CN114510024A

CN114510024A - Multi-robot cooperative control method and system

Info

Publication number: CN114510024A
Application number: CN202111574788.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘款; 孙世颖; 张宸宇; 张宇佳; 赵晓光; 谭民
Original assignee: Institute of Automation of Chinese Academy of Science
Current assignee: Institute of Automation of Chinese Academy of Science
Priority date: 2021-12-21
Filing date: 2021-12-21
Publication date: 2022-05-17

Abstract

The invention provides a multi-robot cooperative control method and a multi-robot cooperative control system, wherein the method is applied to a first communication node and comprises the following steps: acquiring environmental information, state information and position information of a robot carrying a first communication node, and sending the environmental information, the state information and the position information of the robot to a second communication node; receiving task information corresponding to the robot and sent by a second communication node, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction; and planning a motion path of the robot according to the position of the task target point, controlling the robot to reach the position of the task target point according to the planned motion path, and controlling the robot to adjust the direction to the direction of the task target point after determining that the robot reaches the position of the task target point so as to execute the cooperative task. Therefore, the data processing pressure of the control command center can be relieved, information blocking and delaying are avoided, and the cooperative task requirements under various complex environments are met.

Description

Multi-robot cooperative control method and system

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of robots, in particular to a multi-robot cooperative control method and system.

Background

With the rapid development of the robot technology, the stability, robustness and functionality of a single robot are greatly improved, but in the face of a more complex task background, a single robot cannot complete parallel computation in a complex environment, for example, complex application in the fields of military, rescue and the like, and a single robot is often insufficient, so that the research of multiple robots gradually becomes another hotspot of the research in the field of robots. The multi-robot system has good distributed computing capability, can show better functionality and fault tolerance in a complex environment, can complete partial work which cannot be realized by a single robot, and has good application prospect in the fields of industry, aerospace, military, medical treatment, service, transportation and the like.

When the multi-robot system completes tasks such as formation, enclosure and the like in a coordinated manner, the requirement on group intelligent decision and control is high, and the current multi-robot coordinated control scheme cannot meet the requirement of the multi-robot system on the coordinated tasks in various complex environments. For example, for a planning function of a robot system, a common algorithm is that a control center of the system receives information such as environment and position fed back by each robot, and performs global planning on each robot cell according to an executed task, however, for a complex heterogeneous multi-robot system, the information amount of each robot cell in the whole system is large, and information blocking and delay are easily caused by adopting an existing cooperative control scheme.

Therefore, how to provide a multi-robot cooperative control scheme to meet the cooperative task requirements in various complex environments is an important issue to be solved in the industry at present.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the problems in the prior art, the invention provides a multi-robot cooperative control method and system.

In a first aspect, the present invention provides a multi-robot cooperative control method, applied to a first communication node, including:

acquiring environmental information, state information and position information of a robot carrying the first communication node, and sending the environmental information, the state information and the position information of the robot to a second communication node;

receiving task information corresponding to the robot and sent by the second communication node, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction; the task information corresponding to the robot is determined by the second communication node according to the environment information, the state information and the position information of each robot executing the cooperative task and the cooperative task target to be realized;

planning a motion path of the robot according to the task target point position, controlling the robot to reach the task target point position according to the planned motion path, and controlling the robot to adjust the direction to the task target point after determining that the robot reaches the task target point position so as to execute a cooperative task.

Optionally, the obtaining of the position information of the robot carrying the first communication node includes:

acquiring positioning data of the second communication node and carrier phase data of a satellite measured by the second communication node;

calculating to obtain differential positioning data corresponding to the first communication node according to the positioning data of the second communication node, the carrier phase data of the satellite measured by the second communication node and the carrier phase data of the satellite measured by the first communication node;

and determining the position information of the robot carrying the first communication node based on the differential positioning data.

Optionally, the carrier phase data is measured based on one or more of the global positioning system GPS, beidou BD and GLONASS.

Optionally, the determining, based on the differential positioning data, position information of the robot carrying the first communication node includes:

projecting the differential positioning data into a plane rectangular coordinate system;

determining the position information of the robot carrying the first communication node according to the corresponding coordinate position of the differential positioning data in the rectangular plane coordinate system;

the plane rectangular coordinate system takes the position of the second communication node as an origin of coordinates, the geographical north direction as the positive x-axis direction, and the geographical north direction as the positive y-axis direction.

Optionally, the orientation of the robot is 0 ° in a geographical east-ward direction and positive in a counterclockwise direction, and the orientation of the robot varies from-180 ° to 180 °.

Optionally, the planning a motion path of the robot according to the task target point position includes:

and according to the position of the task target point and the environment information of the robot, carrying out obstacle avoidance planning on the motion path of the robot.

and before the robot reaches the task target point position, updating the real-time position information of the robot according to a preset frequency, and planning the motion path of the robot again after updating the position information of the robot each time until the robot reaches the task target point position.

Optionally, the first communication nodes and the second communication nodes, and the first communication nodes are all connected through a wireless broadband ad hoc network.

Optionally, a unified predefined communication protocol is adopted between each first communication node and the corresponding robot, between each first communication node and the second communication node, and between each first communication node.

In a second aspect, the present invention further provides a multi-robot cooperative control method, applied to a second communication node, including:

receiving environment information, state information and position information of a robot carrying the first communication node, which are respectively sent by each first communication node;

determining and sending task information corresponding to each robot to each first communication node according to environment information, state information and position information of each robot and a cooperative task target to be achieved, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction, so that the first communication node plans a motion path of the robot according to the task target point position, controls the robot to reach the task target point position according to the planned motion path, and controls the robot to adjust the direction of the robot to the task target point after determining that the robot reaches the task target point position, so as to execute a cooperative task.

