Base Map Translation for Multi-Robot Feature Correlation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In industrial environments with multiple robots, each robot utilizes its own specific map, making it impossible to determine the relative pose between objects detected by different robots or correlate them to a common base map, limiting the utility of their detections.
Innovation Solution
Implement methods to translate between robot-specific maps and a base map, enabling the conversion of robot map poses to base map poses, allowing simultaneous rendering and correlation of detected features across different robot maps.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If each robot utilizes its own robot-specific map for navigation and detection, then each robot can independently perform its mission with optimized local mapping, but it becomes impossible to determine the relative pose between objects detected by different robots or correlate them to a common base map
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a base map as an intermediary reference frame that mediates between multiple robot-specific maps. The base map serves as a common coordinate system that allows poses from different robot maps to be transformed and correlated, enabling the system to maintain both independent robot navigation and global pose correlation capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a new dimensional layer by introducing the base map coordinate system alongside robot-specific map coordinate systems. This dimensional expansion allows for transformation between different reference frames, enabling the system to operate simultaneously in local robot coordinates and global base map coordinates without losing positional information
2Adaptability or versatility
If each robot generates and utilizes its own robot-specific map based on past observations, then each robot can be optimized for its specific mission requirements, but the system cannot correlate detections across multiple robots to a common reference frame
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the mapping system into two distinct components: robot-specific maps that are optimized for individual robot missions and a base map that provides global correlation. This segmentation allows each robot to maintain its specialized map while the base map integrates information from all robots, preserving both adaptability and correlation capability
Solution Approach 2:
The base map serves as a universal reference frame that can correlate detections from any robot in the system. This multi-functional base map structure allows the system to maintain robot-specific optimizations while providing a common framework for integrating information across all robots, enabling both specialized and collaborative operations
Data Source
AI summary
Implementations relate to translating between a base map of an industrial facility and robot specific map(s) utilized by robot(s) to navigate about the industrial facility. First translation data is generated based on comparing the base map and a first robot map, and second translation data is generated based on comparing the base map and a second robot map. Using the first and second translation data, a pose of a first environmental feature detected by the first robot in the first robot map can be translated and graphically rendered in a corresponding pose in the base map, and a pose of a second environmental feature in the second robot map can be translated and graphically rendered in a corresponding pose in the base map. Association between industrial data received for industrial components observed in the base map may also be associated with detection of an environmental feature in a robot-specific map.