A timing dynamic scheduling method for multi-carrier plate grabbing in an unloading link of an electroplating production line
By prioritizing and shortest path planning in the electroplating production line, combined with time and space interference detection, a dynamic scheduling instruction set for the robotic arm is generated. This solves the problem of the disconnect between the robotic arm's grasping sequence and unloading position allocation, enabling efficient and seamless transfer of multiple plates and improving overall production efficiency.
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Patents(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- FARSONICS ELECTRONICS TECH (KUNSHAN) CO LTD
- Filing Date
- 2026-05-15
- Publication Date
- 2026-07-21
AI Technical Summary
In the unloading process of existing electroplating production lines, the gripping sequence of robotic arms and the allocation of unloading positions are disconnected, resulting in frequent waiting of multiple plates, robotic arms running idly or colliding, and excessively long plate dwell time, which reduces the overall production efficiency of the line.
By prioritizing, shortest path planning, time and space interference detection, and unloading position optimization, a dynamic scheduling instruction set for the robotic arm is generated to ensure the coordinated matching of the grasping order and unloading position, achieving seamless connection and efficient flow.
It improves the overall operating efficiency of the electroplating production line, reduces the idle running and waiting time of the robotic arm, optimizes the utilization of space resources, avoids time overlap and spatial interference, and improves equipment utilization.
Smart Images

Figure CN122186722B_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] This invention relates to the field of electroplating manufacturing technology, and in particular to a method for dynamic scheduling of multi-carrier plate grabbing sequence in the unloading stage of an electroplating production line. Background Technology
[0002] In the electroplating manufacturing industry, electroplating production lines are core equipment for improving the corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and surface quality of metal parts. Their operating efficiency directly determines a company's production capacity and cost control capabilities. With the popularization of automation technology, multi-carrier (also known as flybars or racks) collaborative operation has become the standard production mode. This means that multiple carriers move simultaneously between different process tanks, sequentially completing the entire process of degreasing, pickling, electroplating, passivation, and unloading. In this mode, the unloading process becomes a key bottleneck affecting the overall line cycle time: multiple carriers complete electroplating almost simultaneously and are transported to the unloading station. The robotic arm needs to sequentially grab each carrier and place it in a designated unloading position (such as a buffer rack, transfer trolley, or the entrance to the next process).
[0003] However, most existing scheduling methods focus on the allocation of process slots or the macro-planning of crane movement paths, lacking refined management of the joint optimization of the robotic arm's gripping sequence and unloading position in the unloading process. Some production lines attempt to use first-come, first-served or fixed priority rules to determine the gripping sequence, while allocating unloading positions according to fixed slots. These methods can maintain operation when the number of carriers is small and the cycle time is relaxed, but when multiple carriers arrive densely, the robotic arm often experiences frequent empty runs or waiting due to unreasonable gripping sequences. At the same time, improper allocation of unloading positions leads to the need for secondary handling or long-term retention of carriers after placement, preventing them from quickly flowing to the next process. The above problems do not stem from the insufficient performance of a single piece of equipment, but from the fact that existing solutions have not established a dynamic matching relationship between "when to grip which carrier" and "where to place it after gripping," causing the robotic arm's action sequence and space resource utilization to be disconnected, ultimately resulting in decreased overall production efficiency and low equipment utilization. Summary of the Invention
[0004] Therefore, the technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to overcome the defects in the prior art, which are caused by the disconnect between the robotic arm's gripping sequence and the allocation of the unloading position, resulting in frequent waiting of multiple loaders during the unloading process, robotic arm idling or collisions, and excessively long loader dwell time, thus reducing the overall production efficiency of the production line. The present invention provides a dynamic scheduling method for the gripping sequence of multiple loaders during the unloading process of an electroplating production line. This method can determine a conflict-free gripping sequence through priority sorting and shortest path planning, and coordinate the gripping sequence with the unloading position to generate a unified instruction set. This enables seamless connection and efficient flow of multiple loaders during the unloading process, reduces the robotic arm's idling and waiting time, and reduces the risk of loader dwell time, thereby improving the overall operating efficiency of the electroplating production line without increasing hardware costs.
[0005] To address the aforementioned technical problems, this invention provides a method for dynamic scheduling of multi-carrier plate gripping sequence in the unloading stage of an electroplating production line, comprising the following steps: Based on the expected time for the carrier to complete electroplating, the multiple carriers waiting to be unloaded are prioritized and an initial grabbing priority list is generated. Based on the initial grasping priority list and the relative positional relationship between the robotic arm and each carrier plate, the shortest path priority rule is adopted to plan the conflict-free grasping order of the robotic arm to grasp each carrier plate in sequence, and the optimized grasping timing sequence is obtained. Based on the optimized grasping timing sequence, combined with the single grasping action time and movement time of the robotic arm, it is determined whether there is time overlap or spatial interference of grasping actions of adjacent carrier plates. If so, the order of the corresponding carrier plates in the optimized grasping timing sequence is adjusted until a conflict-free grasping timing sequence is obtained. Obtain the status information of each unloading position, including the occupancy indicator and the distance from the next process entry. Based on the execution grasping sequence, assign an initial unloading position to each carrier plate, so that the robotic arm can place the carrier plate with the shortest movement distance after grasping the carrier plate, and generate an unloading position mapping table. The execution timing sequence is matched with the location information in the unloading location mapping table to establish a one-to-one correspondence between "carrier board - grab time - unloading location" and generate the execution instruction sequence of the robotic arm, which serves as a complete scheduling instruction set to complete the unloading task of the current batch.
[0006] In one embodiment of the present invention, multiple carrier plates awaiting unloading are prioritized based on the expected time for the carrier plates to complete electroplating, specifically as follows: Obtain the start time of each carrier board entering the electroplating process and the preset electroplating process duration. Calculate the estimated completion time of electroplating for each carrier board. Use the difference between the estimated completion time and the current time as the remaining time. Sort the carrier boards in ascending order of remaining time, with the smaller the remaining time, the higher the priority. Generate an initial crawling priority list.
[0007] In one embodiment of the present invention, the shortest path first rule is used to plan the conflict-free grasping order of the robotic arm to grasp each carrier plate sequentially, including: Starting from the current position of the robotic arm, select the highest priority carrier plate from the initial grasping priority list as the target carrier plate, and calculate the moving distance of the robotic arm from the current position to the grasping point of the target carrier plate; If there are multiple carriers with the same priority, the carrier with the shortest moving distance will be selected as the first grab target. After completing the first grasping target, the position after the robotic arm places the carrier plate is used as the new starting point. Among the remaining carrier plates, the next grasping target is selected according to the rule of the highest priority and the shortest movement distance. This process is repeated until all carrier plates are included in the grasping sequence, resulting in an optimized grasping timing sequence.
