Robot control system and recording medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10286548-B2
Application number	US-201615347391-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 9, 2016
Priority date	May 23, 2016
Publication date	May 14, 2019
Grant date	May 14, 2019

Abstract

A robot control system includes: plural robots that are disposed in a region; a generating unit that divides the region into plural small regions and generates disposition position information for specifying disposition positions of each of the plural robots in the region based on a value indicating a use possibility of a robot in each small regions; and a disposition unit that disposes the plural robots in the region in accordance with the disposition position information generated by the generating unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A robot control system comprising:
plural robots that are disposed in a region;
a generating unit that generates disposition position information based on a value indicating a use possibility of a robot in each of plural small regions that are included in the region, the value is determined with reference to schedule data of a person present in the each of the plural small regions and characteristics of a field associated with the each of the plural small regions; and
a disposition unit that disposes the plural robots in accordance with the disposition position information.

2. The robot control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the generating unit calculates the value indicating the use possibility of a robot based on a population density of the small region, a value that is determined by a characteristic of the person present in the small region, and a value that is determined by a field characteristic of the small region.

3. The robot control system according to claim 2 ,
wherein the value that is determined by the characteristic of the person present in the small region is determined based on a robot use history of the person and/or schedule data of the person.

4. The robot control system according to claim 2 , further comprising
an environmental sensor,
wherein the value that is determined by the field characteristic of the small region is determined based on a state of the small region detected by the environmental sensor.

5. The robot control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the generating unit generates disposition position information for determining disposition positions of each of the plural robots such that the total sum of products, for each small regions, of a distance from the small region to each of the disposition positions of the plural robots and the value indicating the use possibility of a robot in the small region becomes a minimum.

6. The robot control system according to claim 5 ,
wherein the distance from the small region to each of the disposition positions of plural robots is a linear distance or an effective distance.

7. The robot control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the generating unit generates the disposition position information such that
small regions in which the value indicating the use possibility of a robot exceeds a first threshold are selected from among the plural small regions of the region by a number of the plural robots disposed in the region in descending order of the value indicating the use possibility of a robot,
in a case where a small region in the selected small regions is not adjacent to other small region in the selected small regions, the small region not adjacent to the other small region in the selected small regions is determined as the disposition position of the robots,
in a case where a small region in the selected small regions is adjacent to other small region in the selected small regions and an average value of the values indicating the use possibility of a robot in the small region and the other small region adjacent to the small region exceeds a second threshold that is greater than the first threshold, each of (a) the small region being adjacent to the other small region in the selected small regions and (b) the other small region is determined as a disposition position in which one robot is disposed, and
in a case where a small region in the selected small regions is adjacent to other small region in the selected small regions and the average value is equal to or less than the second threshold, one of the plural robots, a number of which is smaller than a total number each of the small region being adjacent to the other small region in the selected small regions and the other small region are disposed in the small region being adjacent to the other small region in the selected small regions and the other small region.

8. The robot control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the generating unit updates the disposition position information periodically.

9. The robot control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the generating unit updates the disposition position information in a case where a rapid movement of a person occurs in the region.

10. A non-transitory recording medium storing a program causing a computer to execute a process comprising:
generating disposition position information based on a value indicating a use possibility of a robot in each of plural small regions that are included in a region, the value is determined with reference to schedule data of a person present in the each of the plural small regions and characteristics of a field associated with the each of the plural small regions; and
disposing plural robots in accordance with the disposition position information.

Assignees

• Fuji Xerox Co Ltd

Inventors

• Komatsuzaki Kazunari
• Thapliya Roshan

Classifications

• B25J9/0084 Primary

  comprising a plurality of manipulators · CPC title

• G05B2219/39146

  Swarm, multiagent, distributed multitask fusion, cooperation multi robots · CPC title

• Y02P90/285

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• B25J9/1682 Primary

  Dual arm manipulator; Coordination of several manipulators · CPC title

• Y02P90/60

  Electric or hybrid propulsion means for production processes · CPC title