Optionally, before receiving environment information, state information, and position information of a robot carrying the first communication node, which are sent by each first communication node, the method further includes:

and sending the positioning data of the second communication node and the carrier phase data of the satellite measured by the second communication node to each first communication node.

In a third aspect, the present invention further provides a multi-robot cooperative control system, including:

a plurality of first communication nodes and a second communication node;

wireless communication connections are established between the first communication nodes and the second communication nodes and between the first communication nodes, and the first communication nodes are respectively connected with robots carrying the first communication nodes in a one-to-one correspondence manner;

the first communications node is operable to perform a method as described above in relation to the first aspect;

the second communications node is arranged to perform a method as described above in relation to the second aspect.

In a fourth aspect, the present invention further provides a multi-robot cooperative control apparatus, applied to a first communication node, including:

the first sending unit is used for acquiring the environmental information, the state information and the position information of the robot carrying the first communication node and sending the environmental information, the state information and the position information of the robot to the second communication node;

the first receiving unit is used for receiving task information corresponding to the robot and sent by the second communication node, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction; the task information corresponding to the robot is determined by the second communication node according to the environment information, the state information and the position information of each robot executing the cooperative task and the cooperative task target to be realized;

and the first control unit is used for planning a motion path of the robot according to the task target point position, controlling the robot to reach the task target point position according to the planned motion path, and controlling the robot to adjust the direction to the task target point after determining that the robot reaches the task target point position so as to execute a cooperative task.

In a fifth aspect, the present invention further provides a multi-robot cooperative control apparatus, applied to a second communication node, including:

the second receiving unit is used for receiving environment information, state information and position information of the robot carrying the first communication node, which are sent by each first communication node;

and the second control unit is used for determining and sending task information corresponding to each robot to each first communication node according to the environment information, the state information and the position information of each robot and a cooperative task target to be realized, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction, so that the first communication node plans a motion path of the robot according to the task target point position, controls the robot to reach the task target point position according to the planned motion path, and controls the robot to adjust the direction of the robot to the task target point after determining that the robot reaches the task target point position, so as to execute the cooperative task.

In a sixth aspect, the present invention further provides an electronic device, including a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the processor implements the steps of the multi-robot cooperative control method according to the first aspect, or implements the steps of the multi-robot cooperative control method according to the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, the present invention also provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, which, when being executed by a processor, implements the steps of the multi-robot cooperative control method according to the first aspect described above, or implements the steps of the multi-robot cooperative control method according to the second aspect described above.

In an eighth aspect, the present invention also provides a computer program product comprising a computer program that, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the multi-robot cooperative control method according to the first aspect described above, or implements the steps of the multi-robot cooperative control method according to the second aspect described above.

According to the multi-robot cooperative control method and the multi-robot cooperative control system, the planning function of the robot system is combined with global and local planning, so that on one hand, the global control of a group control command center on the whole system is guaranteed, the target position information corresponding to each monomer is reasonably planned, on the other hand, the local path planning can be directly carried out on the basis of the communication nodes carried by the single robots according to the target position information corresponding to each monomer, the data processing request sent by each monomer to the control command center is reduced, the data processing pressure of the control command center can be relieved, the information blocking and delay are avoided, and the cooperative task requirements under various complex environments can be met.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention or the prior art, the drawings needed for the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present invention, and those skilled in the art can also obtain other drawings according to the drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a schematic flow chart of a multi-robot cooperative control method provided by the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the cooperative control scheme provided by the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a first communication node path planning provided by the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic partial structure diagram of an outdoor heterogeneous robot cooperative control system based on a converged differential positioning ad hoc network communication node provided by the invention;

FIG. 5 is a second schematic flow chart of the multi-robot cooperative control method provided by the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-robot cooperative control system provided by the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-robot cooperative control apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a second schematic structural diagram of the multi-robot cooperative control apparatus provided in the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device according to the present invention;

fig. 10 is a second schematic structural diagram of the electronic device provided in the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, but not all embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

Fig. 1 is a schematic flow chart of a multi-robot cooperative control method provided by the present invention, which can be applied to a first communication node, as shown in fig. 1, the method includes the following steps:

step 100, acquiring environment information, state information and position information of a robot carrying a first communication node, and sending the environment information, the state information and the position information of the robot to a second communication node;

specifically, the first communication node and the second communication node may be communication nodes in a multi-robot cooperative control system, each single robot may be equipped with one first communication node, each first communication node is connected to the robot equipped with the first communication node in a one-to-one correspondence manner, and the first communication node may also be referred to as a mobile station communication node, that is, a communication node equipped on a mobile station.

When the multi-robot cooperative task is executed, the first communication node may first acquire environment information, state information, position information, and the like of the corresponding robot, and send the information to the second communication node.

The second communication node may be a communication node used as a control command center in a multi-robot cooperative control system, and may also be referred to as a reference station communication node, that is, a communication node mounted on a reference station.

Wireless communication connections are established between the first communication nodes and the second communication nodes and between the first communication nodes, so that multi-robot cooperative control is realized.

Optionally, the first communication nodes and the second communication nodes, and the first communication nodes may be all connected through a wireless broadband ad hoc network.

Specifically, a multi-robot system may include multiple heterogeneous robots, and communication protocols and communication contents between different robots have certain differences, so that a primary key technology of the multi-robot system is to solve the problem of communication between heterogeneous intelligent agents. For a common multi-robot system, the communication problem of the whole system is solved by generally adopting a mode of constructing a local area wireless network, namely a mode of carrying a 2.4G router in the system. Common communication technologies also have corresponding disadvantages in an outdoor heterogeneous multi-robot system, for example, Zigbee is mainly applied between various electronic devices with short distance, low power consumption, and low transmission rate; the wireless bridge is mainly used for connecting two or more independent network segments and is widely applied to interconnection among different buildings; WiFi technology is typically used for short-range indoor communication. Therefore, it is particularly important to select a communication technology means that has the characteristics of flexible structure, simple and convenient deployment, high transmission rate and the like and supports any network topology structures such as a chain type and a star type.