[0008] In one embodiment of the present invention, determining whether there is temporal overlap or spatial interference of adjacent carrier board grasping actions specifically involves: The time required for the robotic arm to grasp the previous plate, the time required to move the previous plate from the grasping point to the unloading position, the time required to place the previous plate at the unloading position, and the return time for the robotic arm to move from the unloading position to the next plate grasping point without load are obtained. The sum of the above times is taken as the time period occupied by the previous plate grasping task. Obtain the capture time period of the next carrier board. If the two time periods overlap on the time axis, it is determined that there is a time overlap. The spatial coordinate range occupied by the robotic arm during the process of grasping the previous plate and during the empty return process is obtained. The spatial coordinate range occupied by the plate during the process of moving to the next process after unloading is obtained. If the above spatial coordinate ranges intersect, it is determined that there is spatial interference.
[0009] In one embodiment of the present invention, the order of the corresponding carrier boards in the grasping timing sequence is adjusted and optimized until a conflict-free grasping timing sequence is obtained, specifically as follows: Starting from the first carrier board in the optimized capture time sequence, the system sequentially detects whether there is temporal overlap or spatial interference between each pair of adjacent carrier boards, locates the first pair of adjacent carrier boards with interference, and denoted as carrier board X and carrier board Y, where the capture order of carrier board X is before that of carrier board Y. Remove the carrier plate Y from its current position and try to insert it into each possible position in the sequence from the first position to the current position of the carrier plate X. After each insertion, re-check whether there is temporal overlap or spatial interference between the carrier plate Y and its new adjacent carrier plates. Select the first insertion position that can make the carrier plate Y free from interference with all adjacent carrier plates as the new position of the carrier plate Y. If interference cannot be eliminated at all possible locations, the order of carrier plate X and carrier plate Y is swapped. After the swap, the detection starts again from the first carrier plate in the sequence, and the above process is repeated. If, after all possible order adjustments, there are still irremovable temporal overlaps or spatial interferences in the sequence, then the adjacent plate pairs with interference are marked as irremovable conflicts, the original order of the adjacent plate pairs remains unchanged, and a waiting time instruction is inserted between the grasping actions of the adjacent plate pairs. The length of the waiting time is equal to the length of the interference time period. The sequence obtained after the above processing is used as the execution capture time sequence.
[0010] In one embodiment of the present invention, the status information of each unloading position is obtained, including the occupancy indicator and the distance from the next process entry point, specifically as follows: The unloading positions are multiple fixed buffer positions arranged sequentially along one side of the production line, and each buffer position has a unique position number. The system records in real time whether a carrier plate has been placed in each buffer position as an occupancy indicator. The straight-line distance between the center point of each buffer position and the starting end of the conveyor belt at the entrance of the next process is measured in advance, and the straight-line distance is stored as the distance from the entrance of the next process corresponding to each buffer position.
[0011] In one embodiment of the present invention, an initial unloading position is assigned to each carrier plate according to the execution grasping timing sequence, so that the robotic arm can place the carrier plate with the shortest travel distance after grasping it, including: Each carrier is processed sequentially according to the order in which it is grasped in the grasping sequence. For the carrier being processed, the coordinates of the grasping point when the robotic arm grasps the carrier are obtained. The Euclidean distance between the grasping point coordinates and each unoccupied unloading position is calculated. The unloading position with the smallest Euclidean distance is assigned to the current carrier and marked as occupied. After all carriers are processed, the initial mapping relationship between the carriers and the unloading positions is obtained, which serves as the unloading position mapping table.
[0012] In one embodiment of the present invention, after generating the unloading location mapping table, the method further includes compactness optimization and security optimization steps: Traverse all assigned unloading locations in the unloading location mapping table and calculate the physical distance between two adjacent assigned unloading locations; If the physical distance is greater than the minimum safe distance for parallel flow of the carriers, the unloading position of the latter of the two adjacent carriers will be adjusted forward, that is, redistributed to the nearest unoccupied position adjacent to the unloading position of the former carrier, so as to reduce the distance to be equal to or less than the minimum safe distance. If the physical spacing is less than the minimum safe distance for parallel flow of the carriers, the unloading position of the latter of the two adjacent carriers will be adjusted backward, that is, redistributed to the free position that is closest to the unloading position of the former carrier but with a spacing not less than the minimum safe distance, so as to increase the spacing to be equal to or greater than the minimum safe distance. After processing all adjacent carrier pairs in sequence, an optimized unloading location mapping table is generated.
[0013] In one embodiment of the present invention, a detention risk verification step is also included: Based on the unloading position assigned to each carrier in the compact unloading position mapping table, the distance between the unloading position and the next process entry is obtained. Based on the preset conveying speed of the carrier moving from the unloading position to the next process entry, the expected dwell time of each carrier is obtained. If the expected dwell time of any carrier exceeds the preset dwell time threshold, the unloading position of the carrier is reassigned to the idle unloading position closest to the next process entry. Then the expected dwell time of the carrier is recalculated until the expected dwell time of all carriers does not exceed the dwell time threshold, and the final unloading position mapping table is obtained.
[0014] In one embodiment of the present invention, after generating the execution instruction sequence of the robotic arm, a real-time rescheduling step is further included: During the execution of the instruction sequence, sensors monitor the actual electroplating time of each carrier plate and the actual position of the robotic arm in real time. When it is detected that the actual completion time of electroplating of a certain carrier plate is later than its expected time and the delay time exceeds the preset dynamic adjustment threshold, or when it is detected that the waiting time of the robotic arm after executing the current grasping task exceeds the preset idle threshold, real-time rescheduling is triggered, and the original unexecuted instruction sequence is replaced with a newly generated execution instruction sequence.
[0015] The technical solution of the present invention has the following advantages compared with the prior art: The present invention discloses a dynamic scheduling method for multi-plate gripping sequence in the unloading stage of an electroplating production line. By dynamically prioritizing, planning conflict-free gripping sequence, detecting and adjusting time and space interference, optimizing the allocation of unloading positions, and generating instruction sequences through collaborative matching, the method solves the problem of the disconnect between the robotic arm action sequence and the utilization of space resources in the existing static scheduling. It has the advantages of improving the efficiency of the unloading stage, reducing the idle movement and waiting time of the robotic arm, optimizing the utilization of space resources, and avoiding time overlap and space interference. Attached Figure Description
[0016] To make the content of this invention easier to understand, the invention will be further described in detail below with reference to specific embodiments and accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 This is a flowchart of the steps of the multi-carrier plate gripping timing dynamic scheduling method in the unloading stage of the electroplating production line of the present invention; Figure 2 This is a flowchart of the steps of the planned robotic arm to sequentially grasp each carrier plate without conflict, according to the present invention. Figure 3 This is a flowchart of the steps in the present invention to determine whether there is temporal overlap or spatial interference in the gripping actions of adjacent carrier plates; Figure 4This is a flowchart of the steps in this invention to adjust and optimize the order of corresponding carrier boards in the capture timing sequence; Figure 5 This is a flowchart of the steps of the present invention to assign an initial unloading position to each carrier board; Figure 6 This is a flowchart of the compactness optimization steps of the present invention; Figure 7 This is a flowchart of the steps for verifying the detention risk of the present invention. Detailed Implementation
[0017] The present invention will be further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments, so that those skilled in the art can better understand and implement the present invention. However, the embodiments described are not intended to limit the present invention.
