Robotic Pack Planning for Stable and Fragile Item Placement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional packing systems fail to consider item stability and integrity, leading to potential damage or loss during storage and shipping.
Innovation Solution
An autonomous robotic pack planning system that includes item identification, pack planning, and robotic packing subsystems to generate and execute plans that ensure item stability and integrity by considering constraints such as containment, stability, and fragility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional packing systems pack items based only on item geometries, then packing efficiency is improved, but item stability and integrity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from considering only geometric parameters to incorporating multiple additional parameters including stability attributes, fragility attributes, maximum force thresholds, and stress thresholds. This multi-parameter approach enables the pack planning system to generate placement poses that satisfy both efficiency and reliability requirements by evaluating multiple constraints simultaneously.
2Reliability
If autonomous robotic systems are implemented to generate and execute pack plans, then item stability and integrity are improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The autonomous robotic pack planning system is divided into distinct functional subsystems: item identification subsystem, pack planning subsystem, and robotic packing subsystem. Each subsystem performs a specific function, making the overall complex system manageable through modular design. The item identification subsystem detects and identifies items, the pack planning subsystem generates placement poses considering multiple constraints, and the robotic packing subsystem executes the planned packing operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The pack planning subsystem generates complete pack plans with determined placement poses for all items before the robotic packing subsystem begins physical packing. This preliminary planning phase allows the system to evaluate multiple constraints and optimize item arrangement in silico before actual packing, reducing the complexity of real-time control during the physical packing process.
3Reliability
If multiple constraints (containment, stability, fragility) are considered in pack planning, then item protection is improved, but computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The pack planning system evaluates multiple candidate placement poses for each item and selects those that satisfy all constraints. Rather than exhaustively evaluating every possible arrangement, the system uses heuristic methods and constraint satisfaction techniques to efficiently identify sufficient valid placements, balancing computational effort with the need for comprehensive constraint evaluation.
Data Source
AI summary
Autonomous robotic pack planning systems and methods may include an item identification subsystem, a pack planning subsystem, and a robotic packing subsystem. Based on identified items to be packed, the pack planning subsystem may generate a pack plan with placement poses for items that satisfy various constraints, including containment constraints, stability constraints, and/or stress constraints. Then, the robotic packing subsystem may pack the items according to the pack plan. Further, packing of items may be monitored in real-time, and the pack plan may be dynamically adjusted or regenerated in response to deviations from the pack plan.