In the embodiment of the invention, the construction of the heterogeneous multi-robot communication system network can be realized by adopting a wireless broadband ad hoc network mode. In a possible implementation mode, the inside 1.4GHz wireless broadband ad hoc network communication module of accessible communication node realizes the inside quick network deployment of system, transmit broadband radio frequency signal through high-gain antenna, possess stronger transmission ability, the line-of-sight transmission distance can reach 30 kilometers, under typical urban environment, coverage can reach 2 kilometers, can realize in the entire system between the communication node one-to-one, one-to-many communication, and wireless broadband ad hoc network communication module can realize the adjustable of a plurality of working frequency channels, realize a plurality of different network deployment in the same region, when there is other equipment frequency channel interference, can carry out the switching of channel, finely tune radio emission function, guarantee the function stability of ad hoc network communication.

In the environment information, the state information and the position information of the robot acquired by the first communication node, the environment information refers to information related to the environment around the robot, such as the terrain, the landform, the obstacle and the like around the robot; the state information refers to information related to the state of the robot itself, for example, the attribute, the electric quantity, the orientation, the control information, and the like of the robot itself; the position information refers to information related to the position of the robot, such as the geographic position where the robot is located, the relative position with other communication nodes, and the like.

In a possible implementation manner, the environmental information and the state information may be received and processed by a controller of the single robot from a sensor (e.g., a laser radar, a gyroscope, a camera, etc.) of the single robot, and then the information is sent to the first communication node in a unified manner, in addition to the attribute, the electric quantity, the control information, etc. of the robot itself. And the location information may be obtained by a positioning module within the first communication node.

Optionally, the obtaining of the position information of the robot carrying the first communication node may include:

acquiring positioning data of a second communication node and carrier phase data of a satellite measured by the second communication node;

based on the differential positioning data, position information of the robot carrying the first communication node is determined.

Specifically, for a multi-robot system, in order to better complete a cooperative task, the real-time position of a single robot needs to be obtained. For the positioning function of a single robot, a common method is to construct a map of an environment by using various sensors of the robot, then perform integral calculation on the driving distance of the robot by combining equipment such as a driving odometer and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) according to an initial position of the robot start, and then obtain a real-time position of the robot relative to the current environment map. However, by means of multi-sensor mapping and odometer calculation, on one hand, mapping in the whole environment is consumed too high and costs are high in an outdoor wide space, and on the other hand, the position of the robot relative to the current map is calculated according to the odometer integral, so that an accumulated error is generated, and the accumulated error is larger and larger along with the increase of the moving distance, and the positioning requirement of a heterogeneous multi-robot system is difficult to meet. Although accurate robot differential positioning information can be obtained by adopting the kilogramming system, corresponding services need to be purchased for each mobile device, a cellular data network is generally selected as a communication link, extra network cost needs to be provided, the total use cost is high, and in addition, error correction data cannot be received in an area with poor cellular network signals in a field environment, so that high-precision positioning information cannot be obtained.

In the embodiment of the invention, the differential positioning information of the single robot is acquired based on the locally erected base station (namely the reference station), the communication node (namely the second communication node) of the reference station can acquire the accurate positioning data (including longitude and latitude, elevation value and the like) in advance, and send its positioning data and the carrier phase data (also referred to as carrier observation data) of its measured satellite to each first communication node (which may be broadcast to each first communication node, for example), after receiving these data, based on these data and the carrier phase data of the satellite measured by the first communication node, obtaining differential positioning data (including absolute longitude and latitude, elevation value and the like relative to the earth) corresponding to the first communication node through a differential positioning algorithm, then, based on the obtained differential positioning data, position information of the robot carrying the first communication node is determined.

For ease of understanding, the basic principles of carrier phase differential positioning are briefly introduced here: when differential positioning is carried out, the receivers of the reference station and the mobile station continuously monitor the same satellite, the mobile station receives and observes a visible satellite signal, simultaneously, the reference station sends a carrier phase measurement value to the receiver of the mobile station in real time through a data link, the receiver of the mobile station carries out data processing on the carrier phase measurement value of the mobile station and the received carrier phase measurement value in real time, the spatial coordinate of the mobile station is calculated, high-precision positioning is completed, and the positioning precision of carrier phase difference can reach the centimeter level.

For acquiring differential positioning data, a possible implementation is provided herein: on the basis of completing the construction of the whole system communication network, a positioning module in the communication node of the reference station can broadcast the positioning of the reference station and the observed quantity data of the carrier wave in the networking through a wireless broadband ad hoc network communication module; the mobile station communication nodes carried on the single robots receive positioning and carrier observation data from the reference station communication nodes through the wireless broadband ad hoc network communication module and transmit the positioning and carrier observation data into the positioning module, the positioning module measures carrier phase data of satellites and positioning and carrier phase data of the reference station according to the positioning module, carrier phase difference observation values are formed, and finally difference positioning data capable of reaching centimeter-level precision are calculated. In the process, the scheme of self-establishing the base station is adopted, and the differential positioning correction data is propagated through the self-organizing network, so that the cost for purchasing the searching service and the cellular data is saved, and the cost caused by using the searching service and the cellular mobile data can be greatly reduced.

Optionally, the carrier phase data may be measured based on one or more of the global positioning system GPS, beidou BD and GLONASS.

