Mobile Robot Arm Collision Avoidance via Predictive Positioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing mobile robots in industrial settings often require human intervention to avoid collisions, especially with obstacles or people, as they cannot predict human movements and lack the ability to adjust their route or robot arm positions autonomously to prevent collisions.
Innovation Solution
A mobile robot equipped with a sensor system and navigation unit that calculates and transmits obstacle information to a control unit, allowing the robot arm to move to a safe position to avoid collisions, enabling collision-free navigation with minimal human assistance by planning alternative routes if necessary.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the robot performs emergency stop to avoid collision with obstacles or humans, then collision risk is reduced, but productivity decreases due to stopping and requiring human intervention
Solution Approach 1:
The navigation unit calculates and transmits route information to the robot arm control in advance, allowing the robot arm to move to safe positions proactively before collisions occur. This preliminary positioning enables the running gear to continue moving without emergency stops, maintaining productivity while ensuring collision avoidance.
Solution Approach 2:
The robot autonomously monitors its own route and robot arm positions using the sensor system and navigation unit, making independent decisions about robot arm positioning without human intervention. This self-monitoring and self-adjustment capability allows continuous operation while preventing collisions.
2Productivity
If the robot arm remains in position during running gear movement, then task performance is maintained, but collision risk increases with moving obstacles
Solution Approach 1:
The robot arm dynamically adjusts its position based on real-time sensor data and predicted obstacle locations. The control unit continuously modifies robot arm positions along the route to maintain safety margins while minimizing disruption to task performance, enabling adaptive collision prevention.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds the temporal dimension to collision prevention by predicting future obstacle positions based on current sensor data. Instead of reacting to obstacles in the current dimension, the navigation unit anticipates their future positions and pre-positions the robot arm accordingly, preventing collisions before they occur.
3Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If the robot uses sensor arrays to detect obstacles, then collision detection capability is improved, but the ability to predict and prevent collisions autonomously remains insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor system continuously provides feedback about obstacle positions to the navigation unit, which calculates appropriate robot arm positions. This closed-loop feedback system enables the robot to autonomously adjust its configuration based on real-time environmental conditions, achieving predictive collision prevention without human intervention.
Solution Approach 2:
The navigation unit uses sensor data to predict future obstacle positions and pre-calculates safe robot arm positions before collisions occur. This preliminary calculation and positioning capability transforms the system from reactive obstacle detection to proactive collision prevention, fully utilizing automation.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a mobile robot having running gear and at least one robot arm mounted on the running gear, a sensor system for sensing obstacles in the surroundings of the robot and a navigation unit for laying down a route along which the running gear can be moved while avoiding the obstacles, and a control unit for the robot arm which is adapted to lay down a permissible position for the robot arm by reference to the obstacles sensed and the route.