Robot control system, hardware resource and robot

Abstract

The invention relates to a robot control system, a hardware resource and a robot. The control system comprises a plurality of robot control applications; a plurality of operating systems, on which at least one robot control application in the plurality of robot control applications is installed; and the virtualization layer comprises a resource allocation module, the resource allocation module is used for controlling a matching relationship between hardware resources and the operating systems, different operating systems are matched with different sub-resources which are mutually isolated in the hardware resources, and the operating systems run on the matched sub-resources. The system is more flexible and easy to expand, and the maximum matching of the control application between the operating system capabilities is ensured; the hardware support of the operating system can be adjusted, namely different quantities of hardware are selected to support the operating system; hardware isolation is achieved among different operating systems, the operation independence among the operating systems is guaranteed, and the stability and safety of the operating systems are improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the field of robot technology, and in particular to a robot control system, hardware resources, and a robot. Background Art

[0002] In recent years, the technology of robotics has been developing continuously, becoming more and more intelligent and automated, and the richness, stability and flexibility of actions have been improved to varying degrees. Robots can replace users in production and life to perform specific tasks, thus bringing convenience to users. Robots are equipped with a control system to control all their functions. In other words, the robot control system can determine the functional quality and intelligence of the robot. However, in the related art, the control system configured by the robot has poor operating quality. Summary of the invention

[0003] In order to overcome the problems existing in the related art, the embodiments of the present disclosure provide a robot control system, hardware resources, and a robot to solve the defects in the related art.

[0004] According to a first aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a robot control system, the system comprising:

[0005] Multiple robot control applications;

[0006] a plurality of operating systems, wherein at least one robot control application among the plurality of robot control applications is installed on the operating system;

[0007] The virtualization layer includes a resource allocation module, which is used to control the matching relationship between hardware resources and the operating system, wherein different operating systems are matched with different sub-resources isolated from each other in the hardware resources, and the operating system runs on the matching sub-resources.

[0008] In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the virtualization layer further includes a message communication module, and the message communication module is used to transmit communication data between the operating systems.

[0009] In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the virtualization layer also includes an IO access module, which is used to control the matching relationship between the interface of the hardware resource and the operating system, and the operating system is used to access the matching interface to interact with the peripheral device corresponding to the matching interface.

[0010] In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the multiple operating systems include at least one type of operating system:

[0011] a first operating system and a second operating system;

[0012] The example providing capability of the first operating system is better than that of the second operating system, and the response rate of the second operating system is higher than that of the first operating system.

[0013] In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the plurality of robot control applications include at least one of the following:

[0014] Application of perception algorithm, motion control algorithm, and voice interaction algorithm.

[0015] In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the perception algorithm application is installed on the first operating system; and / or,

[0016] The motion control algorithm application is installed on the second operating system; and / or,

[0017] The voice interaction algorithm application is installed on the first operating system or the second operating system.

[0018] In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the system where the perception algorithm is applied matches multiple sub-resources of the hardware resource; and / or,

[0019] The system where the motion control algorithm is applied matches a sub-resource of the hardware resource; and / or,

[0020] The system where the voice interaction algorithm is applied matches at least one sub-resource of the hardware resource; and / or,

[0021] The system where the voice interaction algorithm is applied matches the digital signal processor DSP of the hardware resources.

[0022] In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the hardware resource is in a multi-core form, wherein each core of the hardware resource constitutes a sub-resource of the hardware resource.

[0023] According to a second aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, a hardware resource is provided, on which runs a robot control system as described in any embodiment of the first aspect.

[0024] According to a second aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, a robot is provided, on which runs a robot control system as described in any embodiment of the first aspect; and / or the robot has hardware resources as described in any embodiment of the second aspect.

