Wireless Robot Safety Messaging With Dual Error-Code Validation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional systems for transmitting safety state information in robotics face challenges with wireless communication errors due to gaussian noise, leading to undetectable errors and inefficiencies in bandwidth and power consumption, which are not scalable for complex systems.
Innovation Solution
The system generates and transmits safety messages using a dual-source microcontroller approach, where each microcontroller generates an error code based on a unique key, ensuring error detection and validation, and the messages are transmitted over a wireless channel, allowing the sink microcontroller to recover the payload using pre-programmed keys for decoding.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If wireless communication is used to transmit safety state information, then bandwidth and power efficiency are improved, but undetectable error rates increase due to gaussian noise in the communication channel
Solution Approach 1:
The transmitting microcontroller pre-calculates and appends an error code (checksum) to the safety message before transmission. This preliminary action enables the receiving microcontroller to detect transmission errors caused by gaussian noise, resolving the reliability issue while maintaining wireless efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where the receiving microcontroller verifies the error code against the received message and sends an acknowledgment or error indication back to the transmitter, enabling error detection and retransmission without wired connections
2Reliability
If redundant mechanisms are used to control undetectable error probability, then reliability is improved, but bandwidth consumption and power usage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameter of error control from redundant message transmission to compact error code verification. By using a checksum field and verification algorithm, the system achieves the required undetectable error probability control with minimal additional bandwidth and power consumption
3Reliability
If existing error control systems are used to meet regulatory standards, then undetectable error probability is reduced, but device complexity and scalability are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the error control function into a simple error code generation component at the transmitter and a verification component at the receiver. This segmentation allows the same mechanism to be applied uniformly across multiple microcontrollers in complex robotic systems, improving scalability while meeting regulatory standards
Data Source
AI summary
A system generates, by a first source microcontroller, a first data packet comprising a payload and a first error code, the payload indicating a safety state of a robot. The first source microcontroller transmits the data packet from the first source microcontroller to a second source microcontroller. The second source microcontroller generates a second data packet that includes the payload, the first error code and a second error code. The second source microcontroller transmits the second data packet to a sink microcontroller, wherein the sink microcontroller recovers the payload based on at least one of the first error code and the second error code.