[0018] Reference Figure 1 As shown, this invention proposes a dynamic scheduling method for multi-carrier plate grabbing in the unloading stage of an electroplating production line. First, it prioritizes each carrier plate based on its expected electroplating completion time, generating an initial grabbing priority list. The essence of this step is to transform time urgency into a decision-making basis for execution order: carrier plates with earlier expected completion times have already reached or are close to meeting process requirements in the electroplating tank. Failure to grab them promptly may affect plating quality or occupy tank space resources, thus assigning them higher priority. This avoids situations where individual carrier plates complete too early and cause long wait times for the robotic arm under a "first-come, first-served" rule.
[0019] Specifically, prioritizing each carrier board based on its expected electroplating completion time to generate an initial priority list involves the following steps: First, obtaining the start time of each carrier board entering the electroplating process and the preset electroplating process duration. The start time refers to the precise moment the carrier board is placed in the electroplating tank to begin electroplating, typically recorded and stored automatically by the Production Management System (MES) or sensors installed on the production line. The preset electroplating process duration is a standard electroplating processing time pre-set according to different product types, electroplating requirements, and specific process parameters; this duration is a key parameter ensuring electroplating quality and efficiency. Systematically collecting and storing this data provides the necessary foundational information for subsequent priority calculations.
[0020] Secondly, the estimated completion time for each carrier plate is calculated. This estimated completion time is obtained by simply adding the start time of the carrier plate entering the electroplating process to the corresponding preset electroplating process duration. For example, if a carrier plate starts electroplating at 8:00 AM and its preset process duration is 2 hours, then its estimated completion time is 10:00 AM. This calculation result is the core basis for determining when the carrier plate needs to be unloaded.
[0021] Next, the difference between the estimated completion time and the current time is taken as the remaining time. The current time is provided in real time by the system clock. By calculating the time difference between the estimated completion time and the current time, the remaining time before electroplating is completed for each carrier board can be quantified, thus intuitively reflecting the urgency of its unloading.
[0022] Then, the carriers are sorted in ascending order of remaining time. This sorting strategy aims to prioritize carriers that are about to complete electroplating. The shorter the remaining time, the closer the carrier is to completion, and it needs to be unloaded as soon as possible to avoid occupying electroplating tank resources for a long time or affecting subsequent production cycles.
[0023] Based on this, it is clearly stipulated that the shorter the remaining time, the higher the priority. This is the core rule of priority ranking, which directly links the urgency of the substrate completion with its priority in the grabbing sequence, ensuring timely response and processing of substrates that are about to be electroplated.
[0024] Finally, an initial grasping priority list is generated. This list is the sequence of carrier plates obtained after the above calculations and sorting, which clarifies the preliminary order that the robotic arm should follow when performing grasping operations, providing a basic input for subsequent robotic arm grasping timing planning.
[0025] Next, based on the initial priority list and the relative positions of the robotic arm and each carrier plate, a conflict-free grasping sequence is planned using the shortest path priority rule, resulting in an optimized grasping timing sequence. By introducing positional relationships for path optimization, the long idle travel time of the robotic arm caused by simply prioritizing the order can be avoided. For example, when two high-priority carrier plates are located at opposite ends of the robotic arm, the system will prioritize grasping the closer one, thereby shortening the robotic arm's idle travel time while respecting priority.
[0026] Building upon this foundation, the system further combines the single-grabbing action time and movement time of the robotic arm to determine whether there is temporal overlap or spatial interference between two adjacent grasping actions. If so, the order is adjusted until a conflict-free grasping sequence is obtained. This judgment step solves the dynamic coupling problem in the continuous grasping process of multiple carrier plates—after the robotic arm grasps and places the first carrier plate, its position and orientation have changed, and the first carrier plate may be moving to the next process. These factors will affect the grasping action of the second carrier plate. By simulating the complete motion trajectory of the robotic arm and detecting temporal and spatial conflicts, the risk of waiting or collision caused by improper sequence can be eliminated in advance, ensuring a smooth and continuous grasping process.
[0027] After completing the grasping sequence planning, the method also obtains the occupancy status of each unloading position and its distance from the next process entry point. Based on the grasping sequence, it assigns an initial unloading position to each carrier plate, ensuring that the robotic arm can place the plate with the shortest possible travel distance after grasping it. This allocation strategy directly correlates the grasping sequence with the spatial layout of the unloading positions: the first carrier plate grasped is usually assigned to the position closest to the robotic arm placement point and near the next process entry point, while the later-grabbed carrier plates are assigned to slightly farther positions. This avoids the phenomenon of "far-distance carrier plates being grasped first but occupying nearby unloading positions," which would cause subsequent carrier plates to take a detour.
[0028] It should be further explained that in this embodiment, the current status information of each unloading position is obtained, including the occupancy indicator and the distance to the next process entry point. Specifically, the unloading positions are set as multiple fixed buffer positions arranged sequentially along one side of the production line, each buffer position having a unique position number. These fixed buffer positions provide a clear parking area for the carrier plate, and their arrangement along one side of the production line helps the robotic arm to perform orderly or nearby operations, while the unique position number provides the system with the basis for identifying and managing these physical positions. The system records in real time whether a carrier plate is currently placed in each buffer position as an occupancy indicator. This occupancy indicator is key information for determining the availability of the buffer position. Typically, the presence of the carrier plate is detected in real time by deploying sensors (e.g., photoelectric sensors, proximity sensors, or weight sensors) on each buffer position, and the detection results are fed back to the control system, which updates the occupancy status of each buffer position accordingly. In addition, the straight-line distance between the center point of each buffer position and the starting end of the conveyor belt at the next process entry point is measured in advance, and this straight-line distance is stored as the distance to the next process entry point corresponding to each buffer position. This distance information can be obtained through CAD design data, laser rangefinders, or manual measurement, and stored in the system's database as a basis for optimizing the movement path or dwell time during subsequent carrier board allocation.
[0029] Finally, the method coordinates the execution of the grasping time sequence with the unloading position mapping table to establish a one-to-one correspondence between "carrier plate - grasping time - unloading position," generating the robotic arm's execution instruction sequence as a complete scheduling instruction set. This coordination matching process essentially integrates the grasping order in the time dimension and the position allocation in the spatial dimension into a unified operation instruction, enabling the robotic arm to grasp each carrier plate in a predetermined optimal order and place it directly in its reserved optimal position without intermediate waiting or secondary adjustments.
[0030] The beneficial effects obtained by this application through the above technical solution are reflected in the following aspects: First, since the introduction of priority is based on the expected time to complete electroplating, rather than simply relying on the order of arrival, it can ensure that carriers with tight process time are processed first, avoiding plating quality risks or waste of tank resources caused by waiting for the robotic arm. At the same time, combined with the shortest path optimization of positional relationships, the overall gripping stroke is minimized under priority constraints, reducing the idle running and waiting time of the robotic arm.
[0031] Secondly, by introducing temporal overlap and spatial interference detection of adjacent grasping actions, conflicts caused by dynamic coupling between continuous robotic arm movements are eliminated. This eliminates the possibility of pauses or collisions that might occur due to improper grasping order during the planning stage, thereby ensuring seamless connection in the actual execution process and improving the smoothness of the unloading process.
