Warehouse Robot Route Reservation Using Space-Time Waypoints
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing route reservation methods for automated guided robots in warehouses are inefficient and fail to ensure safe navigation in crowded environments where multiple robots share common pathways, leading to potential collisions.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of waypoints with specific locations, sizes, and timestamps allows robots to navigate safely by ensuring that overlapping waypoints result in non-colliding paths, enabling efficient route reservation and management in busy warehouses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional route reservation methods are used in crowded warehouses, then robots can navigate along predefined paths, but collision risk increases when multiple robots share common pathways
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the continuous navigation path into discrete waypoints with specific timestamps. Each waypoint represents a specific location at a specific time, allowing the system to manage robot movements in granular time steps rather than continuous paths, thereby enabling safer coordination in crowded environments
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds the time dimension to the traditional spatial path representation. By incorporating timestamps to each waypoint and considering the future position of other robots along their paths, the system transforms a 2D spatial navigation problem into a 3D space-time navigation problem, enabling collision detection and avoidance in crowded warehouses
2Ease of operation
If robots reserve entire paths in advance, then navigation planning is simplified, but system flexibility and real-time adaptability are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic path reservation system where waypoints are released from reservation as robots pass through them. This allows the navigation system to adapt in real-time to changing conditions, enabling robots to receive updated paths dynamically while maintaining the simplicity of predefined path structures
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary path planning by pre-defining waypoints and paths, but incorporates real-time adaptability by checking for potential collisions and issuing path update instructions when necessary. This combines the benefits of advance planning with real-time responsiveness
3Reliability
If waypoints are reserved exclusively for specific robots, then collision avoidance is ensured, but system efficiency decreases due to underutilization of common pathways
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic release of waypoint reservations as robots progress along their paths. Waypoints are reserved for specific time periods corresponding to when robots will pass through them, and are automatically released after the robot passes, allowing other robots to use the same pathways at different times and thereby improving overall system utilization while maintaining collision avoidance
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure discloses a method and system for assisting a robot to navigate in a warehouse setting. In some embodiments, robot is configured to receive a reserved route and move according to the reserved route as it navigates inside a warehouse. A reserved route includes one or more waypoints. Each waypoint represents a location and a size, the size being the space needed for accommodating a robot at the location. The one or more waypoints are listed in a sequence for a robot to follow sequentially. In some embodiments, each waypoint may further include a timestamp representing the time that the robot given the reserved route is supposed to arrive at the location.