Byte Order Translation for Robotic Component Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Fulfillment centers and manufacturing facilities face challenges in integrating robotic components from different vendors due to compatibility issues, particularly with control information, leading to the need for multiple management systems and increased costs.
Innovation Solution
A management system with a translation component that determines and translates command types for each robotic component, allowing for the use of components with different byte orders, such as big endian or little endian, ensuring compatibility and enabling control through a single management system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If robotic components from different vendors are used, then cost reduction and functionality improvement are achieved, but compatibility issues arise requiring multiple management systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a translation component as an intermediary between the management system and robotic components with different byte orders. This translator mediates communication by converting commands and data between different byte orders (big-endian, little-endian, mixed), allowing components from different vendors to communicate through a single management system without requiring multiple specialized systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The management system is designed with universal capability to handle multiple byte order types through the translation component. Instead of requiring separate management systems for different component types, the universal system can adapt to various vendor-specific protocols and byte orders, making the management system applicable to diverse robotic components from any vendor.
2Reliability
If multiple management systems are used to control different robotic components, then vendor-specific compatibility is maintained, but synchronization of actions between systems becomes difficult and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple vendor-specific management systems into a single unified management system. By combining the functionality of separate systems into one centralized system with translation capabilities, it eliminates the need for synchronization between multiple systems and reduces the time lost in coordinating actions across different management platforms.
Solution Approach 2:
The translation component serves as a mediator that enables a single management system to communicate with multiple different robotic components. This intermediary translation layer allows centralized control and coordination, eliminating synchronization delays that would occur between multiple independent management systems.
3Device complexity
If a single management system controls robotic components with different byte orders, then system complexity is reduced, but translation overhead increases processing time
Solution Approach 1:
The translation component performs preliminary action by pre-translating commands and determining byte order requirements before execution. The system identifies the target component's byte order and prepares the appropriate translation in advance, reducing processing delays during actual command execution and minimizing real-time translation overhead.
Data Source
AI summary
A management system (or controller) is configured to send commands to robotic components of different types (e.g., different command types, byte order types, etc.). Once configured, a translation component may be deployed to translate some commands to some robotic components that use a different command type than a native command type used by the management system. The management system uses a native byte order type to create commands, which may be big endian or little endian. While some of the robotic components (e.g., first robotic components) may also use the native byte order type, other robotic components (e.g., second robotic components) may use a non-native byte order type (in relation to the management system). For example, the native byte order type may be big endian while the non-native byte order type may be little endian, or vice versa.