[0032] Third, by linking the unloading position allocation with the grasping timing sequence, each carrier plate is positioned precisely according to its grasping order during the grasping process. This minimizes the robotic arm's placement stroke and eliminates the need for secondary adjustments. Furthermore, positions closer to the next process entry point are prioritized for carrier plates grasped earlier, accelerating the flow of carrier plates from unloading to the next process and reducing dwell time in the unloading area. Fourth, the final collaborative matching integrates temporal and spatial information into a unified instruction set, enabling the robotic arm to complete all actions from grasping to placement in a single operation without intermediate decisions or replanning. This reduces the computational burden on the online scheduling of the control system and improves the predictability and stability of execution.
[0033] In summary, this method, without increasing hardware costs, achieves efficient, continuous, and conflict-free flow of multi-carrier boards during the unloading process through joint optimization of timing and unloading position, effectively improving the overall operating efficiency of the electroplating production line.
[0034] In the unloading process of an electroplating production line, to efficiently plan the sequence of the robotic arm's gripping of carrier plates, it is necessary to comprehensively consider both the priority of the carrier plates and the movement efficiency of the robotic arm. If gripping is based solely on the priority of the carrier plates, the robotic arm may frequently make long-distance movements, resulting in low overall gripping efficiency. Conversely, if only the shortest movement path is pursued, high-priority carrier plates may be ignored, affecting the production cycle and the timely unloading of critical carrier plates. Therefore, how to ensure that high-priority carrier plates are processed first while minimizing the idle movement distance of the robotic arm is a key challenge in optimizing the gripping sequence.
[0035] Reference Figure 2 As shown, this application further proposes to plan the conflict-free gripping order of the robotic arm to grasp each carrier plate sequentially using the shortest path first rule, specifically including the following steps: First, the system uses the current position of the robotic arm as the starting point. This starting point represents the actual physical coordinates of the robotic arm at the start of the current batch unloading task or after completing the previous gripping / placement action. The system obtains the precise three-dimensional coordinate information of the robotic arm in real time through its control module to ensure the accuracy of subsequent path calculations. Based on this, the system identifies and selects the highest-priority carrier plate from the initial gripping priority list as the potential target carrier plate. The initial gripping priority list is generated by sorting the carrier plates according to their expected electroplating completion time. The highest-priority carrier plates are usually those expected to complete electroplating first or have the greatest impact on the production cycle. For each highest-priority carrier plate, the system calculates the distance the robotic arm can move from its current position to the gripping point of that target carrier plate. The gripping point is a preset, specific spatial coordinate that the robotic arm's end effector can stably grip the carrier plate. The moving distance can be calculated using Euclidean distance or other distance metrics that consider the kinematic constraints of the robotic arm.
[0036] If multiple pallets with the same highest priority exist in the initial grasping priority list, in order to further optimize the movement efficiency of the robotic arm, the system will select the pallet with the shortest travel distance from these pallets with the same priority as the first grasping target. This decision-making mechanism ensures that, while meeting the highest priority requirement, the robotic arm can reach and grasp the first pallet as quickly as possible.
[0037] After successfully grasping the first target, the robotic arm moves the carrier plate to the designated unloading position and places it. The position where the robotic arm placed the carrier plate then serves as the new starting point for planning the next grasping task. This dynamic starting point update mechanism ensures that each grasping path is planned based on the robotic arm's latest actual position, guaranteeing the real-time nature and effectiveness of the planning. Subsequently, among the remaining carrier plates not yet included in the grasping sequence, the system again selects the next target based on the highest priority and shortest travel distance. This process is repeated until all carrier plates awaiting unloading are successfully included in the grasping sequence. Ultimately, through this iterative selection method, an optimized grasping sequence is obtained that comprehensively considers carrier plate priority and robotic arm movement efficiency.
[0038] When actually executing this optimized gripping sequence, since the gripping, moving, and placing actions of the robotic arm all require a certain amount of time and space, and the carrier may move to the next process immediately after unloading, simply following the planned sequence may still cause the gripping actions of adjacent carriers to overlap in time or interfere in space, thereby affecting unloading efficiency and safety.
[0039] Reference Figure 3As shown, this application further proposes a method for determining whether there is temporal overlap or spatial interference in adjacent carrier plate gripping actions. Specifically, the method involves: obtaining the gripping time required for the robotic arm to grip the previous carrier plate, the movement time to move the previous carrier plate from the gripping point to the unloading position, the placement time required to place the previous carrier plate at the unloading position, and the return time of the robotic arm moving from the unloading position to the next carrier plate gripping point without load. The sum of the above times is taken as the time period occupied by the previous carrier plate gripping task. The gripping time period of the next carrier plate is obtained. If the two time periods overlap on the time axis, it is determined that there is temporal overlap. The spatial coordinate range occupied by the robotic arm during the gripping of the previous carrier plate and during the unloaded return process is obtained. The spatial coordinate range occupied by the carrier plate during the movement to the next process after unloading is obtained. If the above spatial coordinate ranges intersect, it is determined that there is spatial interference.
[0040] Determining whether there is temporal overlap or spatial interference in the grasping actions of adjacent carrier plates is a crucial step in ensuring the safe and efficient operation of the robotic arm when performing grasping tasks. Accurate detection of temporal overlap and spatial interference can effectively prevent collisions or task delays during actual operation.
[0041] This study obtains the following time parameters for the robotic arm: the gripping time required to grasp the previous tray, the movement time to move the previous tray from the gripping point to the unloading position, the placement time to place the previous tray at the unloading position, and the return time from the unloading position to the next tray gripping point (unloaded). The sum of these times is taken as the time period occupied by the previous tray gripping task. The aim is to accurately quantify the total time resources consumed by the robotic arm to complete a tray gripping task. Gripping time refers to the time required for the robotic arm to hold or attract the tray, typically determined by the response speed of the end effector and the physical characteristics of the tray. Movement time refers to the time required for the robotic arm to move from the gripping point to the unloading position, which depends on the robotic arm's movement speed, path planning, and the distance between the gripping and unloading positions. Placement time refers to the time required for the robotic arm to securely place the tray at the unloading position, typically including the release action of the end effector and necessary attitude adjustments. Return time refers to the time required for the robotic arm to return unloaded from the unloading position and move to the next tray gripping point, also influenced by the robotic arm's movement speed and path planning. These time parameters can be accurately calculated or estimated using the robotic arm's kinematic model, preset motion speed parameters, and actual test data, and stored in the scheduling system's parameter library.
[0042] Obtaining the grasping time period for the next carrier plate and determining if there is an overlap between the two time periods on the timeline is considered a time overlap, in order to identify potential task conflicts. The grasping time period for the next carrier plate refers to the time interval from when the robotic arm starts grasping the next carrier plate to when it completes the grasping action. By comparing the time period occupied by the previous carrier plate grasping task with the grasping time period of the next carrier plate on the timeline, it is possible to visually identify any time overlap. If there is an overlap, it means that the robotic arm theoretically needs to perform two grasping tasks simultaneously, which is physically impossible, and therefore scheduling adjustments are required. The overlap interval on the timeline can be determined by comparing the start and end times of the two time periods.