Specifically, in the embodiment of the present invention, a compatible positioning module that integrates three satellite positioning systems, i.e., GPS, BD, and GLONASS, may be used in the communication node, so that when one constellation cannot be used due to a cause, another satellite system may be used to ensure that navigation and positioning are performed normally, thereby improving the reliability of satellite navigation.

Optionally, the determining the position information of the robot carrying the first communication node based on the differential positioning data may include:

the plane rectangular coordinate system takes the position of the second communication node as the origin of coordinates, the geographical north direction as the positive direction of the x axis, and the geographical north direction as the positive direction of the y axis.

Specifically, in order to more intuitively feed back and calculate the position of each robot and better complete cooperative control of a multi-robot system, in the embodiment of the present invention, each communication node may construct a unified planar rectangular coordinate system based on map projection (for example, gaussian-kruger projection), where the planar rectangular coordinate system uses the position of the second communication node as an origin of coordinates, the geographical north direction as the positive x-axis direction, and the geographical north direction as the positive y-axis direction. After obtaining the differential positioning data, the first communication node can project the differential positioning data to the above-mentioned rectangular plane coordinate system according to the relative position relationship between the first communication node and the second communication node, and the coordinate position of the differential positioning data corresponding to the rectangular plane coordinate system can be used as the position information of the corresponding robot. Therefore, the first communication node and the second communication node can make real-time decisions in the subsequent cooperative control and path planning processes according to the real-time x and y coordinate positions of the single robots in the system relative to the origin.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present invention, for the orientation of the robot, that is, the heading angle of the robot inside the system, the geographical east-righting direction (which may correspond to the x-axis forward direction in the above-mentioned planar rectangular coordinate system) may be uniformly set to be 0 °, the counterclockwise direction may be positive, and the variation range of the orientation of the robot is-180 ° to 180 °.

Step 101, receiving task information corresponding to a robot and sent by a second communication node, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction; the task information corresponding to the robot is determined by the second communication node according to the environment information, the state information and the position information of each robot executing the cooperative task and the cooperative task target to be realized;

specifically, in order to relieve the data processing pressure of a control command center of a multi-robot system, reduce the requests of sending a large amount of data processing to a central controller by each edge node, and reduce the influence caused by communication bandwidth limitation as much as possible. In the embodiment of the present invention, a global and local planning combination manner is adopted for a cooperative control manner of robots, and a second communication node may determine task information corresponding to each robot, including a task target point position (i.e., a target position) and a task target point direction (i.e., a target posture or a target orientation) to which each robot is to arrive, according to environment information, state information, and position information of each robot executing a cooperative task, and a cooperative task target to be achieved, and then send the task information corresponding to each robot to a corresponding first communication node.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a cooperative control method provided by the present invention, which shows a possible cooperative control method, as shown in fig. 2, for the entire multi-robot cooperative control system, a reference station communication node (i.e., a second communication node) may be used as a control command center in the entire system, each individual robot communication node (i.e., a first communication node) retains an edge computing capability, and a general cooperative control task instruction is issued by the control command center in a unified manner, and a control flow is as follows: each single robot communication node fuses position information, environment information, state information and the like of the robot, and sends the position information, the environment information, the state information and the like to a reference station communication node through a wireless broadband ad hoc network, after the reference station communication node receives the position information, the environment information, the state information and the like of the current position of each robot, a human commander waits for the next cooperative task to be completed at the next moment, after the cooperative task is issued, a control command center calculates target position coordinates and target postures of each robot according to the cooperative task target to be realized and the current coordinates of each robot in the system and according to the nearest distance and the optimal path principle, then sends the target position information (including the target position, the posture and the like) to be reached by each robot to each single robot communication node, after the single robot communication node receives the target position information, according to the environmental information and the like collected by the sensor of the robot, edge calculation is directly carried out, a motion path is planned locally, and a driving instruction is given to the robot.

And 102, planning a motion path of the robot according to the position of the task target point, controlling the robot to reach the position of the task target point according to the planned motion path, and controlling the robot to adjust the direction to the direction of the task target point after the robot is determined to reach the position of the task target point so as to execute the cooperative task.

Specifically, for any first communication node, after the first communication node receives task information corresponding to a robot carrying the first communication node and sent by a second communication node, the first communication node may plan a motion path of the robot according to a task target point position to which the robot is to reach, and by combining environment information, state information, position information, and the like of the robot, so that the robot may reach the task target point position according to the planned motion path.

After the fact that the robot reaches the task target point position is determined, the first communication node adjusts the orientation of the robot according to the task target point direction, so that the robot faces the task target point direction to execute the cooperative task.

Optionally, the planning the motion path of the robot according to the task target point position may include: and according to the position of the task target point and the environmental information of the robot, carrying out obstacle avoidance planning on the motion path of the robot.

For example, in the path planning process, the first communication node may perform obstacle avoidance planning on the motion path of the robot by combining obstacle information and the like acquired by the robot lidar, so as to implement the obstacle avoidance function of the robot.

