Offboard Robot Mobility Control for Low-Power Multi-Robot Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional autonomous robot systems require significant onboard computing resources and high power consumption for path planning and execution, which limits their efficiency and scalability in monitored environments.
Innovation Solution
A robot control system that utilizes a central computer with sensors to determine paths for robots without onboard navigation sensors, employing a costmap method for path planning and collision avoidance, and implementing a traffic controller to manage intersections and prioritize robot movements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If autonomous robots use onboard sensors and computing resources for path planning and execution, then navigation autonomy is achieved, but power consumption increases and computational resources are excessive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the path planning and navigation computation from the robot itself and relocates it to an external server. The robot only retains minimal onboard components for receiving navigation instructions and executing movements, while the computationally intensive path planning is performed externally using sensor data from the environment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary server that acts as a mediator between the robot and the environment. The server receives sensor data, performs path planning computations, and sends navigation instructions back to the robot, thereby offloading the computational burden from the robot while maintaining autonomous navigation capability.
2Extent of automation
If autonomous robots use onboard sensors and computing resources for path planning and execution, then navigation autonomy is achieved, but computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the path planning and navigation computation from the robot itself and relocates it to an external server. The robot only retains minimal onboard components for receiving navigation instructions and executing movements, while the computationally intensive path planning is performed externally using sensor data from the environment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary server that acts as a mediator between the robot and the environment. The server receives sensor data, performs path planning computations, and sends navigation instructions back to the robot, thereby offloading the computational burden from the robot while maintaining autonomous navigation capability.
3Extent of automation
If multiple robots operate independently with onboard navigation systems, then individual robot autonomy is maintained, but system scalability is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the navigation intelligence of multiple robots into a shared external server system. Instead of each robot having independent onboard navigation systems, all robots share a common server that processes sensor data and generates navigation instructions for multiple robots simultaneously, enabling scalable multi-robot operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The external server is designed to serve multiple robots with a single navigation system. The server can handle path planning for multiple robots concurrently, making the navigation system universal and scalable to any number of robots without requiring proportional increases in onboard computational resources for each robot.
Data Source
AI summary
A robot control system is presented for a monitored environment. The control system includes: a central computer; and a plurality of sensors in data communication with the central computer. Each sensor is at a fixed location in the monitored environment and is configured to detect location of objects in the monitored environment. A plurality of robots also resides in the monitored environment. Each robot is comprised of a wireless communication receiver, a regulator, an actuator and a power source, such that the regulator receives motion commands directly from the central computer via the wireless communication receiver. It is noted that the robots are not configured with sensors to help navigate the robot.