[0025] The technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure may have the following beneficial effects:

[0026] The robot control system provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure has control applications of multiple robots installed on multiple operating systems, and the virtualization layer of the control system can control the hardware resources matched by each operating system, and the hardware resources between different operating systems are isolated from each other. The system can support different types of control applications through different types of operating systems, which is more flexible and easy to expand, ensuring the maximum matching between the control application and the operating system capabilities, and can selectively start the operating system according to whether the application is running or not, that is, start the operating system matched by the application when it is running, and do not start the operating system matched by the application when it is not running; furthermore, the system can adjust the hardware support of the operating system, that is, select different numbers of hardware to support the operating system, and can allocate hardware to the operating system according to the application running conditions on the operating system (such as example requirements, etc.), which can not only ensure the running quality of the operating system and the applications installed thereon, but also avoid the waste of hardware resources and improve the utilization rate of hardware resources; finally, hardware isolation is realized between different operating systems in the system, ensuring the running independence between each operating system, thereby improving the stability and security of the operating system and the running applications installed thereon. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0027] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

[0028] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of a robot control system shown in an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] Exemplary embodiments will be described in detail herein, examples of which are shown in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the drawings, the same numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements unless otherwise indicated. The embodiments described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all embodiments consistent with the present disclosure. Instead, they are merely examples of devices and methods consistent with some aspects of the present disclosure as detailed in the appended claims.

[0030] The terms used in this disclosure are for the purpose of describing specific embodiments only and are not intended to limit the disclosure. The singular forms of "a", "said" and "the" used in this disclosure and the appended claims are also intended to include plural forms unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and / or" used herein refers to and includes any or all possible combinations of one or more associated listed items.

[0031] It should be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used in the present disclosure to describe various information, such information should not be limited to these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish the same type of information from each other. For example, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure, the first information may also be referred to as the second information, and similarly, the second information may also be referred to as the first information. Depending on the context, the word "if" as used herein may be interpreted as "at the time of" or "when" or "in response to determining".

[0032] In recent years, the technology of robotics has been continuously developing, becoming more and more intelligent and automated, and the richness, stability and flexibility of actions have been improved to varying degrees. Robots can perform specific tasks on behalf of users in their production and life, thereby bringing convenience to the users. The robot is equipped with a control system to control all its functions. In other words, the robot control system can determine the functional quality and intelligence of the robot. However, in the related art, the control system configured by the robot has poor operating quality. For example, the control system in the related art includes multiple hardware resources, each of which runs an operating system, and each system is connected through an external bus to realize data interaction, which makes the communication efficiency between the operating system and the applications installed on it low, and the matching between the operating system and the hardware resources in quantity and type is relatively fixed, and the flexibility is poor.

[0033] Based on this, at least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a robot control system, which is applied to a robot, specifically, can be applied to the robot's hardware resources, such as embedded hardware (chips), etc. The control system can run on the hardware resources to realize various functions of the robot.

[0034] Please refer to the attached Figure 1 , which exemplarily shows a structure of the control system. Figure 1 The structure of the system is described in detail. It can be understood that the system structure in the figure is only an example and does not limit the structure of the control system. The control system may include multiple robot control applications, multiple operating systems and virtualization layers. The following describes each of the above parts in detail.

[0035] Among them, the present disclosure has no restrictions on the types of multiple operating systems in the control system, and any operating system that can run on hardware resources and provide an installation and operating environment for robot control applications can be used. For example, the multiple operating systems may include at least one of the following types of operating systems: a first operating system and a second operating system; wherein the example providing capability of the first operating system is better than that of the second operating system, and the response rate of the second operating system is higher than that of the first operating system. For example, the first operating system may be an operating system kernel Linux; Linux is a recursive abbreviation of Linux Is Not UniX, generally referring to GNU / Linux, which is a set of Unix-like operating systems that are free to use and freely disseminated, and is a multi-user, multi-tasking, multi-threaded and multi-CPU operating system that complies with POSIX. For example, the first operating system may be a real-time operating system RTOS (Real Time Operating System); a real-time operating system (Real Time Operating System, referred to as RTOS) refers to an operating system that can accept and process external events or data at a sufficiently fast speed when they are generated, and the results of its processing can control the production process or respond quickly to the processing system within a specified time, dispatch all available resources to complete real-time tasks, and control all real-time tasks to run in a coordinated manner. Providing timely response and high reliability are its main features.