Optionally, the planning the motion path of the robot according to the task target point position may include: before the robot reaches the position of the task target point, the real-time position information of the robot is updated according to a preset frequency (which can be flexibly set according to actual needs, such as 1Hz), and after the position information of the robot is updated each time, the motion path of the robot is planned again until the robot reaches the position of the task target point.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of path planning of a first communication node according to the present invention, which shows a possible path planning manner, and as shown in fig. 3, a single-body robot communication node may employ a RISC-V framework-based controller with a strong edge computing capability, and a Linux + ROS system is configured in its system environment, which completely has independent processing and computing capabilities, and the single-body robot communication node may locally process environment information sensed by a robot body without sending the environment information to an upper-layer device, and automatically compute a subsequent behavior instruction according to a cooperative task, and directly plan a movement path. The process is as follows: after each single robot communication node receives target position information to be reached by a corresponding robot at the next moment, a proper path track is calculated and a corresponding control instruction is sent to a robot driver by combining a real-time coordinate position fed back by an internal positioning module of the communication node, so that a navigation function is realized, and meanwhile, a navigation cost map is updated in real time according to obstacle information acquired by a laser radar in the planning process, so that an obstacle avoidance function in the navigation process is realized; in the navigation process, the single robot communication node can update the real-time position information of the current robot according to the frequency of 1Hz, and path planning is carried out once again when the position information is updated every time until the target position is reached; after the target position is reached, the single robot communication node adjusts the posture of the robot according to the target posture and the gyroscope information of the robot body, and finally the cooperative control task is completed.

The multi-robot cooperative control method provided by the invention adopts a form of combining global planning and local planning for the planning function of the robot system, on one hand, the global control of the group control command center on the whole system is ensured, the target position information corresponding to each monomer is reasonably planned, on the other hand, the local path planning can be directly carried out based on the communication nodes carried by the single robots and according to the target position information corresponding to each monomer, the data processing request sent by each monomer to the control command center is reduced, the data processing pressure of the control command center can be relieved, the information blocking and delay are avoided, and the cooperative task requirements under various complex environments can be met.

Fig. 4 is a schematic partial structure diagram of an outdoor heterogeneous robot cooperative control system based on a converged differential positioning ad hoc network communication node according to the present invention, the system includes a reference station communication node, and at least two heterogeneous single robots, as shown in fig. 4, a mobile station communication node is mounted on a single robot, a controller of the single robot can receive and process information from a sensor (e.g., laser radar, gyroscope, camera, etc.) thereof, the mobile station communication node includes an edge calculation module based on RISC-V framework, a converged differential positioning module, a wireless broadband ad hoc network communication module, and a power module, wherein the mobile station communication node can perform communication data transmission with the controller of the robot through the edge calculation module thereof, and perform communication with other communication nodes (including the mobile station communication node and the reference station communication node) through the wireless broadband ad hoc network communication module thereof . The reference station communication node also comprises an edge calculation module based on a RISC-V frame, a fused differential positioning module, a wireless broadband ad hoc network communication module and a power supply module.

Specifically, in consideration of differences of the individual robots, in order to achieve unification of communication, in the embodiment of the present invention, a unified communication protocol is designed for a multi-robot cooperative system. Namely, whether the robot is communicated with the robot, the second communication node or the first communication node, all the first communication nodes adopt a unified set of communication protocol.

Taking 4 kinds of communication data shown in fig. 4 as an example (it can be understood that when communication data is transmitted between mobile station communication nodes, the communication protocol corresponding to the communication data 4 is the same as the communication data 3, so that the following mainly illustrates a case that the communication protocol corresponding to the communication data 4 is different from the communication data 3, i.e. a scenario of transmitting communication data between a mobile station communication node and a reference station communication node), in this embodiment, a mutual communication protocol between a controller of a robot and a mobile station communication node edge calculation module is designed, and also can be understood as a mutual communication protocol between a robot and a mobile station communication node, as shown in table 1 and table 2, and a mutual communication protocol between a mobile station communication node edge calculation module and an ad hoc network communication module, and also can be understood as a mutual communication protocol between a mobile station communication node and a reference station communication node, as shown in tables 3 and 4.

TABLE 1 communication protocol for a controller of a robot to transmit data to a mobile station communication node edge computation module

Table 2 communication protocol for transmitting data from mobile station communication node edge calculation module to controller of robot

Numbering	Task type	Control instruction
			1,2...	Formation	cmd_vel

Table 3 communication protocol for data transmission from mobile station communication node edge calculation module to mobile station communication node ad hoc network communication module

Table 4 communication protocol for data transmission from mobile station communication node ad hoc network communication module to mobile station communication node edge calculation module

Numbering	Task type	Position of task target point	Direction of task target point
				1,2...	Formation	pos.x，pos.y	θ

The single robot controller receives and processes information from a sensor (such as a laser radar, a gyroscope, a camera and the like) of the single robot controller, and the information, the attribute, the electric quantity, the control information and the like of the robot are added to be uniformly sent to a mobile station communication node edge calculation module; the mobile station communication node edge calculation module adds the received robot information and positioning data fed back by the positioning module in the communication node, and the received robot information and the positioning data are sent by the ad hoc network communication module and transmitted to other robot nodes in the system; on the other hand, the mobile station communication node ad hoc network communication module receives a specific cooperative task sent by a reference station communication node, and transmits information such as a task type, a task target point position and a task target point direction to the mobile station communication node edge calculation module, the mobile station communication node edge calculation module performs path planning and sends information such as a control instruction to the single robot according to the planned path, and the robot starts to execute a corresponding task through drive control after receiving the control instruction, so that cooperative control of the whole system is completed.

Fig. 5 is a second flowchart of the multi-robot cooperative control method provided by the present invention, which can be applied to a second communication node, as shown in fig. 5, the method includes the following steps:

500, receiving environment information, state information and position information of a robot carrying the first communication node, which are respectively sent by each first communication node;

step 501, determining and sending task information corresponding to each robot to each first communication node according to environment information, state information and position information of each robot and a cooperative task target to be realized, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction, so that the first communication node plans a motion path of the robot according to the task target point position, controls the robot to reach the task target point position according to the planned motion path, and controls the robot to adjust the direction of the robot to the task target point after determining that the robot reaches the task target point position so as to execute the cooperative task.