[0043] The system acquires the spatial coordinate range occupied by the robotic arm during the grasping of the previous carrier plate and during the empty return stroke. It also acquires the spatial coordinate range occupied by the carrier plate during its movement to the next process after unloading. If these spatial coordinate ranges intersect, spatial interference is identified, thus detecting the possibility of physical collisions. During the grasping and return strokes, the robotic arm, its body, end effector, and the grasped carrier plate all occupy a certain amount of three-dimensional space. Simultaneously, after unloading, the carrier plate may immediately move to the next process via a conveyor belt or other means, and its movement path also occupies space. By establishing 3D models of the robotic arm and carrier plate and calculating their potential spatial coordinate ranges (i.e., collision envelopes) in real-time or in advance within a specific time period, a collision detection algorithm is used to determine if these spatial ranges intersect. If an intersection exists, it indicates that at a certain point in time, there is a physical obstacle on the movement path of the robotic arm or carrier plate, which may lead to a collision, thus identifying spatial interference.
[0044] Furthermore, if there is temporal overlap or spatial interference in the optimized grasping sequence, the robotic arm may still experience collisions or inefficiency during actual execution, leading to production interruptions or safety hazards. Therefore, referring to... Figure 4 As shown, this application further proposes adjusting and optimizing the order of corresponding carrier boards in the fetching timing sequence until a conflict-free fetching timing sequence is obtained. Specifically, the method starts from the first carrier board in the optimized fetching timing sequence and sequentially detects whether there is temporal overlap or spatial interference between each pair of adjacent carrier boards. Once the first pair of interfering adjacent carrier boards is located, such as carrier board X and carrier board Y, where the fetching order of carrier board X is before that of carrier board Y, the system will activate the conflict resolution mechanism.
[0045] First, carrier Y is removed from its current position and then attempted to be inserted into every possible position in the sequence from the first position to the current position of carrier X. After each insertion, the system re-checks whether there is temporal overlap or spatial interference between carrier Y and its new neighboring carriers. This step aims to find the first insertion position that ensures carrier Y does not interfere with any of its neighboring carriers, and this is taken as the new position for carrier Y. This trial-and-error insertion strategy explores multiple possible sequences to find the optimal local solution, thereby eliminating the current conflict.
[0046] If, after attempting to reinsert carrier Y into all possible positions, the interference between it and adjacent carriers cannot be eliminated, it indicates that no conflict-free insertion point can be found for carrier Y before carrier X. In this case, this application further proposes to swap the order of carrier X and carrier Y. After the swap, to ensure the conflict-free nature of the entire sequence, the system will restart from the first carrier in the sequence and repeat the aforementioned conflict detection and adjustment process. This swapping strategy provides a more powerful adjustment means to handle complex conflict situations that cannot be resolved by simple insertion.
[0047] Despite the aforementioned insertion and exchange attempts, in certain complex scenarios, irremovable temporal overlaps or spatial interferences may still exist in the sequence. For these conflicts that persist despite all possible sequence adjustments, this application adopts a pragmatic strategy: marking adjacent carrier pairs with interference as irremovable conflicts and maintaining their original order. To ensure the safety of the robotic arm operation and avoid actual interference, the system inserts a waiting time instruction between the grasping actions of adjacent carrier pairs. The length of the waiting time is precisely set to the length of the interference period, meaning the robotic arm will pause before executing the next grasping action until the previous action is completely completed and the space is released, thus effectively avoiding actual physical conflicts.
[0048] The sequence obtained after the above processing is used as the execution grasping timing sequence. Through the above technical solution, this application can effectively solve the problems of temporal overlap and spatial interference that may occur when the robotic arm grasps multiple carrier plates during the unloading process of an electroplating production line. Based on the initially planned optimized grasping timing sequence, this application can accurately identify potential conflicts between the grasping actions of adjacent carrier plates through a refined conflict detection mechanism. By introducing a trial insertion of carrier plate Y and a sequential exchange strategy between carrier plate X and carrier plate Y, this application can dynamically adjust the grasping order to minimize temporal overlap and spatial interference in the sequence, thereby avoiding collisions or waiting by the robotic arm in actual operation, significantly improving the working efficiency and safety of the robotic arm. Even when faced with complex conflicts that cannot be eliminated by sequence adjustment, this application can ensure the conflict-free operation of the robotic arm by intelligently inserting waiting time instructions, avoiding the risk of production interruption. The final generated execution grasping timing sequence is a fully verified and optimized instruction set that can guide the robotic arm to complete the unloading task in the safest and most efficient way, ensuring the smooth operation of the electroplating production line.
[0049] In the unloading process of an electroplating production line, a robotic arm needs to move multiple carrier plates from the gripping point to the unloading position. When generating the robotic arm's execution command sequence, efficiently allocating unloading positions for each carrier plate to ensure the robotic arm can place the plate with the shortest possible travel distance after gripping it is crucial for improving unloading efficiency. An inappropriate unloading position allocation strategy may cause the robotic arm to frequently make long-distance movements, thereby reducing overall work efficiency and increasing unloading time.
[0050] Reference Figure 5 As shown, this application further proposes to assign an initial unloading position to each carrier plate according to the execution gripping timing sequence, so that the robotic arm can place the carrier plate with the shortest travel distance after gripping it. The allocation process includes: processing each carrier plate sequentially according to the order of the gripping timing sequence; for the currently processed carrier plate, obtaining the gripping point coordinates when the robotic arm grips the carrier plate, calculating the Euclidean distance between the gripping point coordinates and each unoccupied unloading position, selecting the unloading position with the smallest Euclidean distance to allocate to the current carrier plate, and marking the unloading position as occupied; after processing all carrier plates, obtaining the initial mapping relationship between the carrier plates and the unloading positions, which serves as the unloading position mapping table.
