Work Machine Assistance for Automated Area Task Allocation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In landscaping and similar industries, the coordination and cooperation between workers using different types of work machines are inefficient due to reliance on voluntary behaviors, leading to suboptimal work distribution and performance.
Innovation Solution
An assistance apparatus and method that includes a system with a vehicle assistance apparatus, walk assistance apparatus, and robot assistance apparatus, utilizing sensors and a central assistance server to automatically request and allocate work machines to specific areas based on obstacles, terrain, and work progress, ensuring efficient task distribution and cooperation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If workers coordinate voluntarily without automated assistance, then the system complexity remains low, but the cooperation efficiency and work distribution optimization deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
An automated assistance system acts as an intermediary between workers and work machines, receiving information about work progress and machine locations, then automatically generating coordination instructions. This mediator handles the complex decision-making logic for work distribution, eliminating the need for workers to manually coordinate while maintaining simple individual worker tasks.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback loops where work progress, machine locations, and task completion status are constantly monitored and fed back to the coordination system. This real-time feedback enables dynamic optimization of work distribution and automatic adjustment of task allocation based on current system state, improving cooperation efficiency through data-driven decisions.
2Productivity
If automated assistance systems are implemented to improve coordination, then work distribution optimization improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The automated assistance system is designed as a universal platform that can coordinate multiple types of work machines (mowers, blowers, trimmers) and multiple workers simultaneously. The system performs multiple functions including task allocation, progress tracking, location monitoring, and instruction generation within a single integrated framework, reducing overall system complexity through consolidation.
Solution Approach 2:
The coordination system is segmented into modular functional components: information collection modules that gather data from sensors and workers, processing modules that analyze work progress and generate optimization strategies, and communication modules that distribute instructions. This segmentation allows each component to be independently developed and maintained, managing complexity through functional decomposition.
3Productivity
If workers manually coordinate their work areas and tasks, then the ease of operation is maintained, but the loss of time due to inefficient cooperation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-planning work distribution strategies and pre-allocating tasks to workers and machines based on predicted work progress and machine availability. This advance preparation eliminates the need for time-consuming real-time negotiations and manual coordination during work execution, reducing time loss while maintaining operational simplicity.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
An assistance apparatus for assisting work that is performed using a plurality of work machines that include a travelling work machine includes a specifying unit for specifying a target area in which a work machine other than the travelling work machine is to perform work, based on information from a sensor related to the travelling work machine, and a requesting unit for requesting to perform work in the target area. A work machine that is to perform work in the target area is determined based on the information from the sensor.