When the multi-robot cooperative task is executed, the first communication node may first acquire environment information, state information, position information, and the like of the corresponding robot, and send the information to the second communication node. The second communication node may determine task information corresponding to each robot according to environment information, state information, and position information of each robot executing the cooperative task, and a cooperative task target to be achieved, where the task information includes a task target point position (i.e., a target position) and a task target point direction (i.e., a target posture or a target orientation) to be reached by each robot, and then send the task information corresponding to each robot to the corresponding first communication node.

For any first communication node, after the first communication node receives task information corresponding to a robot carrying the first communication node and sent by a second communication node, the first communication node may plan a motion path of the robot according to a task target point position to which the robot is to reach, in combination with environment information, state information, position information and the like of the robot, so that the robot may reach the task target point position according to the planned motion path.

Optionally, before receiving environment information, state information, and position information of the robot carrying the first communication node, which are sent by each first communication node, the method further includes:

Specifically, in the embodiment of the present invention, differential positioning information of a single robot may be acquired based on a locally erected base station (i.e., a reference station), a communication node of the reference station (i.e., a second communication node) may acquire accurate positioning data (including longitude and latitude, an elevation value, and the like) of the reference station in advance, send the positioning data and carrier phase data (also referred to as carrier observed quantity data) of a satellite measured by the reference station to each first communication node (for example, broadcast to each first communication node), after receiving the data, the first communication node may obtain carrier phase data of the satellite based on the data and the first communication node, calculate and acquire a differential (including absolute longitude and latitude, an elevation value, and the like relative to the earth) corresponding to the first communication node through a differential positioning algorithm, and then based on the obtained differential positioning data, position information of a robot carrying the first communication node is determined.

It should be noted that the multi-robot cooperative control method applied to the first communication node and the second communication node provided by the present invention is based on the same inventive concept, and therefore, the embodiments of the methods may be referred to each other, and repeated details are not repeated.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-robot cooperative control system provided in the present invention, as shown in fig. 6, the system includes:

a plurality of first communication nodes 600 and a second communication node 610;

wireless communication connections are established between each first communication node 600 and each second communication node 610, and between each first communication node 600, and each first communication node 600 is connected with the robot 620 carrying the first communication node 600 in a one-to-one correspondence manner;

the first communication node 600 is configured to perform any of the methods provided by the embodiments above, for example: acquiring environmental information, state information and position information of a robot 620 carrying the first communication node 600, and sending the environmental information, the state information and the position information of the robot 620 to the second communication node 610; receiving task information corresponding to the robot 620, which is sent by the second communication node 610, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction; the task information corresponding to the robot 620 is determined by the second communication node 610 according to the environment information, the state information, and the position information of each robot 620 executing the cooperative task, and the cooperative task target to be achieved; planning a motion path of the robot 620 according to the position of the task target point, controlling the robot 620 to reach the position of the task target point according to the planned motion path, and controlling the robot 620 to adjust the direction to the direction of the task target point after determining that the robot 620 reaches the position of the task target point so as to execute a cooperative task;

the second communication node 610 is configured to perform any of the methods provided in the foregoing embodiments, for example: receiving environment information, state information and position information of a robot 620 carrying the first communication node 600, which are respectively sent by each first communication node 600; determining and sending task information corresponding to each robot 620 to each first communication node 600 according to the environment information, the state information and the position information of each robot 620 and a cooperative task target to be realized, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction, so that the first communication node 600 plans a motion path of the robot 620 according to the task target point position, controls the robot 620 to reach the task target point position according to the planned motion path, and controls the robot 620 to adjust the direction to the task target point after determining that the robot 620 reaches the task target point position, so as to execute the cooperative task.

The outdoor heterogeneous robot cooperative control system based on the fusion differential positioning ad hoc network communication node adopts a wireless broadband ad hoc network method in a communication ad hoc network mode, and has the advantages of flexible topological structure, simplicity and convenience in deployment, stable communication and the like; the positioning function adopts a scheme of fusing differential positioning with self-erecting base stations, so that not only is the positioning accurate and the cost greatly reduced, but also the limitation of the country to which the satellite system belongs is avoided; meanwhile, in the control mode of the system, a global-local planning combined mode is adopted, on one hand, the global control of a group control command center on the whole system is guaranteed, the target position to be reached by each monomer is reasonably planned, on the other hand, a RISC-V system edge computing chip independently developed by domestic research institutions is integrated in view of communication nodes carried by monomer robots, the intelligent monomer edge computing capability of sensing information is achieved, local path planning can be directly carried out according to environment information sensed by a sensor according to cooperative control tasks to be executed, and the real-time obstacle avoidance capability is reserved. Generally, the outdoor heterogeneous robot cooperative control system based on the fusion differential positioning ad hoc network communication node well realizes the universality of heterogeneous systems, and has important significance for realizing various cooperative tasks of heterogeneous multi-robots in a distributed environment.

It should be noted that, the multi-robot cooperative control system provided by the present invention can implement all the method steps implemented by the method embodiments and achieve the same technical effects, and detailed descriptions of the same parts and beneficial effects as the method embodiments in this embodiment are omitted.

In the following, the multi-robot cooperative control apparatus provided by the present invention is described, and the multi-robot cooperative control apparatus described below and the multi-robot cooperative control method described above may be referred to each other.

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-robot cooperative control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is applicable to a first communication node, as shown in fig. 7, and includes:

a first sending unit 700, configured to obtain environment information, state information, and position information of a robot carrying a first communication node, and send the environment information, the state information, and the position information of the robot to a second communication node;

the first receiving unit 710 is configured to receive task information corresponding to the robot sent by the second communication node, where the task information includes a task target point position and a task target point direction; the task information corresponding to the robot is determined by the second communication node according to the environment information, the state information and the position information of each robot executing the cooperative task and the cooperative task target to be realized;

the first control unit 720 is configured to plan a motion path of the robot according to the task target point position, control the robot to reach the task target point position according to the planned motion path, and control the robot to adjust the direction toward the task target point after it is determined that the robot reaches the task target point position, so as to execute the cooperative task.