[0051] To ensure that the allocation of unloading positions is consistent with the actual grasping sequence of the robotic arm and to avoid allocation conflicts and logical confusion, this application allocates unloading positions one by one according to the order of the carrier plates in the pre-determined execution grasping sequence. Specifically, the system maintains a carrier plate queue or list, whose order strictly corresponds to the execution grasping sequence. When allocating unloading positions, the scheduling system starts from the head of the queue and processes each carrier plate sequentially, finding a suitable unloading position for it. Before allocating an unloading position for the current carrier plate, it is necessary to determine the starting position when the robotic arm grasps the carrier plate. This application achieves this by obtaining the coordinates of the grasping point when the robotic arm grasps the carrier plate. The coordinates of the grasping point can be a preset, fixed electroplating tank outlet position, or it can be the precise position of the carrier plate in the electroplating tank detected in real time by sensors. For example, a vision recognition system or encoder can be used to obtain the three-dimensional spatial coordinates of the robotic arm end effector when it reaches the carrier plate in real time, as the starting point for calculating the movement distance. To quantify the movement cost of the robotic arm from the grasping point to the potential unloading position, this application uses Euclidean distance as the distance metric. For the current carrier plate's grasping point coordinates... In this way, the straight-line distance required for the robotic arm to move to each potential unloading position can be accurately evaluated. After calculating the Euclidean distances from the current carrier's gripping point coordinates to all unoccupied unloading positions, this application selects the unloading position with the smallest Euclidean distance to allocate to the current carrier. This is a greedy strategy aimed at achieving a locally optimal unloading position allocation for the current carrier, ensuring that the robotic arm can place the carrier at the unloading position with the shortest possible movement distance after gripping it. To prevent multiple carriers from being incorrectly allocated to the same unloading position and to ensure the resource exclusivity of each unloading position, once an unloading position is allocated to the current carrier, the system immediately marks it as "occupied". Specifically, the system maintains an unloading position status table containing the occupancy flag for each unloading position. When an unloading position is allocated, its corresponding occupancy flag is set to "occupied" until the carrier is removed, at which point the position will be remarked as "free". After assigning unloading positions to all carriers and marking their occupancy status according to the execution sequence of the grasping process, this application obtains a complete initial mapping relationship between carriers and unloading positions. This mapping relationship serves as an unloading position mapping table, which records the correspondence between the unique identifier of each carrier and the number or coordinates of its assigned unloading position. This unloading position mapping table provides accurate and optimized position information for subsequently generating the execution command sequence of the robotic arm.
[0052] In some of the above embodiments, although an initial unloading position is assigned to each carrier to achieve placement with the shortest possible movement distance for the robotic arm, this allocation strategy may result in the carriers being distributed rather sparsely at the unloading positions, failing to fully utilize the space resources of the unloading area. This scattered layout may affect the parallel flow efficiency of carriers in subsequent processes and may even increase the overall unloading task completion time.
[0053] Reference Figure 6 As shown, it also includes compactness optimization and safety optimization steps: aiming to optimize the spatial layout and ensure safety of the initially generated unloading position mapping table. By adjusting the arrangement of the carrier plates at the unloading positions, it eliminates the space waste caused by excessive spacing and the collision risk caused by insufficient spacing, so as to achieve more efficient space utilization, smoother subsequent process connection and safer parallel flow.
[0054] The system checks each unloading position assigned to a carrier in the unloading position mapping table, ensuring that all assigned carriers are considered for optimization. Based on this, the system calculates the physical distance between two adjacent assigned unloading positions. This physical distance refers to the actual spatial distance between two adjacent unloading positions of an assigned carrier within the unloading area. It can be obtained by measuring the straight-line distance between the center points of the two unloading positions, or by multiplying the difference in their relative position indices on the production line by the unit position spacing. Simultaneously, this method introduces a minimum safe distance for allowing carriers to flow in parallel. This distance is a preset key parameter that defines the minimum interval required for two carriers to be simultaneously or closely transferred and processed in subsequent processes without physical interference or operational conflicts. The setting of this parameter must comprehensively consider the carrier size, the accuracy of the conveying equipment, and the operational requirements of subsequent processes.
[0055] Based on the comparison between the physical distance and the minimum safe distance, the system implements different adjustment strategies: When the physical distance between two adjacent assigned unloading positions is detected to be greater than the minimum safe distance for parallel movement of the carrier plates, it indicates that the distance between the two carrier plates is too large, resulting in wasted space in the unloading area and potentially requiring the robotic arm to move a longer distance when placing subsequent carrier plates. To address this, the system adjusts the unloading position of the latter carrier plate forward, reassigning it to the nearest unoccupied position adjacent to the unloading position of the former carrier plate. This adjustment reduces the distance between the two carrier plates to be equal to or less than the minimum safe distance, achieving a compact arrangement of the unloading area, improving space utilization, and shortening the movement path of the robotic arm when placing carrier plates.
[0056] When the physical distance between two adjacent assigned unloading positions is detected to be less than the minimum safe distance for parallel flow of carrier plates, it indicates that the distance between the two carrier plates is too small, posing a risk of physical collision or operational interference in subsequent processes. To address this, the system adjusts the unloading position of the latter of the two adjacent carrier plates to the rear, i.e., reassigning it to an available position closest to the unloading position of the former carrier plate, but with a distance not less than the minimum safe distance. This adjustment increases the distance between the two carrier plates to be equal to or greater than the minimum safe distance, thereby eliminating the collision risk caused by excessive proximity and ensuring the safety of the carrier plates during subsequent parallel flow.
[0057] After the above two adjustment strategies are completed, the system will determine whether there are any other unprocessed adjacent carrier pairs. If so, it will continue to traverse and perform the same checks and adjustments on the next pair of adjacent carriers. If all adjacent carrier pairs have been processed, the loop will terminate.
[0058] After the above compactness and safety optimization processes, the system will output an optimized unloading position mapping table. This table reflects the final layout of the carrier plates in the unloading area after spatial layout optimization and safety adjustment. It ensures that the carrier plates are arranged compactly to save space and shorten the stroke of the robotic arm, and also ensures that the minimum distance between adjacent carrier plates is not less than the safety distance to eliminate the risk of collision.
[0059] In practical applications, simply pursuing compact unloading positions may result in some carrier boards being stuck in the unloading buffer for too long after unloading, due to their assigned positions being too far from the next process entry point or the receiving capacity of subsequent processes. This can affect the material flow efficiency of the entire production line and even create production bottlenecks.
[0060] Reference Figure 7 As shown, this application further proposes a retention risk verification step. This step first obtains the distance between the unloading position and the next process entry point based on the unloading position assigned to each carrier plate in the compact unloading position mapping table. This distance aims to clarify the physical distance between the buffer position of each carrier plate after unloading and the entry point of the subsequent production process. This distance can be obtained through fixed values pre-stored in the system database, i.e., the straight-line distance between each unloading position (buffer position) and the next process entry point (e.g., the start of the conveyor belt) is measured and recorded during system initialization. Alternatively, it can be obtained in real time through distance sensors or vision positioning systems integrated on the production line. Obtaining this distance is the basis for evaluating the subsequent flow efficiency of the carrier plates.
[0061] Based on this, the expected dwell time for each carrier is obtained according to the preset conveyor speed at which the carrier moves from the unloading position to the next process inlet. The preset conveyor speed refers to the average or rated speed at which the carrier moves from the unloading position to the next process inlet, usually determined by the production line design parameters or actual operating experience and configured as a system parameter. For example, if the carrier moves via a conveyor belt, this speed is the conveyor belt's operating speed. By dividing the distance between the unloading position and the next process inlet by the preset conveyor speed, the theoretical time required for the carrier to reach the next process inlet from the unloading position, i.e., the expected dwell time, can be calculated. This time reflects the waiting time of the carrier in the unloading buffer area.
