Walking Speed Synchronization Using Rhythm Cues for Human-Robot Flow
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In environments where human workers and robots, or multiple types of robots, move at varying speeds, confusion and interference occur, leading to collisions and reduced efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A walking speed control system that synchronizes the movements of human workers and robots using a detection unit, calculation unit, and setting unit to set a moving speed in synchronization with an average value, and utilizes music with a predetermined rhythm to enhance synchronization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If human workers and robots move at different individual speeds, then each can work at its own pace, but confusion and interference occur leading to collisions
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses music with a predetermined rhythm as a periodic signal to synchronize the movements of human workers and robots. Each participant adjusts their walking speed to match the rhythmic beats, creating periodic synchronized action patterns that prevent collisions while maintaining individual work capabilities
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by having participants detect the rhythm of the music and continuously adjust their movement speeds to match it. This creates a closed-loop control where movement speed is constantly monitored and corrected based on the rhythmic reference signal, ensuring synchronized movement without collisions
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple types of robots with different moving speeds are mixed, then diverse work capabilities are achieved, but confusion occurs between their movements
Solution Approach 1:
The music-based rhythmic signal provides a common periodic reference that all robot types can synchronize to, regardless of their individual speed capabilities. Each robot adjusts its movement to match the rhythm, creating coordinated motion patterns that prevent interference between different robot types while maintaining their diverse functional characteristics
3Productivity
If robots move faster to improve efficiency, then productivity increases, but interference with human workers occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The synchronized rhythmic movement creates predictable periodic patterns in the workspace. Human workers and robots move in coordinated waves to the music rhythm, making their movements predictable and synchronized, which eliminates random interference while allowing robots to maintain higher speeds for improved productivity
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A humanoid robot automatically measures an average walking speed of human workers using a group of sensors. The humanoid robot is moved at a speed equivalent to the measured walking speed. The moving speeds in the entire working environment can be synchronized (first-stage synchronization). A speaker plays a rhythm that can be heard by both the human workers and the humanoid robots at the same time. By playing this rhythmic music on a floor, all of the human workers and the humanoid robots are synchronized to the same rhythm (second-stage synchronization). If the music is played at 1.2x speed 1.2 to the walking speed A (A×1.2) of the human workers, the entire flow of movement can be synchronized to a 1.2 times faster rhythm with fewer accidents (e.g., contacts, collisions, etc.) (third-stage synchronization).