Optionally, the apparatus further comprises:

a first differential positioning unit 730 for: acquiring positioning data of a second communication node and carrier phase data of a satellite measured by the second communication node; calculating to obtain differential positioning data corresponding to the first communication node according to the positioning data of the second communication node, the carrier phase data of the satellite measured by the second communication node and the carrier phase data of the satellite measured by the first communication node; based on the differential positioning data, position information of the robot carrying the first communication node is determined.

Optionally, determining the position information of the robot carrying the first communication node based on the differential positioning data includes: projecting the differential positioning data into a plane rectangular coordinate system; determining the position information of the robot carrying the first communication node according to the corresponding coordinate position of the differential positioning data in the rectangular plane coordinate system; the plane rectangular coordinate system takes the position of the second communication node as the origin of coordinates, the geographical north direction as the positive direction of the x axis, and the geographical north direction as the positive direction of the y axis.

Optionally, the orientation of the robot is 0 ° in the geographical east direction, and positive in the counterclockwise direction, and the orientation of the robot varies from-180 ° to 180 °.

Optionally, planning a motion path of the robot according to the task target point position includes: and according to the position of the task target point and the environmental information of the robot, carrying out obstacle avoidance planning on the motion path of the robot.

Optionally, planning a motion path of the robot according to the task target point position includes: before the robot reaches the position of the task target point, updating the position information of the robot according to a preset frequency, and planning the motion path of the robot again after updating the position information of the robot each time until the robot reaches the position of the task target point.

Optionally, the first communication nodes and the second communication nodes, and the first communication nodes are all in communication connection through a wireless broadband ad hoc network.

Fig. 8 is a second schematic structural diagram of a multi-robot cooperative control apparatus provided in the present invention, which can be applied to a second communication node, as shown in fig. 8, the apparatus includes:

a second receiving unit 800, configured to receive environment information, state information, and position information of the robot carrying the first communication node, which are sent by each first communication node;

and a second control unit 810, configured to determine and send task information corresponding to each robot to each first communication node according to environment information, state information, and position information of each robot and a cooperative task target to be achieved, where the task information includes a task target point position and a task target point direction, so that the first communication node plans a motion path of the robot according to the task target point position, controls the robot to reach the task target point position according to the planned motion path, and controls the robot to adjust the direction to the task target point after it is determined that the robot reaches the task target point position, so as to execute the cooperative task.

Optionally, the apparatus further comprises:

a second differential positioning unit 820 for: and sending the positioning data of the second communication node and the carrier phase data of the satellite measured by the second communication node to each first communication node.

It should be noted that, the apparatus provided in the present invention can implement all the method steps implemented by the method embodiments and achieve the same technical effects, and detailed descriptions of the same parts and beneficial effects as the method embodiments in this embodiment are omitted here.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device provided in the present invention, and as shown in fig. 9, the electronic device may include: a processor (processor)910, a communication Interface (Communications Interface)920, a memory (memory)930, and a communication bus 940, wherein the processor 910, the communication Interface 920, and the memory 930 communicate with each other via the communication bus 940. The processor 910 may call the logic instructions in the memory 930 to perform the steps of any one of the multi-robot cooperative control methods provided by the above embodiments, such as: acquiring environmental information, state information and position information of a robot carrying a first communication node, and sending the environmental information, the state information and the position information of the robot to a second communication node; receiving task information corresponding to the robot and sent by a second communication node, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction; the task information corresponding to the robot is determined by the second communication node according to the environment information, the state information and the position information of each robot executing the cooperative task and the cooperative task target to be realized; and planning a motion path of the robot according to the position of the task target point, controlling the robot to reach the position of the task target point according to the planned motion path, and controlling the robot to adjust the direction to the direction of the task target point after determining that the robot reaches the position of the task target point so as to execute the cooperative task.

Fig. 10 is a second schematic structural diagram of the electronic device provided in the present invention, as shown in fig. 10, the electronic device may include: a processor (processor)1010, a communication Interface (Communications Interface)1020, a memory (memory)1030, and a communication bus 1040, wherein the processor 1010, the communication Interface 1020, and the memory 1030 communicate with each other via the communication bus 1040. The processor 1010 may call the logic instructions in the memory 1030 to perform the steps of any one of the multi-robot cooperative control methods provided by the above embodiments, for example: receiving environment information, state information and position information of a robot carrying the first communication node, which are respectively sent by each first communication node; determining and sending task information corresponding to each robot to each first communication node according to the environment information, the state information and the position information of each robot and a cooperative task target to be realized, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction, so that the first communication node plans a motion path of the robot according to the task target point position, controls the robot to reach the task target point position according to the planned motion path, and controls the robot to adjust the direction to the task target point after determining that the robot reaches the task target point position so as to execute the cooperative task.

Furthermore, the logic instructions in the

memories

930 and 1030 may be implemented in the form of software functional units and stored in a computer readable storage medium when sold or used as a stand-alone product. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and other various media capable of storing program codes.