[0062] Subsequently, if the expected dwell time of any carrier exceeds a preset dwell time threshold, the carrier's unloading position is reassigned to the nearest available unloading position to the next process entry point. The dwell time threshold is a preset maximum acceptable dwell time for a carrier in the unloading buffer area. This threshold is typically set based on a combination of factors, including production cycle time, process requirements, material characteristics (such as electroplating solution drying time and oxidation risk), and the receiving capacity of subsequent processes. For example, to prevent carriers from staying in the buffer area for too long, leading to surface oxidation or affecting subsequent processes, a strict upper limit on dwell time can be set. Once the expected dwell time of a carrier exceeds this threshold, it means that the carrier poses a dwell risk, potentially leading to decreased production efficiency or damaged product quality. When a dwell risk is detected, the system initiates a reassignment mechanism. Its core idea is to prioritize positions that allow the carrier to enter the next process as quickly as possible. Specifically, the system iterates through all currently unoccupied unloading positions, calculates the distance between these available positions and the next process entry point, and selects the position with the shortest distance as the new unloading position for that carrier. This move aims to shorten the turnaround time of the carrier plates by optimizing physical distance.
[0063] Then, the expected dwell time of each carrier is recalculated until the expected dwell time of all carriers does not exceed the dwell time threshold, resulting in the final unloading location mapping table. After the unloading locations of the carriers are reassigned, their expected dwell time needs to be recalculated based on the new locations. This is an iterative process; the system continuously adjusts the locations and calculates the times until the expected dwell time of all carriers meets the preset dwell time threshold requirements. This loop ensures that the final unloading location mapping table not only considers space compactness but, more importantly, guarantees that all carriers can flow to the next process with acceptable efficiency, thus forming a final unloading location mapping table that balances space utilization and time efficiency.
[0064] In the actual operation of an electroplating production line, various unforeseen dynamic changes may occur. For example, the actual electroplating time of the carrier plate may not match the expectation, or the robotic arm may experience unexpected delays while performing its tasks. These real-time anomalies may cause pre-generated scheduling instructions to become unsuitable for the current situation, thereby affecting unloading efficiency and even causing production interruptions or waste of resources.
[0065] Therefore, this application further proposes a method that includes a real-time rescheduling step after generating the execution instruction sequence for the robotic arm. Specifically, during the execution of the execution instruction sequence, the system monitors the actual completion time of electroplating for each carrier plate and the actual position of the robotic arm in real time using sensors. Various methods can be employed to achieve this monitoring. For example, for the actual completion time of electroplating for the carrier plate, photoelectric sensors, RFID readers, or visual recognition systems can be deployed at the outlet of the electroplating tank to accurately capture the moment the carrier plate leaves the electroplating tank; alternatively, the system can interact with the control system of the electroplating equipment to directly obtain the electroplating completion signal of the carrier plate. This real-time data is then transmitted to the scheduling control unit. Regarding the actual position of the robotic arm, the robotic arm itself typically integrates encoders, limit switches, or a visual positioning system, which can continuously provide feedback on its joint angles, end effector coordinates, and motion status. The scheduling control unit continuously receives and processes this real-time position data to grasp the precise dynamics of the robotic arm.
[0066] When the system detects that the actual completion time of electroplating for a carrier board is later than its expected time and the delay exceeds a preset dynamic adjustment threshold, it triggers real-time rescheduling. Specifically, the scheduling system pre-stores the expected completion time of electroplating for each carrier board. After monitoring the actual completion time of the carrier board in real time, the system calculates the difference between the actual time and the expected time, i.e., the delay. This delay is compared with a preset dynamic adjustment threshold, which can be flexibly set based on the production line's fault tolerance, production cycle requirements, and empirical data. Once the delay exceeds this threshold, it indicates that the original scheduling plan may no longer be applicable.
[0067] Furthermore, real-time rescheduling is also triggered when the robotic arm waits for more than a preset idle threshold after performing its current grasping task. The scheduling system predicts the start time of the next action after the robotic arm completes its current grasping task based on the sequence of executed instructions. In actual operation, the system monitors the time interval between the robotic arm completing its current task and starting the next task. If this actual interval exceeds the preset idle threshold—for example, if the robotic arm waits for the next carrier for more than a preset number of seconds after completing its grasp—it is considered that the robotic arm has experienced unplanned waiting, which may indicate a problem in the upstream process or a disconnect between the scheduling plan and the actual situation.
[0068] Once any of the above triggering conditions is met, the scheduling control system immediately initiates a rescheduling module, interrupting the currently executing scheduling logic. This rescheduling module reacquires the latest status information of the current production line, including the latest status of all unloaded pallets, the current position of the robotic arm, and the occupancy status of all unloading positions. Based on this latest data, the system re-executes a series of scheduling algorithms, such as generating an initial grasping priority list, planning a conflict-free grasping order, and allocating unloading positions, to generate a completely new sequence of execution instructions adapted to the current situation. Subsequently, the system replaces the original unexecuted instruction sequence with the newly generated sequence. This means that once the new sequence is generated, the scheduling control system immediately stops sending the unexecuted parts of the original instruction sequence to the robotic arm and begins sending instructions from the newly generated sequence. This replacement is seamless and aims to ensure that the robotic arm can operate according to the latest production line status and optimized strategy.
[0069] Obviously, the above embodiments are merely illustrative examples for clear explanation and are not intended to limit the implementation. Those skilled in the art will recognize that other variations or modifications can be made based on the above description. It is neither necessary nor possible to exhaustively list all possible implementations here. However, obvious variations or modifications derived therefrom are still within the scope of protection of this invention.
Claims
1. A method for dynamic scheduling of multi-carrier plate gripping sequence in the unloading stage of an electroplating production line, characterized in that, Includes the following steps: Based on the expected time for the carrier to complete electroplating, the multiple carriers waiting to be unloaded are prioritized and an initial grabbing priority list is generated. Based on the initial grasping priority list and the relative positional relationship between the robotic arm and each carrier plate, the shortest path priority rule is adopted to plan the conflict-free grasping order of the robotic arm to grasp each carrier plate in sequence, and the optimized grasping timing sequence is obtained. Based on the optimized grasping timing sequence, combined with the single grasping action time and movement time of the robotic arm, it is determined whether there is temporal overlap or spatial interference between adjacent plate grasping actions. If so, the order of the corresponding plates in the optimized grasping timing sequence is adjusted until a conflict-free grasping timing sequence is obtained. Specifically, determining whether there is temporal overlap or spatial interference between adjacent plate grasping actions involves: obtaining the grasping time required for the robotic arm to grasp the previous plate, the movement time to move the previous plate from the grasping point to the unloading position, the placement time required to place the previous plate at the unloading position, and the unloaded movement time of the robotic arm from the unloading position. The return time to the next carrier gripping point is calculated, and the sum of these times is taken as the time period occupied by the previous carrier gripping task. The gripping time period of the next carrier is obtained. If the two time periods overlap on the time axis, it is determined that there is a time overlap. The spatial coordinate range occupied by the robotic arm during the gripping of the previous carrier and during the empty return process is obtained. The spatial coordinate range occupied by the carrier during the movement to the next process after unloading is obtained. If the above spatial coordinate ranges intersect, it is determined that there is spatial interference. The order of the corresponding carriers in the gripping time sequence is adjusted and optimized until conflict-free execution is obtained. The timing sequence capture process is as follows: Starting from the first carrier board in the optimized timing sequence capture, each pair of adjacent carrier boards is sequentially checked for temporal overlap or spatial interference. The first pair of adjacent carrier boards with interference is located, denoted as carrier board X and carrier board Y, where carrier board X is captured before carrier board Y. Carrier board Y is removed from its current position and is then attempted to be inserted into every possible position in the sequence from the first position to the current position of carrier board X. After each insertion, the temporal overlap or spatial interference between carrier board Y and its new adjacent carrier boards is re-checked, and the first insertion that ensures no interference between carrier board Y and all adjacent carrier boards is selected. The input position is used as the new position of carrier Y. If interference cannot be eliminated at all possible positions, the order of carrier X and carrier Y is swapped. After the swap, the detection starts again from the first carrier in the sequence, and the above process is repeated. If, after all possible order adjustments, there is still an uneliminable temporal overlap or spatial interference in the sequence, the adjacent carrier pairs with interference are marked as uneliminable conflicts. The original order of the adjacent carrier pairs remains unchanged, and a waiting time instruction is inserted between the grasping actions of the adjacent carrier pairs. The length of the waiting time is equal to the length of the interference time period. The sequence obtained after processing is used as the execution grasping timing sequence. Obtain the status information of each unloading position, including the occupancy indicator and the distance from the next process entry. Based on the execution grasping sequence, assign an initial unloading position to each carrier plate, so that the robotic arm can place the carrier plate with the shortest movement distance after grasping the carrier plate, and generate an unloading position mapping table. The execution timing sequence is matched with the location information in the unloading location mapping table to establish a one-to-one correspondence between "carrier board - grabbing time - unloading location" and generate the execution instruction sequence of the robotic arm, which serves as a complete scheduling instruction set to complete the unloading task of the current batch.
