Robot Navigation Task Coordination Across Mixed Vendor Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automation systems in production sites lack versatility and expandability, making it difficult to integrate robot systems from different vendors and change their functions effectively.
Innovation Solution
An integrated navigation system that generates jobs based on information from production facilities and sends task commands to various robot systems, enabling sophisticated cooperation between robot systems from different vendors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If robot systems from different vendors are integrated into a unified automation system, then versatility and expandability are improved, but system complexity and coordination difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The navigation device is designed with universal functionality to manage multiple types of robot systems from different vendors. It can generate various types of tasks (move tasks, work tasks, wait tasks) and communicate with different robot systems through a unified interface, enabling one device to perform multiple coordination functions across heterogeneous robot systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The navigation device acts as an intermediary between the production management device and multiple robot systems. It receives job information from the production management device, processes it into appropriate tasks, and distributes them to relevant robot systems. This mediator role simplifies the overall system architecture by centralizing coordination logic.
2Productivity
If multiple robot systems are coordinated through a centralized navigation system, then cooperation efficiency is improved, but the navigation system becomes a single point of failure
Solution Approach 1:
The navigation device segments tasks into different types (move tasks for position changes, work tasks for actual operations, wait tasks for synchronization). This segmentation allows for more granular error handling and recovery, where failures in one task type can be managed independently without collapsing the entire system.
Solution Approach 2:
The navigation device performs preliminary processing of job information before distributing tasks to robot systems. It pre-calculates task sequences, identifies potential conflicts, and prepares coordination strategies in advance, which helps prevent errors and enables faster recovery when failures occur.
3Ease of operation
If a unified task management system is implemented across different robot systems, then operational coordination is improved, but the difficulty of system integration increases
Solution Approach 1:
The navigation device enforces homogeneous task structures across different robot systems. All tasks follow a standardized format with consistent fields for position, timing, and execution parameters. This homogenization simplifies integration by providing a uniform interface, even though the underlying robot systems are heterogeneous.
Solution Approach 2:
The navigation device provides universal task generation capabilities that can accommodate different robot systems through a single unified interface. It translates diverse robot-specific requirements into a common task language, reducing integration complexity while maintaining operational coordination.
Data Source
AI summary
An integrated navigation system is configured to support cooperation of a plurality of different robot systems each including at least one automatic work robot operating at a production site. The integrated navigation system includes a job generation device configured to generate a job related to production based on information sent from a plurality of production facilities deployed at the production site, and a navigation device configured to generate a task, which is a work command to each of the plurality of different robot systems, based on the job, and to send the task of the robot system to each corresponding robot system.