Robotic Bin Picking Collision Detection for Bin Wall Clearance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current robotic bin picking systems lack efficiency in identifying and avoiding collisions between the robot's end effector and the bin walls during grasping operations, particularly in dynamic environments where precise clearance dimensions are not established beforehand.
Innovation Solution
An autonomous system determines clearance dimensions and potential collisions between the end effector and bin walls in real-time by obtaining bin dimensions, calculating plane equations for bin walls, and checking for potential collisions using grasp points and nominal lines, allowing for efficient collision avoidance during grasping.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If the robot executes grasps in bins without collision detection, then the operation speed is faster, but the robot may collide with bin walls causing damage and safety issues
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary collision detection by calculating the trajectory of the end effector from the current pose to the grasp pose, and checking for potential collisions with bin walls before the actual grasping operation. This allows the robot to identify and avoid collision-prone trajectories in advance, ensuring safety while maintaining operational speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary collision detection mechanism that acts as a mediator between the robot's motion planning and execution. The detection system uses plane representations of bin walls and trajectory calculations to intermediary check for collisions, providing a safety layer without directly interfering with the grasping operation flow.
2Measurement precision
If the system performs detailed collision detection calculations, then collision avoidance accuracy is improved, but the computational time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The collision detection process is segmented into distinct steps: obtaining bin dimensions, determining plane representations of bin walls, calculating end effector trajectory, and checking for collisions. This segmentation allows for efficient computation by breaking down the complex detection task into manageable, optimized sub-tasks that can be executed quickly.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter representation by using plane equations to represent bin walls and nominal lines to represent the end effector's grasp trajectory. This parameter transformation enables more efficient collision detection calculations compared to using complex geometric models, maintaining accuracy while reducing computational time.
3Device complexity
If the robot uses simple grasp planning without considering bin geometry, then the planning process is simpler, but the robot cannot avoid collisions with bin walls
Solution Approach 1:
The collision detection system is designed to be universal and applicable to various bin geometries and robot configurations. By using plane representations for bin walls and nominal lines for trajectories, the system can handle different bin shapes and sizes without requiring complex, specialized planning algorithms for each case, thus maintaining simplicity while ensuring safety.
Data Source
AI summary
Bin picking refers to a robot grasping objects that can define random or arbitrary poses, from a container or bin. The robot can move or transport the objects, and place them at a different location for packaging or further processing. It is recognized herein, however, that current approaches to robotic picking lack efficiency and capabilities. In particular, current approaches often do not properly or efficiently identify certain clearances associated with a given robot to execute various grasps, due to various technical challenges in doing so. During runtime of a robot, various clearance dimensions associated with the robot executing a grasp are determined. In particular, for example, during runtime the robot can determine trajectories for executing grasps of objects in bins without colliding with the bin, for instance walls of the bin.