Remote Robot Control With Pre-Checked Factory Safety Conditions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for remotely controlling robots in factory infrastructure lack safety checks, leading to potential accidents and inefficiencies, as they do not ensure that safety conditions are met before generating remote control signals.
Innovation Solution
A method that receives and checks safety condition signals prior to generating remote control signals, ensuring that safety conditions such as communication integrity, redundancy, and availability are met before allowing remote control, and outputs signals only when these conditions are fulfilled, with the option to adapt robot settings and detect errors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If remote control signals are generated without checking safety conditions, then remote control operation is simplified and faster, but safety is compromised leading to potential accidents
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by checking safety conditions before generating remote control signals. The system evaluates safety status, communication quality, and robot state in advance, and only permits remote control when safety criteria are satisfied. This prevents unsafe operations while maintaining a relatively simple control architecture.
2Reliability
If safety condition checks are implemented before remote control, then safety and reliability are improved, but system complexity and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
Safety conditions are checked in advance before remote control operations are initiated. The system evaluates communication quality, robot state, and safety criteria beforehand, so that when remote control is needed, the decision can be made quickly based on pre-assessed conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-verification of safety conditions using its own sensors and status information. The robot and control system automatically monitor their own state, communication quality, and safety parameters, reducing the need for external verification and minimizing processing time.
3Reliability
If comprehensive safety checks are performed, then operational reliability is enhanced, but ease of operation is reduced due to additional verification steps
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically monitors and verifies safety conditions without requiring manual intervention from the operator. Safety parameters such as communication quality, robot state, and environmental conditions are continuously self-checked, allowing the operator to focus on control tasks rather than safety verification.
Solution Approach 2:
The safety check mechanism is integrated uniformly into the remote control system architecture, creating a homogeneous workflow where safety verification is as natural and seamless as the control operations themselves. This reduces the perceived complexity for the operator.
4Object-affected harmful factors
If safety condition verification is implemented, then accident risk is reduced, but device complexity increases due to additional safety monitoring components
Solution Approach 1:
The robot and control system perform self-monitoring of safety conditions using built-in sensors and status information. The system automatically detects unsafe conditions and prevents remote control operations without requiring additional external monitoring equipment, thereby reducing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Existing system components are made multi-functional by having them serve both operational control and safety monitoring functions. For example, communication channels used for control signals also carry safety status information, and sensors used for navigation also detect safety-critical conditions.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for remotely controlling a robot situated within a factory infrastructure. The method includes: receiving safety condition signals, which represent at least one safety condition which must be met for the robot to be allowed to be remotely controlled; checking whether the at least one safety condition is met; generating remote control signals for remotely controlling the robot based on a result of the check whether the at least one safety condition is met; and outputting the generated remote control signals. A device, a computer program, and a machine-readable memory medium, are also described.