KR20170071443A - Behavior-based distributed control system and method of multi-robot - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for controlling a cluster robot. In the system, if there is no emergency data, the tracking robot operates according to a time action tree generated by a server or a leader robot. If there is emergency data, Perform this emergency act. According to the present invention, the follower robot directly determines its own behavior in an urgent situation, so that it can cope with it more quickly.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a behavior-based distributed control system and method for a cluster robot,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system and method for controlling a community robot, and more particularly, to a behavior-based distributed control system and method for a community robot.

Robot technology is still developing steadily, and currently, the application range of robots is getting wider in various fields. However, development of robot application technology is progressing slowly compared to the demand of such robots. However, although the improvement of robot technology is not enough, a cluster robot system is being studied for various tasks and efficient operation. There are various kinds of cluster robots according to the kinds of robots constituting the cluster and the control systems. Therefore, the researchers have established and developed the system according to the purpose of each community robot.

A homogeneous robot has the same hardware and software as all the robots in the cluster, so it is easy to maintain, and if the robot is defective, the substitution is smooth and the robot can respond immediately.

A heterogeneous robot is a grouping robot consisting of different kinds of hardware and software, each of which has different equipment, so it has a wide application field and requires high cooperative performance. However, it is not easy to maintain robots with systems of different characteristics, and there is a need to exchange a large amount of information due to other systems, and thus the network dependency is high.

There are a central control method and a distributed control method as a control method of the cluster robot. The central control system collects and processes all the information with a single processor, making it easy to make decisions that are optimized for all robots or given missions. The modeling of the environment, the information about each robot, and the plan accordingly can be computed and processed centrally to lighten the specifications of the robot and to make optimized behavior decisions. However, because of the high volume of information to be processed, the costs of network devices and central processing units increase, and all the systems are susceptible to faults or disturbances in the central processing unit, as all robots depend entirely on the central processing unit. On the other hand, robustness against robot defects can be demonstrated.

The distributed control method means that each robot becomes the main body and controls the whole cluster behavior. Based on the data exchange between the distributed robots, they model and judge the relationship with the surrounding robot and the environment themselves, and lead the action. Compared to the central control method, it can reduce the burden on the computation, while it requires relatively high intelligence of the robot.

In behavior-based robot control, reactive behavior is a structure in which perception directly induces action, which can induce immediate responses, but lacks intellectual aspects, deliberative behavior analyzes environment, Reflecting the optimal behavior, but the response is slow.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2012-0026744

Accordingly, a problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a control system of a grouping robot based on a hybrid behavior, which is a functionally developed method of combining reflexive action and contemplative action, And a distributed control system and method for a cluster robot.

A system for controlling a community robot including a server or a leader robot and a follower robot according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a time action tree that is mounted on the server or the leader robot and receives a task and performs the task, An emergency planning module which is installed in the tracking robot and generates an emergency action list by selecting an emergency action suitable for the current situation among preset emergency actions using the emergency data and sensor data when the emergency data is inputted, An action plan module, and the follow-up robot, wherein if there is no emergency data, the time action tree is received from the action planning module and the behavior of the following robot is adjusted, and if there is the emergency data, Enter the emergency action list Ah include acts adjustment module that determines the behavior of the follower robot.

The behavior planning module includes a database for storing a plurality of actions, an action scheduler for selecting an action for performing the task in the database, and a time event action for generating the time action tree Generator.

The action planning module may further include an analyzer for receiving the evaluation information after one task is completed and updating the parameters of the performed action.

The behavior coordination module includes a basic behavior database for storing a basic behavior and a time behavior tree for determining a basic behavior from the time behavior tree and generating a time path point tree to which the following robot should move in order to perform the determined basic behavior And the like.

And a velocity profile generating unit that receives the time path point tree from the behavior adjusting module and generates a velocity profile of a distance between a current position of the following robot and a target position and a speed at which the following robot moves And a behavior execution module.

Further comprising a recognizing module for generating preprocessing data including the position, speed, direction, current state, and obstacle information of the following robot using raw sensor data from the sensor, and transmitting the preprocessed data to the behavior adjustment module , The behavior adjustment module may adjust the behavior of the following robot using the preprocessed data.

A method of controlling a cluster robot including a server or a leader robot and a following robot according to another embodiment of the present invention includes generating a time action tree for performing tasks by the server or the leader robot And generating an emergency action list by selecting an emergency action suitable for the current situation among the emergency actions set in advance using the emergency data and the sensor data when the following robot inputs the emergency data, If there is no data, receiving the time action tree from the server or the leader robot to adjust the behavior of the following robot, and if there is the emergency data, determining an action of the following robot using the emergency action list.

The server or the leader robot includes a database storing a plurality of actions, an action scheduler selecting an action for performing the task in the database, and a time generating unit for generating the time action tree And an event behavior generator.

The server or the leader robot may further include an analyzer that receives evaluation information after one task is completed and updates parameters of the performed action.

The follower robot includes a basic action database storing a basic action, a basic action database for determining a basic action from the time action tree, and a time path point tree to which the following robot should move in order to perform the determined basic action Behavior analyzer.

