters the working area of ​​the robot manipulator 121. A successful picking operation must not include mechanical damage or falling of the workpiece due to incorrect gripping, and the picking must be performed in time before the workpiece leaves the working area or falls from the far end of the conveyor. Therefore, timely and accurate position information is usually required in order to successfully pick up the workpiece. To this end, a sensor 130 in the form of an imaging device is arranged to monitor the conveyor and the workpiece currently traveling on the conveyor. The imaging device may be, for example, a static or video camera, a three-dimensional (3D) camera, a laser radar, or a color depth camera (such as RGB-D). A very simple implementation is to implement the imaging device as a line sensor or photoelectric element capable of displaying the presence of an object in its field of view.

[0031] Now that the general configuration of the present disclosure has been described, reference will be made to Figure 2 A method 200 of controlling an industrial system 110 is described. The method 200 may be performed by any programmable processor. In particular, it may be performed by a remote processor 190, another processor 150 controlling a material handling subsystem 110, or another processor.

[0032] In a first step 201 of the method 200, the industrial system 100 operates while communicating with the remote processor 190 via the wireless communication link 141. As described above, the wireless communication link 141 transmits sensor signals S from the sensor(s) 130 and control signals C destined for the industrial robot 120 (or more specifically, for the robot controller 122 of the industrial robot 120).

[0033] In a second step 202, the performance of the wireless communication link 141 is monitored. This monitoring 202 may be performed in parallel with step 201, i.e., performed throughout its duration, or overlapped in time with step 201. Monitoring 202 may be a continuous or quasi-continuous process. Alternatively, monitoring 202 may be performed at discrete time points in a periodic or event-triggered manner.

[0034] The monitoring 202 of the wireless communication link 141 can be performed in a variety of different ways. One option is to perform direct radio measurements on the wireless communication link 141. The radio measurements can be performed using a receiver configured to receive electromagnetic waves. The radio measurements can be directed to the transmission of a part of the wireless communication link 141 in operation. Alternatively, the radio measurements can be designed to capture the characteristics of the radio environment in which the wireless communication link 141 is located, wherein the measurements can be directed to a reference signal or a pilot signal transmitted for this purpose. The quantities captured or estimated by the radio measurements can, for example, include the following: received signal strength, signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-noise-interference ratio (SNIR), delay spread, MIMO transmission level. These quantities can indicate the maximum data transmission capacity of the wireless link 141, or the possibility of interference occurrence, or both.

[0035] A second option for monitoring 202 the wireless communication link 141 is to perform measurements on the application layer of the wireless link 141. The measurements may include monitoring the transmission and arrival times of messages carrying sensor data S and control data C on the wireless link 141, or monitoring such transmission and arrival times of dedicated test messages. This allows estimating delay, latency, jitter, other timing related quantities and packet loss indicators. Application layer measurements do not require access to the radio receiver.

[0036] When the network infrastructure 142 supports the wireless link 141, a third option for monitoring 202 the wireless communication link 141 may be implemented. According to the third option, at least one lower layer performance indicator is obtained from the network infrastructure 142. The performance indicator may be one of the physical layer quantities directly measured according to the first option (e.g., received signal strength, SIR, SNR, SNIR, delay spread, MIMO transmission level), but may also be a higher layer indicator such as jitter, delay, packet error rate, or packet loss rate. The performance indicator may be obtained by requesting from a node in the network infrastructure 142 or by obtaining access to operating parameters of the network infrastructure 142 at runtime. For example, the network infrastructure 142 may include a publish / subscribe (PubSub) service configured to expose operating parameters. If the network infrastructure 142 belongs to a cellular network, the PubSub service may comply with the Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard or the Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) PubSub protocol, or alternatively comply with the specification of the Network Exposure Function (NEF) northbound interface for 3GPP NR. An advantage of using a PubSub arrangement is that method 200 may be performed without access to low-level information related to the state of network infrastructure 142 .

[0037] In a third step 203 of method 200, a characteristic speed of material handling subsystem 110 is controlled on the basis of the monitored performance of wireless link 141. In principle, when the performance of wireless link 141 is poor, the characteristic speed will decrease and vice versa.

[0038] In one embodiment, the control is performed based on a predefined lookup table that associates different levels of radio link performance with corresponding characteristic speed values. The radio link performance may, for example, be represented as one or more numerical quantities, and the values ​​of these quantities may be associated with predetermined ranges or intervals, each having a corresponding characteristic speed value.