[0036] Among them, the present disclosure does not limit the types of multiple robot control applications in the control system, as long as they can be installed and run on a certain operating system and can realize certain functions of the robot. For example, the multiple robot control applications include at least one of the following: a perception algorithm application, a motion control algorithm application, and a voice interaction algorithm application. The perception algorithm application can perceive the visual information in the robot's environment, and send the processed visual information to the motion control algorithm application; the voice interaction algorithm application can collect the sound information in the robot's environment, and send the processed sound information to the motion control algorithm application. The sound information can be noise or voice commands input by the user; the motion control algorithm application can control the robot's movement in real time, for example, using the visual information uploaded by the perception algorithm or its processing results, the voice interaction algorithm or its processing results to control the robot's movement in real time.

[0037] Among them, at least one robot control application among the multiple robot control applications is installed on the operating system. That is, each of the multiple operating systems of the control system is installed with at least one robot control application. Preferably, one robot control application is installed on each operating system, so that the operating system and the robot control application have a one-to-one correspondence.

[0038] For example, the perception algorithm application can be installed on the first operating system. Taking the Linux system as an example, the first operating system has a strong ecology and balanced scheduling, which can meet the operating environment requirements of the perception algorithm application with high case requirements. Therefore, installing the perception algorithm application on the first operating system can ensure the efficient and stable operation of the perception algorithm application and improve the operating efficiency and accuracy of the algorithm.

[0039] For example, the motion control algorithm application is installed on the second operating system. Taking the RTOS system as an example, the second operating system has timely response and high reliability, and can meet the operating environment requirements of the motion control algorithm application with high real-time requirements.

[0040] For example, the voice interaction algorithm application is installed on the first operating system or the second operating system.

[0041] The virtualization layer may be implemented based on Type-1 Hypervisor technology. The virtualization layer may include a resource allocation module, a message communication module and an IO access module.

[0042] The resource allocation module is used to control the matching relationship between the hardware resources and the operating system, wherein different operating systems are matched with different sub-resources isolated from each other in the hardware resources, and the operating system runs on the matched sub-resources. The hardware resources are independent hardware resources, such as a chip. The hardware resources can be in the form of multiple cores, and each core of the hardware resources constitutes a sub-resource of the hardware resources; for example, the hardware resources can be a multi-core SOC (System on Chip), a multi-core ARM (Advanced RISC Machines) processor chip, etc.

[0043] For example, the system where the perception algorithm is applied can match multiple sub-resources of the hardware resources. The perception algorithm application has high requirements for examples and needs to integrate open source algorithms and match them with as many sub-resources as possible to ensure its efficient, stable and accurate operation.

[0044] For example, the system where the motion control algorithm is applied matches a sub-resource of the hardware resource. The motion control algorithm has high real-time requirements, and it is matched with a sub-resource to avoid reducing its real-time performance due to communication between sub-resources when running on multiple sub-resources.

[0045] For example, the system where the voice interaction algorithm is applied matches at least one sub-resource of the hardware resource.

[0046] For example, the system where the voice interaction algorithm is applied is matched with the digital signal processor DSP of the hardware resource. The DSP is composed of at least one sub-resource of the hardware resource, which can efficiently and accurately process digital signals such as images and audio. The voice interaction algorithm application running on the DSP can achieve higher efficiency and accuracy.

[0047] The message communication module is used to transmit communication data between the operating systems. For example, communication between operating systems is realized by using a content-based communication method. The communication efficiency between different operating systems running on the same hardware resources is high, which greatly reduces the communication delay and ensures the timeliness of communication; the time synchronization method between operating systems is also easy to implement.

[0048] The IO access module is used to control the matching relationship between the interface of the hardware resource and the operating system, and the operating system is used to access the matching interface to interact with the peripheral device corresponding to the matching interface.