In another aspect, the present invention further provides a computer program product, where the computer program product includes a computer program, the computer program may be stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the computer is capable of executing the steps of any one of the multi-robot cooperative control methods provided in the foregoing embodiments, for example: acquiring environmental information, state information and position information of a robot carrying a first communication node, and sending the environmental information, the state information and the position information of the robot to a second communication node; receiving task information corresponding to the robot and sent by a second communication node, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction; the task information corresponding to the robot is determined by the second communication node according to the environment information, the state information and the position information of each robot executing the cooperative task and the cooperative task target to be realized; and planning a motion path of the robot according to the position of the task target point, controlling the robot to reach the position of the task target point according to the planned motion path, and controlling the robot to adjust the direction to the direction of the task target point after determining that the robot reaches the position of the task target point so as to execute the cooperative task.

In another aspect, the present invention further provides a computer program product, where the computer program product includes a computer program, the computer program may be stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the computer is capable of executing the steps of any one of the multi-robot cooperative control methods provided in the foregoing embodiments, for example: receiving environment information, state information and position information of a robot carrying the first communication node, which are respectively sent by each first communication node; determining and sending task information corresponding to each robot to each first communication node according to the environment information, the state information and the position information of each robot and a cooperative task target to be realized, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction, so that the first communication node plans a motion path of the robot according to the task target point position, controls the robot to reach the task target point position according to the planned motion path, and controls the robot to adjust the direction to the task target point after determining that the robot reaches the task target point position so as to execute the cooperative task.

In yet another aspect, the present invention further provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, the computer program being implemented by a processor to perform the steps of any one of the multi-robot cooperative control methods provided in the above embodiments, for example: acquiring environmental information, state information and position information of a robot carrying a first communication node, and sending the environmental information, the state information and the position information of the robot to a second communication node; receiving task information corresponding to the robot and sent by a second communication node, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction; the task information corresponding to the robot is determined by the second communication node according to the environment information, the state information and the position information of each robot executing the cooperative task and the cooperative task target to be realized; and planning a motion path of the robot according to the position of the task target point, controlling the robot to reach the position of the task target point according to the planned motion path, and controlling the robot to adjust the direction to the direction of the task target point after determining that the robot reaches the position of the task target point so as to execute the cooperative task.

In yet another aspect, the present invention further provides a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, the computer program being implemented by a processor to perform the steps of any one of the multi-robot cooperative control methods provided in the above embodiments, for example: receiving environment information, state information and position information of a robot carrying the first communication node, which are respectively sent by each first communication node; determining and sending task information corresponding to each robot to each first communication node according to the environment information, the state information and the position information of each robot and a cooperative task target to be realized, wherein the task information comprises a task target point position and a task target point direction, so that the first communication node plans a motion path of the robot according to the task target point position, controls the robot to reach the task target point position according to the planned motion path, and controls the robot to adjust the direction to the task target point after determining that the robot reaches the task target point position so as to execute the cooperative task.

The above-described embodiments of the apparatus are merely illustrative, and the units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the present embodiment. One of ordinary skill in the art can understand and implement it without inventive effort.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art will clearly understand that each embodiment can be implemented by software plus a necessary general hardware platform, and certainly can also be implemented by hardware. With this understanding in mind, the above-described technical solutions may be embodied in the form of a software product, which can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium such as ROM/RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk, etc., and includes instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in the embodiments or some parts of the embodiments.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above examples are only intended to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, but not to limit it; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some technical features may be equivalently replaced; and such modifications or substitutions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the corresponding technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A multi-robot cooperative control method is applied to a first communication node and comprises the following steps:

2. The multi-robot cooperative control method according to claim 1, wherein the acquiring of the position information of the robot carrying the first communication node includes:

3. The multi-robot cooperative control method according to claim 2, wherein the carrier phase data is measured based on one or more of global positioning system GPS, beidou BD and GLONASS.

4. The multi-robot cooperative control method according to claim 2, wherein the determining the position information of the robot mounting the first communication node based on the differential positioning data includes:

5. The multi-robot cooperative control method according to claim 1, wherein the orientation of the robot is 0 ° in a geodetic east direction and positive in a counterclockwise direction, and the orientation of the robot varies from-180 ° to 180 °.

6. The multi-robot cooperative control method according to claim 1, wherein the planning the movement path of the robot according to the position of the task target point comprises:

7. The multi-robot cooperative control method according to claim 1, wherein the planning the movement path of the robot according to the position of the task target point comprises:

8. The multi-robot cooperative control method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein communication connection between each of the first communication nodes and the second communication node, and between each of the first communication nodes is realized through a wireless broadband ad hoc network.

9. The multi-robot cooperative control method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein a unified predefined communication protocol is adopted between each first communication node and the corresponding robot, between each first communication node and the second communication node, and between each first communication node.

10. A multi-robot cooperative control method is applied to a second communication node and comprises the following steps:

11. The multi-robot cooperative control method according to claim 10, wherein before receiving the environment information, the state information, and the position information of the robot on which the first communication node is mounted, which are transmitted from the first communication nodes, the method further comprises:

12. A multi-robot cooperative control system, comprising:

a plurality of first communication nodes and a second communication node;

the first communications node is operable to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 9;

the second communication node is adapted to perform the method of claim 10 or 11.

13. A multi-robot cooperative control device is applied to a first communication node, and comprises:

14. A multi-robot cooperative control device is applied to a second communication node, and comprises the following components:

15. An electronic device comprising a memory, a processor and a computer program stored on said memory and executable on said processor, characterized in that said processor implements the steps of the multi-robot cooperative control method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, or implements the steps of the multi-robot cooperative control method according to claim 10 or 11 when executing said program.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the multi-robot cooperative control method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, or implements the steps of the multi-robot cooperative control method according to claim 10 or 11.

17. A computer program product comprising a computer program, characterized in that the computer program, when being executed by a processor, carries out the steps of the multi-robot cooperative control method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, or carries out the steps of the multi-robot cooperative control method according to claim 10 or 11.