2. The method for dynamic scheduling of multi-carrier plate gripping sequence in the unloading stage of an electroplating production line according to claim 1, characterized in that: Based on the expected time for the carrier to complete electroplating, multiple carriers awaiting unloading are prioritized, specifically as follows: Obtain the start time of each carrier board entering the electroplating process and the preset electroplating process duration. Calculate the estimated completion time of electroplating for each carrier board. Use the difference between the estimated completion time and the current time as the remaining time. Sort the carrier boards in ascending order of remaining time, with the smaller the remaining time, the higher the priority. Generate an initial crawling priority list.
3. The method for dynamic scheduling of multi-carrier plate gripping sequence in the unloading stage of an electroplating production line according to claim 1, characterized in that: The shortest path first rule is used to plan the conflict-free grasping order of the robotic arm to pick up each carrier plate, including: Starting from the current position of the robotic arm, select the highest priority carrier plate from the initial grasping priority list as the target carrier plate, and calculate the moving distance of the robotic arm from the current position to the grasping point of the target carrier plate; If there are multiple carriers with the same priority, the carrier with the shortest moving distance will be selected as the first grab target. After completing the first grasping target, the position after the robotic arm places the carrier plate is used as the new starting point. Among the remaining carrier plates, the next grasping target is selected according to the rule of the highest priority and the shortest movement distance. This process is repeated until all carrier plates are included in the grasping sequence, resulting in an optimized grasping timing sequence.
4. The method for dynamic scheduling of multi-carrier plate gripping sequence in the unloading stage of an electroplating production line according to claim 1, characterized in that: Obtain the current status information of each unloading location, including the occupancy indicator and the distance from the next process entry point, specifically: The unloading positions are multiple fixed buffer positions arranged sequentially along one side of the production line, and each buffer position has a unique position number. The system records in real time whether a carrier plate has been placed in each buffer position as an occupancy indicator. The straight-line distance between the center point of each buffer position and the starting end of the conveyor belt at the entrance of the next process is measured in advance, and the straight-line distance is stored as the distance from the entrance of the next process corresponding to each buffer position.
5. The method for dynamic scheduling of multi-carrier plate gripping sequence in the unloading stage of an electroplating production line according to claim 1, characterized in that: Each carrier plate is assigned an initial unloading position based on the execution grasping sequence, enabling the robotic arm to place the carrier plate with the shortest possible travel distance after grasping it, including: Each carrier is processed sequentially according to the order in which it is grasped in the grasping sequence. For the carrier being processed, the coordinates of the grasping point when the robotic arm grasps the carrier are obtained. The Euclidean distance between the grasping point coordinates and each unoccupied unloading position is calculated. The unloading position with the smallest Euclidean distance is assigned to the current carrier and marked as occupied. After all carriers are processed, the initial mapping relationship between the carriers and the unloading positions is obtained, which serves as the unloading position mapping table.
6. The method for dynamic scheduling of multi-carrier plate gripping sequence in the unloading stage of an electroplating production line according to claim 1, characterized in that: After generating the unload location mapping table, compactness optimization and security optimization steps are also included: Traverse all assigned unloading locations in the unloading location mapping table and calculate the physical distance between two adjacent assigned unloading locations; If the physical distance is greater than the minimum safe distance for parallel flow of the carriers, the unloading position of the latter of the two adjacent carriers will be adjusted forward, that is, redistributed to the nearest unoccupied position adjacent to the unloading position of the former carrier, so as to reduce the distance to be equal to or less than the minimum safe distance. If the physical spacing is less than the minimum safe distance for parallel flow of the carriers, the unloading position of the latter of the two adjacent carriers will be adjusted backward, that is, redistributed to the free position that is closest to the unloading position of the former carrier but with a spacing not less than the minimum safe distance, so as to increase the spacing to be equal to or greater than the minimum safe distance. After processing all adjacent carrier pairs in sequence, an optimized unloading location mapping table is generated.
7. The method for dynamic scheduling of multi-carrier plate gripping sequence in the unloading stage of an electroplating production line according to claim 6, characterized in that: It also includes a process for verifying the risk of being detained: Based on the unloading position assigned to each carrier in the compact unloading position mapping table, the distance between the unloading position and the next process entry is obtained. Based on the preset conveying speed of the carrier moving from the unloading position to the next process entry, the expected dwell time of each carrier is obtained. If the expected dwell time of any carrier exceeds the preset dwell time threshold, the unloading position of the carrier is reassigned to the idle unloading position closest to the next process entry. Then the expected dwell time of the carrier is recalculated until the expected dwell time of all carriers does not exceed the dwell time threshold, and the final unloading position mapping table is obtained.
8. The method for dynamic scheduling of multi-carrier plate gripping sequence in the unloading stage of an electroplating production line according to claim 1, characterized in that: After generating the sequence of instructions to be executed by the robotic arm, a real-time rescheduling step is also included: During the execution of the instruction sequence, sensors monitor the actual electroplating time of each carrier plate and the actual position of the robotic arm in real time. When it is detected that the actual completion time of electroplating of a certain carrier plate is later than its expected time and the delay time exceeds the preset dynamic adjustment threshold, or when it is detected that the waiting time of the robotic arm after executing the current grasping task exceeds the preset idle threshold, real-time rescheduling is triggered, and the original unexecuted instruction sequence is replaced with a newly generated execution instruction sequence.