Warehouse Robot Route Reservation With Spatiotemporal 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, as they do not adequately account for the size and posture of robots, leading to potential collisions.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of waypoints with designated locations, sizes, and timestamps allows robots to navigate safely by releasing reserved waypoints after passing them, enabling real-time path adjustments and preventing collisions by ensuring that robots arrive at shared locations at different times.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional route reservation methods are used in crowded warehouses, then robots can navigate using pre-reserved line segments, but collisions occur and navigation safety deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the continuous navigation path into discrete waypoints with specific spatial coordinates and timestamps. Each waypoint becomes an independent reservation unit that robots can acquire and release individually, allowing fine-grained control over path sharing and collision prevention in crowded warehouse environments.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a temporal dimension to traditional spatial path reservation by assigning timestamps to each waypoint. This transforms the reservation system from purely spatial (x, y coordinates) to spatio-temporal (x, y, t), enabling multiple robots to share the same physical path at different times without collision while maintaining high productivity.
2Ease of operation
If robots reserve entire paths in advance, then navigation planning is simplified, but path flexibility and real-time adjustments are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic waypoint reservation system where robots can acquire and release waypoints in real-time based on actual navigation needs. Instead of reserving entire static paths, robots dynamically reserve individual waypoints as needed, allowing flexible real-time path adjustments while maintaining operational simplicity through automated acquisition and release mechanisms.
3Reliability
If waypoints with sizes and timestamps are introduced, then collision prevention improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enhances traditional waypoint coordinates by adding two critical parameters: waypoint size (spatial dimension) and timestamp (temporal dimension). This parameter expansion enables comprehensive collision prevention by checking both spatial overlap and temporal conflict, while the standardized parameter structure keeps the system manageable despite increased complexity.
Data Source
Figure 1~2c
Figure 2d~2f
Figure 3~5(c)
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.