US 11,745,346 B2
Motion planning of a robot storing a discretized environment on one or more processors and improved operation of same
Daniel Sorin, Boston, MA (US); George Konidaris, Boston, MA (US); Sean Murray, Boston, MA (US); and William Floyd-Jones, Boston, MA (US)
Assigned to REALTIME ROBOTICS, INC., Boston, MA (US)
Filed by Realtime Robotics, Inc., Boston, MA (US)
Filed on Nov. 22, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/532,648.
Application 17/532,648 is a continuation of application No. 16/268,290, filed on Feb. 5, 2019, granted, now 11,235,465.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/626,939, filed on Feb. 6, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2022/0080594 A1, Mar. 17, 2022
Int. Cl. B25J 9/16 (2006.01); G05D 1/02 (2020.01)
CPC B25J 9/1666 (2013.01) [B25J 9/1671 (2013.01); G05D 1/0214 (2013.01); G05B 2219/40448 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of operation in a processor-based robot control system, the method comprising:
for a first robot that will operate in an environment, determining prior to a run time, by the robot control system, a plurality of planning graphs, each planning graph respectively comprising a plurality of nodes connected by a plurality of edges, each node which represents, implicitly or explicitly, variables that characterize a respective state of the first robot in a configuration space of the first robot, and each edge which represents a transition between a respective pair of the states of the first robot, where the respective pair of states are represented by respective ones of a pair of nodes that are coupled by a respective edge in the respective planning graph;
for at least two or more of the edges of each of the planning graphs, generating prior to the run time, by the robot control system, a respective set of edge information that represents a volume swept by at least a portion of the first robot in transitioning between the states represented by the respective nodes that are coupled by the respective edge;
storing prior to the run time, by the robot control system, the plurality of planning graphs and the sets of edge information in at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage;
based on at least a portion of the first robot having a first set of physical dimensions at a first time, providing, by the robot control system, the sets of edge information for a first one of the planning graphs to at least one processor; and
based on at least a portion of the first robot having a second set of physical dimensions at a second time, at least one dimension in the second set of physical dimensions different than a corresponding one of the dimensions of the first set, providing, by the robot control system, the sets of edge information for a second one of the planning graphs to the at least one processor, and further comprising:
controlling the first robot during the run time period according to a first motion plan that is based on the first planning graph and the identifying of any of the edges of the first planning graph that the corresponding transition would result in a collision.