The tracking robot can generate a velocity profile of a distance between the current position and the target position of the following robot and a speed at which the following robot moves using the time path point tree.

The tracking robot generates preprocessing data including the position, speed, direction, current state, and obstacle information of the following robot using raw sensor data from the sensor, and adjusts the behavior of the following robot using the preprocessed data .

The behavior-based cluster robot control system according to the present invention is a control system based on a hybrid behavior having the advantages of reflective behavior and contemplative behavior. Each module adopts a distributed processing structure and is designed to be suitable for the structure of a distributed integrated platform, It becomes easy to expand to the distributed control robot platform of the robot.

It can also be applied to complex tasks by organizing the decision-making process of activities, generalizing actions to be applied to various robot hardware, coordinating and combining these actions, and creating new actions.

The cluster robot control system according to the present invention has a software structure capable of simultaneously operating all the robots, minimizing data exchange so as to reduce the burden on the network, and being applicable to various tasks. This control system can be applied to various tasks and has a hierarchical structure that can be coordinated with many actions by generalized actions. Therefore, it can be divided into roles and operated with minimum data. Also, some of the actions are performed in a distributed manner, so that the burden of the server or the reader robot can be reduced.

Further, according to the cluster robot control system according to the present invention, when an emergency occurs in any one of the community robots, it is not decided by the server or the leader robot in deciding the action of the corresponding robot, So that the action to be performed by the robot is immediately determined and can be dealt with more quickly.

1 is an overall block diagram of a system for controlling a community robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram illustrating a control operation of the community robot according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an action planning module of a system for controlling a community robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a block diagram illustrating a behavior control module of a community robot control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an action execution module of a community robot control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a block diagram illustrating a velocity profile generator of a community robot control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a recognition module of a system for controlling a community robot according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.
8 is a block diagram illustrating an emergency action planning module of a community robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.
9 is a block diagram illustrating a general control system of a community robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an emergency control system for a community robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.
11 is a schematic diagram showing a distributed control structure for an operation platform of a community robot control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The terms and words used in the present specification and claims should not be construed as limited to ordinary or dictionary terms and the inventor may properly define the concept of the term in order to best describe its invention It should be construed as meaning and concept consistent with the technical idea of the present invention.

Therefore, the embodiments described in the present specification and the configurations shown in the drawings are merely the most preferred embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to represent all of the technical ideas of the present invention. Therefore, various equivalents And variations are possible.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention.

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of a community robot control system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining a control operation of a community robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a system for controlling a community robot 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an environment module 10, a mission planner 20, a behavior planner 30, a behavior coordinator 40, a behavior executor 50, a perception module 60, an emergency behavior planner 70, a sensor 80, and a robot driving module 90. The control system 100 can be divided into hardware consisting of a sensor 80 and a robot driving module 90, and software composed of the rest.

The environment module 10, the mission planning module 20 and the behavior planning module 30 may be mounted on a server or a leader robot and include a behavior adjustment module 40, an action execution module 50, a recognition module 60, The emergency action planning module 70 may be mounted on each robot but is not limited thereto.

The community robot, which is the object of the control system 100, is not only a land mobile robot or an airborne flying robot but also an unmanned surface vehicle (USV), a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV), an autonomous unmanned submersible (AUV) an autonomous underwater vehicle, and the like. Also, not all robots are homogeneous robots with the same hardware, or heterogeneous robots with different hardware.

Referring to FIG. 2, the central control operations for performing the actions are shown in order. The mission planning module 20 receives a task and outputs a task. The action planning module 30 receives a task and outputs a behavior tree. The behavior coordination module 40 receives a behavior tree and outputs a path point tree And the action execution module 50 receives the path point tree and outputs the velocity profile. In this way, the control system of the cluster robot is divided down into the items of action as it moves downward, and a larger range of actions such as a complex action for the mission and the task is determined as the position goes down.

Hereinafter, each component of the system 100 will be described in more detail.

The environment module 10 may include an environment database as a module having information on the surrounding environment such as a map, i.e., environment information.

The mission planning module 20 converts a specific task input by the user into a task that can be performed by the robot and transmits the task to the action planning module 30. [ The mission planning module 20 may include a mission database, which includes task information such as surveillance and reconnaissance, mine exploration, and combat.

The sensor 80 may be mounted on each robot and may include a vision sensor such as a camera, an infrared sensor, a laser range finder (LRF), a global positioning system (GPS) And an attitude heading reference system (AHRS).

The robot driving module 90 may be composed of a motor or an actuator. The robot driving module 90 may receive a speed control signal, a steering control signal, and the like from the action execution module 50, and may move to a destination or perform a given task.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an action planning module of the system 100 for controlling a community robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the action planning module 30 collectively manages the contents related to the overall task and schedule such as large control, coverage, and path following, and plays a role of effectively performing the task through the parameter adjustment and the evaluation . As a first step for applying the contents of the task to be performed by each robot to the robot, the robot sends a timed behavior tree corresponding to a given task to the behavior adjustment module 40. [

The behavior planning module 30 includes a database 31, a behavior scheduler 33, a timed event behavior generator 35 and an analyzer 37. [

The database 31 stores internal or external actions and the behavior scheduler 33 selects an action in the database 31 to perform the task given to the robot when the robot is to perform the task, Generates a time action tree using the selected action, and transmits the generated time action tree to the behavior adjustment module 40.

