Robotic Jog Control With Parallel Collision Checking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current robotic systems require manual intervention for collision avoidance, which is inefficient and lacks automated solutions, especially in dynamic operational environments, leading to potential collisions and increased operational costs.
Innovation Solution
A robotic system with a user interface that receives jog commands, featuring a control unit capable of real-time parallel processing to execute collision checks and jog operations, determining whether a command results in a collision or unobstructed status within a collision check time limit, allowing the robotic unit to execute the command safely.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If real-time parallel processing is implemented for collision checks, then collision avoidance reliability is improved, but processing time and computational complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates and stores collision-free paths and environmental obstacle data before execution. The environment model and robot model are prepared in advance, allowing the real-time collision check to simply compare against pre-computed safe trajectories rather than performing full collision detection calculations during runtime, thus maintaining high reliability while reducing processing time.
Solution Approach 2:
The collision check process is divided into separate parallel threads: one thread handles environment model updates while another performs collision detection based on pre-stored safe paths. This segmentation allows independent optimization of each thread and enables concurrent execution, improving overall processing efficiency without compromising collision avoidance reliability.
2Productivity
If automated collision avoidance is implemented, then operational efficiency is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic system performs self-monitoring for potential collisions using pre-stored environment and robot models. The automated collision avoidance mechanism uses internally maintained data structures (environment model, robot model, safe trajectories) to independently determine collision-free paths without requiring external intervention, thereby improving operational efficiency while keeping the system architecture relatively simple.
Solution Approach 2:
The same environment model and robot model data structures serve multiple functions: they are used for path planning, collision detection, and trajectory optimization. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate complex systems for each function, achieving automated collision avoidance with moderate system complexity.
3Device complexity
If manual operation is required for collision avoidance, then system complexity is reduced, but operational efficiency and safety decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors the robotic unit's position against pre-stored safe trajectories and environment models, providing real-time feedback on collision risk. This automated feedback mechanism enables the system to autonomously adjust operations to avoid collisions, significantly improving operational efficiency and safety compared to manual monitoring, while the feedback logic remains relatively simple based on pre-computed data.
Data Source
AI summary
A robotic system includes a user interface configured to receive a jog command for manually operating a robotic unit; a control unit, coupled to the user interface, configured to: real-time parallel process the jog command including to: execute a collision check thread to determine whether the jog command results in a collision or results in an unobstructed status for the robotic unit within an operation environment based on an environment model and a robot model, execute a jog operation thread to determine whether the unobstructed status is provided within a collision check time limit; and execute the jog command by the robotic unit based on the unobstructed status provided before the collision check time limit.