Semi-Autonomous Farm Robots With Remote Control Handover
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Solution Overview
Problem
Agricultural tasks requiring dexterity and delicacy, such as trimming plants, picking weeds, or picking fruit, pose challenges for autonomous robots due to the uniqueness of each plant, making it difficult for them to perform these tasks safely and efficiently without human intervention.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of semi-autonomous robots that delegate tasks to minimize human intervention, using scout robots to gather data and identify target plants, and transitioning to manual control only when necessary to ensure safety, allowing a small number of human operators to manage a large fleet of robots by providing manual control interfaces and predefining robot plans for autonomous execution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If autonomous robots are used to perform agricultural tasks, then productivity is improved through automation, but reliability deteriorates due to inability to handle delicate tasks safely
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a human operator as an intermediary between the autonomous robot and the plant. The robot autonomously navigates to the target plant and positions itself, but a human operator remotely controls the robot's end effector to perform the delicate agricultural task. This intermediary control mechanism allows the system to benefit from robotic automation while ensuring human judgment protects against damage to unique plants.
2Reliability
If full manual control is used for delicate agricultural tasks, then reliability is improved through human judgment, but productivity deteriorates due to requirement for extensive human intervention
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the agricultural task into two distinct phases: autonomous navigation to the target plant, and manual control for the delicate manipulation. The robot independently completes the navigation phase without human intervention, then transitions to manual control only for the specific task execution phase. This segmentation reduces overall human involvement compared to fully manual operation while maintaining safety during the critical manipulation phase.
3Reliability
If one-to-one human control is implemented, then reliability is improved through direct supervision, but device complexity increases due to control infrastructure requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal remote control interface that can operate any robot in the fleet. A single control system design serves multiple robots, allowing one human operator to manage multiple machines. This universal approach reduces the complexity that would arise from requiring dedicated control systems for each individual robot, while still maintaining direct human supervision for task execution.
4Reliability
If extensive human intervention is required for each task, then reliability is improved through human oversight, but loss of time increases due to human operator availability constraints
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transmits real-time visual data from the robot's cameras to the human operator's interface, creating a visual copy of the robot's perspective. This allows the operator to observe and control the robot remotely without physical presence at the plant location. The visual copying mechanism enables timely human intervention and decision-making while the robot is positioned at the target plant, reducing delays that would occur with physical relocation or limited sensor feedback.
Data Source
AI summary
Implementations are described herein for coordinating semi-autonomous robots to perform agricultural tasks on a plurality of plants with minimal human intervention. In various implementations, a plurality of robots may be deployed to perform a respective plurality of agricultural tasks. Each agricultural task may be associated with a respective plant of a plurality of plants, and each plant may have been previously designated as a target for one of the agricultural tasks. It may be determined that a given robot has reached an individual plant associated with the respective agricultural task that was assigned to the given robot. Based at least in part on that determination, a manual control interface may be provided at output component(s) of a computing device in network communication with the given robot. The manual control interface may be operable to manually control the given robot to perform the respective agricultural task.