Control device and method for a plurality of robots

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11467604-B2
Application number	US-202016927922-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 13, 2020
Priority date	Dec 30, 2019
Publication date	Oct 11, 2022
Grant date	Oct 11, 2022

Abstract

Disclosed is a device and method of controlling a plurality of robots. According to an embodiment, a device and method of controlling a plurality of robots periodically measures variations in the density of people per unit quarter and deploys a robot, which is positioned close to a high-density unit quarter and has a low workload, in the unit quarter. According to an embodiment, the artificial intelligence (AI) module may be related to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), robots, augmented reality (AR) devices, virtual reality (VR) devices, and 5G service-related devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device for controlling a plurality of robots deployed in a certain area to provide a service to users, the device comprising:
communications circuitry configured to receive respective captured images of a plurality of unit quarters included in the certain area; and
a processor configured to determine the number of the users located in each of the unit quarters based on the received images and calculate a density of the users per unit quarter,
wherein the processor is further configured to:
periodically measure a variation in the density per unit quarter;
transmit a first control command for moving at least one first robot to the unit quarter where the variation has been detected to the first robot based on detecting that the variation in the density per unit quarter is not less than a predetermined threshold
assign priorities to the unit quarters based on the density per unit quarter; and
calculate an estimated workload of each robot based on a current workload caused by a task being currently performed by each of the plurality of robots, a location value per robot, and a density of a higher-ranking unit quarter,
wherein the estimated workload is a sum of the current workload and a workload to be caused when each robot is deployed in a higher-density unit quarter to perform an additional task and is data for a variation in workload of each robot.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the processor selects the highest-density unit quarter as a first peak point and selects each of unit quarters, which are a second peak point and a third peak point, in descending order from the first peak point.

3. The device of claim 2 , wherein the processor:
gathers location information for each of a first unit quarter, a second unit quarter, and a third unit quarter selected as the first peak point, the second peak point, and the third peak point, respectively, at a first time; and
gathers location information for each of a fourth unit quarter, a fifth unit quarter, and a sixth unit quarter selected as the first peak point, the second peak point, and the third peak point, respectively, at a second time.

4. The device of claim 3 , wherein the processor:
calculates a first location variation value and a first density variation between the first and fourth unit quarters selected as the first peak point;
calculates a second location variation value and a second density variation between the second and fifth unit quarters selected as the second peak point;
calculates a third location variation value and a third density variation between the third and sixth unit quarters selected as the third peak point; and
calculates the density variation for other unit quarters than the first to sixth unit quarters.

5. The device of claim 4 , wherein the processor:
calculates the first to third location variation values using Equation 1:
Euclidean( P i:After ,P i:Before )  [Equation 1]

wherein P i:After denotes a location value of a unit quarter corresponding to each ranking at the second time, and P i:Before denotes a location value of a unit quarter corresponding to each ranking at the first time, wherein calculates the first to third density variations using Equation 2:
| A i:After −A i:Before |  [Equation 2]

wherein A i:After denotes a density of a unit quarter corresponding to each ranking at the second time, and A i:Before denotes a density of a unit quarter corresponding to each ranking at the first time, wherein
calculates a moving vector of the first to third peak points using Equation 3:
α*Σ i=1 n P i +β*Σ i=1 n A i   [Equation 3]

wherein α denotes a first weight, and β denotes a second weight.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the processor:
uses Equation 4 below to calculate the estimated workload (RL)of each robot,

R
⁢
L

=

α
*

∑

i
=
1

n

⁢

Amp
⁡

(

PP
i

)



Pos
⁡

(
R
)

-

Pos
⁡

(

PP
i

)



+

β
*

WL
⁡

(
R
)

[

Equation
⁢

⁢
4

]

wherein α denotes a first weight, β denotes a second weight, R denotes each robot, WL denotes the current workload of the task currently being performed by the robot, PP denotes a peak point which is a unit quarter higher in density than the other unit quarters, Amp denotes the number of people in the unit quarter, including the density of the unit quarter, and Pos denotes coordinates of a location of each robot, wherein
the peak point
means a higher-ranking unit quarter among unit quarters labeled with rankings in descending order from the highest-density unit quarter.

7. The device of claim 6 ,
wherein the first weight includes information for an estimated time of arrival of a transportation including an aircraft, a ship, a train, or a bus and a store located around the robot, and
wherein the second weight includes information for a workload

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Chae Jonghoon

Classifications

• B25J9/1664

  characterised by motion, path, trajectory planning · CPC title

• B25J9/1682

  Dual arm manipulator; Coordination of several manipulators · CPC title

• B25J9/1669

  characterised by special application, e.g. multi-arm co-operation, assembly, grasping · CPC title

• B25J9/161 Primary

  Hardware, e.g. neural networks, fuzzy logic, interfaces, processor · CPC title

• B25J9/1697

  Vision controlled systems · CPC title