Method for operating an industrial facility

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12449795-B2
Application number	US-202117797240-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 25, 2021
Priority date	Feb 6, 2020
Publication date	Oct 21, 2025
Grant date	Oct 21, 2025

Abstract

In a method for operating an industrial facility which has at least one mobile system, a base map of the industrial facility is generated, which has information about at least one vehicle-accessible region and at least one closed region; a correction map of the industrial facility is generated, which has information about at least one vehicle-accessible region and at last one closed region; the base map is overlaid with the correction map; at least one metric feature of the base map is replaced by a metric feature of the correction map when a difference between a metric feature of the base map and a metric feature of the correction map is detected.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for operating an industrial facility including at least one mobile system, the industrial facility including a vehicle-accessible region and a closed region, comprising:
generating a base map of the industrial facility including information about the vehicle-accessible region and the closed region;
generating a correction map of the industrial facility including information about the vehicle-accessible region and the closed region;
overlaying the base map with the correction map; and
replacing at least one metric feature of the base map by a metric feature of the correction map in response to a difference between a metric feature of the base map and a metric feature of the correction map being detected;
wherein the base map and the correction map are each generated as a graph that describes the vehicle-accessible region, the graph includes a first node point, a second node point, and a connection between the first node point and the second node point as topological features, the connection has a connection direction and a connection length, and the graph of the base map is overlaid with the graph of the correction map.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the base map of the industrial facility has information about at least one planned route for the at least one mobile system, the correction map of the industrial facility has information about at least one planned route for the at least one mobile system, the base map is overlaid with the correction map, and at least one parameter of the at least one planned route of the base map is transferred to a corresponding planned route of the correction map.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, in the overlaying of the graph of the base map with the graph of the correction map, the connection length and a difference of the connection directions between corresponding node points are used.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the graph includes at least one intersection as a node point, and the graph is generated in that the cells of the free region which in the longitudinal direction and in the transverse direction adjoin at least three other free cells are characterized as intersections, for each of the intersections, connections to other node points are detected, a connection includes a sequence of individual free cells between two node points, and for each connection detected, a connection direction and a connection length are determined.

5. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising
initially incorporating the correction map and/or the base map as an original grid cell map that extends in a longitudinal direction and a transverse direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction and that has a plurality of individual cells;
characterizing the cells that describe the vehicle-accessible region as free, the free cells forming a free region;
characterizing the cells that describe the closed region as occupied, the occupied cells forming an occupied region;
generating, from the original grid cell map, a reduced grid cell map;
characterizing the cells of the free region of the original grid cell map whose distance in the longitudinal direction and/or in the transverse direction and/or in a straight line to at least one cell of the occupied region is smaller than a safe distance as occupied;
performing a thinning of the free region of the reduced grid cell map;
characterizing the cells of the free region that in the longitudinal direction and/or in the transverse direction adjoin at least one occupied region as occupied, until the free region is in the form of a skeleton that includes at least one linear sequence of individual free cells; and
generating, from the skeleton of the free region, the graph of the correction map and/or of the base map.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein, before generating the graph of the correction map and/or of the base map, a smoothing of the skeleton of the one free region is performed, and the cells of the occupied region which in the longitudinal direction and in the transverse direction adjoin the free region are characterized as free, until each cell of the free region which in a diagonal direction adjoins another free cell additionally in the longitudinal direction or in the transverse direction adjoins another free cell which in the longitudinal direction or in the transverse direction adjoins the other free cell.

7. The method according to claim 5 , wherein, in the reduced grid cell map, at least one charging point for charging the mobile system is provided, and the thinning of the free region of the reduced grid cell map is performed such that the charging point is part of the skeleton.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the graph includes at least one charging point as a node point, and the graph is generated in that, for each of the charging points, connections to other node points are detected, a connection includes a sequence of individual free cells between two node points, and for each connection detected, a connection direction and a connection length are determined.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the graph includes at least one end point as a node point, and the graph is generated in that the cells of the free region which in the longitudinal direction and in the transverse direction adjoin exactly one free cell are characterized as end points, for each of the endpoints, connections to other node points are detected, a connection includes a sequence of individual free cells between two node points, and for each connection detected, a connection direction and a connection length are determined.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the graph includes at least one curve point as a node point, and the graph is generated in that the cells of the free region which in the longitudinal direction adjoin exactly one free cell that is part of a linear sequence of a minimum number of free cells in the longitudinal direction, and which in the transverse direction adjoin exactly one free cell that is part of a linear sequence of a minimum number of free cells in the transverse direction, are characterized as curve points, for each of the curve points, connections to other node points are detected, a connection includes a sequence of individual free cells between two node points, and for each connection detected, a connection direction and a connection length are determined.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a connection has a connection width, and the graph of the correction map and/or of the base map is generated in that, in addition to each connection detected, a respective connection width is determined in that, from each free cell of the connection, on both sides, a respective connection distance, in a direction perpendicular to the connection direction, to the respective closest closed region is determined, a path width, which is calculated as a sum of the two determined connection distances, is associated with the free cell, and the connection width is determined to be a smallest path width of all the free cells of the connection.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein for each connection detected, the respective connection direction is determined in that a principal direction which comes closest to an exact connection direction is associated with the connection direction.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the mobile system includes a pick-up for contactless reception of energy, and the industrial facility has at least one charging point for inductive transfer of energy, the pick-up adapted to inductively couple to the charging point,

Assignees

• Sew Eurodrive Gmbh & Co Kg

Inventors

• Funk Johanna
• Sliskovic Maja

Classifications

• G05B2219/40506

  Self motion topology knowledge, configuration mapping · CPC title

• G05B19/4061

  Avoiding collision or forbidden zones · CPC title

• G05B19/41895 Primary

  using automatic guided vehicles [AGV] (control of position or course of AGV's G05D1/00) · CPC title

• G05D1/0274 Primary

  using mapping information stored in a memory device (navigation using map-matching G01C21/30) · CPC title