[0039] In a second embodiment, control is based on a predefined threshold performance. Initially, the material handling subsystem 110 operates at a default value for the characteristic speed 201.1, and the monitored performance of the wireless communication link 141 is compared to the predefined threshold performance 203.1. If the monitored performance is below the predefined performance threshold, the material handling subsystem 110 operates at a reduced characteristic speed value 203.2. The reduced value may be a predefined percentage below the default value, such as below 25% or 50%. Once the monitored performance of the wireless communication link 141 rises above the performance threshold again, the characteristic speed may be restored to the default value.

[0040] In the optional sub-step 203.3 of the second embodiment, the finding that the monitored performance is below a predefined performance threshold further triggers a change in the settings of the industrial robot 120. More precisely, the working cycle of the industrial robot 120 is limited. If the material handling subsystem 110 is located on the upstream side, a slowdown of the industrial robot 120 may be inherent, in fact because the industrial robot 120 will run out of workpieces to be processed when the characteristic speed is reduced. Even a slowdown of the downstream part of the material handling subsystem 110 may have a similar effect, because the ability to deposit processed workpieces may become a bottleneck for the industrial robot 120. In any case, especially if the dependence of the industrial robot 120 on the material handling subsystem 110 is not direct, it may make sense to include the optional step 203.3. For example, it may make the operation smoother and more reliable.

[0041] Aspects of the disclosure have been described above mainly with reference to a few embodiments. However, as readily appreciated by a person skilled in the art, other embodiments than the ones disclosed above are equally possible within the scope of the invention, as defined by the appended patent claims.

Claims

1. A method (200) for controlling an industrial system (100), the industrial system comprising: A material handling subsystem (110) capable of operating at a variable characteristic speed, an industrial robot (120) configured to cooperate with the material handling subsystem (110), at least one sensor (130) configured to capture at least one operating state of the industrial system, and a wireless interface (140) configured to maintain a wireless communication link (141) to a remote processor (190), The method (200) comprises: operating (201) the industrial system while communicating with the remote processor (190) via the wireless communication link (141), including transmitting sensor signals (S) from the at least one sensor (130) and receiving control signals (C) designated for the industrial robot (120); monitoring (202) performance of the wireless communication link (141); and The characteristic speed of the material handling subsystem is controlled (203) based on the monitored performance.

2. The method (200) of claim 1, wherein: The operation (201) of the industrial system includes: - initially operating (201.1) the material handling subsystem (110) at a default value of the characteristic speed, The control (203) includes: - comparing said monitored performance to a predefined threshold performance (203.1); and - In response to the monitored performance falling below the predefined performance threshold, operating (203.2) the material handling subsystem (110) at a reduced value of the characteristic speed.

3. The method (200) of claim 2, wherein the controlling (203) further comprises: In response to the monitored performance falling below the predefined performance threshold, limiting (203.3) the work rhythm of the industrial robot (120).

4. The method (200) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein: The wireless communication link (141) is supported by a network infrastructure (142), and The monitoring (202) of the performance includes obtaining lower layer performance indicators from the network infrastructure (142).

5. The method (200) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said monitoring (202) said performance comprises performing radio measurements on said wireless communication link (141).

6. The method (200) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said monitoring (202) said performance comprises performing measurements on an application layer of said wireless communication link (141).

7. The method (200) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the material handling subsystem (110) is arranged at least upstream of the industrial robot (120).

8. The method (200) of claim 7, wherein the characteristic speed of the material handling subsystem (110) determines a minimum number of duty cycles per unit time of the industrial robot (120).

9. The method (200) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the material handling subsystem (110) is arranged at least downstream of the industrial robot (120).

10. The method (200) of claim 9, wherein the characteristic speed of the material handling subsystem (110) determines a maximum number of working cycles per unit time of the industrial robot (120).

11. The method (200) of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the industrial robot (120) is a pick-and-place robot configured to pick up items from the material handling subsystem (110) and / or place items onto the material handling subsystem (110).

12. The method (200) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the at least one sensor (130) comprises an imaging device (131).

13. The method (200) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the wireless interface (140) is comprised in the industrial robot (120).

14. The method (200) of any preceding claim, performed by the remote processor (190).

15. The method (200) of any one of claims 1 to 13, performed by a processor (150) separate from the remote processor (190).

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