US 12,083,681 B2
Robot congestion management
Michael Charles Johnson, Ashland, MA (US); Luis Jaquez, Burlington, MA (US); Sean Johnson, Danvers, MA (US); and Andrew Alcutt, Andover, MA (US)
Assigned to Locus Robotics Corp., Wilmington, MA (US)
Filed by Locus Robotics Corp., Wilmington, MA (US)
Filed on Mar. 7, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/179,605.
Application 18/179,605 is a continuation of application No. 16/265,703, filed on Feb. 1, 2019, granted, now 11,724,395.
Prior Publication US 2023/0202042 A1, Jun. 29, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. B25J 9/16 (2006.01); B25J 9/00 (2006.01)
CPC B25J 9/1666 (2013.01) [B25J 9/0084 (2013.01); B25J 9/1661 (2013.01)] 1 Claim
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A robot congestion management system comprising:
a robot monitoring server configured to track a location of a plurality of robots and a plurality of human operators within a navigational space; and
the plurality of robots in communication with the robot monitoring server, each robot configured to perform a plurality of tasks with the assistance of a human operator of the plurality of human operators, wherein each task includes at least one of a pick operation and a put operation, each robot including:
a processor; and
a memory, the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the autonomous robot to:
determine, from a task list assigned to the robot, a first pose location (x, y, z, ω) corresponding to a first task,
receive, from the robot monitoring server, congestion information in a predefined area about the first pose location, wherein the congestion information includes an integer number of other robots, an integer number of human operators, or a combined integer number of robots and human operators currently present in the predefined area about the first pose location,
determine, based on the congestion information, if the predefined area about the first pose location is in a congested state, wherein the predefined area about the first pose location is in a congested state if the integer number of other robots, the integer number of human operators, or the combined integer number of robots and human operators currently present exceeds a threshold, the threshold being an integer greater than two,
select a second pose location (x, y, z, ω) corresponding to a second task from the task list, the second pose location being selected responsive to the determination of a congested state in the predefined area about the first pose location and responsive to a plurality of efficiency factors regarding the second pose location, including the second pose location is not currently in a congested state and at least one human operator is currently detected proximate the second pose location, and
navigate to the second pose location.