[0049] In the robot control system provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, the control applications of multiple robots are installed on multiple operating systems, and the virtualization layer of the control system can control the hardware resources matched by each operating system, and the hardware resources between different operating systems are isolated from each other. The system can support different types of control applications through different types of operating systems, which is more flexible and easy to expand, ensuring the maximum matching between the control application and the operating system capabilities, and can selectively start the operating system according to whether the application is running or not, that is, start the operating system matched by the application when it is running, and do not start the operating system matched by the application when it is not running; furthermore, the system can adjust the hardware support of the operating system, that is, select different numbers of hardware to support the operating system, and can allocate hardware to the operating system according to the application running conditions on the operating system (such as example requirements, etc.), which can not only ensure the running quality of the operating system and the applications installed thereon, but also avoid the waste of hardware resources and improve the utilization rate of hardware resources; finally, the operating system in the system has independent access rights to its matching hardware sub-resources, and hardware isolation is achieved between different operating systems, ensuring the running independence between each operating system, thereby improving the stability and security of the operating system and the running applications installed thereon.

[0050] The robot control system provided by the present disclosure allows upper-layer applications to flexibly select the type of operating system and the number of operating systems to be run according to business needs. The hardware resource isolation function and efficient inter-system communication mechanism provided by the virtualization layer ensure the independence of upper-layer business operations and the effectiveness of inter-business communication.

[0051] According to a second aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, a hardware resource is provided, on which runs a robot control system as described in any embodiment of the first aspect.

[0052] Exemplarily, the hardware resource is an independent hardware resource, such as a chip. The hardware resource may be in the form of multiple cores, and each core of the hardware resource constitutes a sub-resource of the hardware resource; for example, the hardware resource may be a multi-core SOC (System on Chip), a multi-core ARM (Advanced RISC Machines) processor chip, etc.

[0053] According to a third aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, a robot is provided, on which runs a robot control system as described in any embodiment of the first aspect; and / or the robot has hardware resources as described in any embodiment of the second aspect.

[0054] Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate other embodiments of the present disclosure after considering the specification and practicing the disclosure disclosed herein. The present disclosure is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the present disclosure that follow the general principles of the present disclosure and include common knowledge or customary techniques in the art that are not disclosed in the present disclosure. The description and examples are to be considered exemplary only, and the true scope and spirit of the present disclosure are indicated by the following claims.

[0055] It should be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the exact structures that have been described above and shown in the drawings, and that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope thereof. The scope of the present disclosure is limited only by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A robot control system, characterized in that: The control system comprises: Multiple robot control applications; a plurality of operating systems, wherein at least one robot control application among the plurality of robot control applications is installed on the operating system; The virtualization layer includes a resource allocation module, which is used to control the matching relationship between hardware resources and the operating system, wherein different operating systems are matched with different sub-resources isolated from each other in the hardware resources, and the operating system runs on the matching sub-resources.

2. The robot control system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The virtualization layer also includes a message communication module, and the message communication module is used to transmit communication data between the operating systems.

3. The robot control system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The virtualization layer also includes an IO access module, which is used to control the matching relationship between the interface of the hardware resource and the operating system. The operating system is used to access the matching interface to interact with the peripheral device corresponding to the matching interface.

4. The robot control system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The multiple operating systems include at least one type of operating system: a first operating system and a second operating system; The example providing capability of the first operating system is better than that of the second operating system, and the response rate of the second operating system is higher than that of the first operating system.

5. The robot control system according to claim 4, characterized in that: The plurality of robot control applications include at least one of the following: Application of perception algorithm, motion control algorithm, and voice interaction algorithm.

6. The robot control system according to claim 5, characterized in that: The perception algorithm application is installed on the first operating system; and / or, The motion control algorithm application is installed on the second operating system; and / or, The voice interaction algorithm application is installed on the first operating system or the second operating system.

7. The robot control system according to claim 5, characterized in that: The system where the perception algorithm is applied matches multiple sub-resources of the hardware resource; and / or, The system where the motion control algorithm is applied matches a sub-resource of the hardware resource; and / or, The system where the voice interaction algorithm is applied matches at least one sub-resource of the hardware resource; and / or, The system where the voice interaction algorithm is applied matches the digital signal processor DSP of the hardware resources.

8. The robot control system according to claim 5, characterized in that: The hardware resource is in a multi-core form, wherein each core of the hardware resource constitutes a sub-resource of the hardware resource.

9. A hardware resource, characterized in that: A robot control system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 runs on the hardware resources.

10. A robot, characterized in that: The robot runs a robot control system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8; and / or the robot has the hardware resources as claimed in claim 9.

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