After the completion of one task, the analyzer 37 receives the evaluation data such as the environment and the status data, updates the parameters of the collectively performed actions, and updates the parameters to the database 31 and the time event action generator (35). By updating the parameters in this way, the algorithm can be set to be closer to the optimal value. Here, the parameter is a parameter for an action, and may be information on a speed, an acceleration, a robot interval, and the like of the robot. The evaluation information may be an execution time of the action, a movement distance, or an energy consumption amount, and parameter updating may be performed using the evaluation information.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a behavior control module of the system 100 for controlling a community robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, the behavior adjustment module 40 functions to organize and adjust an action mounted on the robot. The behavior adjustment module 40 divides the time behavior tree received from the behavior planning module 30 into primitive behaviors and calculates and outputs target points.

The behavior adjustment module 40 includes a basic behavior database 31 and a behavior analyzer 33. [ The behavior analyzer 33 analyzes the current state data such as information (location, obstacle information, etc.) obtained by preprocessing the information on the surrounding situation in the recognition module 60 and the time state data input from the behavior planning module 30 After determining which basic action is to be performed, the action execution module 50 transmits a timed waypoint tree to which the robot should move in order to perform the action. That is, the information preprocessed in the recognition module 60 is used to adjust the order and properties of the current behavior. The basic actions may be behaviors such as detailed size, route tracking, leader robot tracking, obstacle avoidance, next target detection, etc., and are stored in the basic behavior database 41.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an action execution module of the system 100 for controlling a community robot according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a behavior profile module for a community robot control system 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Fig.

Referring to FIG. 5, the action execution module 50 controls the robot mounted on the robot, and outputs a speed control signal or a steering control signal to the robot driving module 90.

The action execution module 50 includes a velocity profile generator 51 and a velocity-to-voltage conversion module 53. The velocity profile generator 51 receives the time path point tree from the behavior adjustment module 40 and receives the current state (position and direction) from the recognition module 60. The velocity profile generator 51 receives the current state Calculate the velocity profile of what speed to move considering the distance and the current state of the robot. As shown in Fig. 6, the velocity profile is calculated by calculating the remaining distance and then generating the linear velocity, or calculating the residual angle and then generating the angular velocity.

The speed-to-voltage conversion module 53 calculates a signal to be supplied to the robot driving module 90 in accordance with the type and characteristics of the robot in order to calculate the calculated speed, And transmits it. The input signal may be a PWM voltage for driving a motor or an actuator, but is not limited thereto. A current command corresponding to the speed may also be used as the input signal.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a recognition module of the community robot control system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The recognition module 60 receives external environment information, preprocesses it, and transmits the processed data to the environment module 10 and the behavior adjustment module 40.

7, the recognition module 60 transmits data, which has been preprocessed using raw sensor data received through the sensor 80, to the behavior adjustment module 40, Order and properties of the product.

The recognition module 60 receives raw data from a sensor 80 such as a vision sensor, an infrared sensor, a laser distance meter (LRF), a GPS (Global Positioning System), a position orientation reference device (AHRS) Recognition, and object recognition. And transmits the preprocessed data (position, velocity, direction, current state of the robot, and obstacle information) to the behavior adjustment module 40. The preprocessed data is also used to update the environment database of the environment module 10.

8 is a block diagram illustrating an emergency action planning module of a community robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The emergency action planning module 70 is a function that enables the behavior adjustment module 40 to cope with an emergency situation such as a communication disconnection or a sensor failure without going up to the action planning module 30. [

8, the emergency action planning module 70 includes an emergency behavior database 71 and an emergency decision module 73, and operates when emergency data indicating communication failure, sensor failure, etc. is input do. When the emergency data is input, the emergency decision module 73 determines which type of emergency situation is present. In addition, the emergency decision module 73 extracts, from the emergency behavior database 71, an autonomous return action, an alternative navigation Behavior, collision avoidance behavior, and other emergency behaviors to form a composite behavior list. The synthesized action list thus constructed is transmitted to the behavior adjustment module 40. In this way, emergency situation module 70 allows the situation to be dealt with more quickly in an emergency situation.

Hereinafter, the case where the system 100 is operated in a normal situation and the case where the system 100 is operated in an emergency will be described.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a general control system 100 of a community robot according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an emergency control system 100 of a community robot according to an embodiment of the present invention. to be.

Referring to FIG. 9, when the community robot control system 100 operates in a general situation, all of the above-described functional modules operate, and the behavior of the robot is processed in a flow as indicated by a bold arrow. That is, the mission planning module 20 delivers the task to the behavior planning module 30, and the behavior planning module 30 combines the actions for performing the task and inputs it to the behavior adjustment module 40. The behavior adjustment module 40 calculates a target position to which the robot should move in order to perform the input action, and then transmits the target position to the action execution module 50. The action execution module 50 calculates how to move the actuator to the target position, and then transmits a signal for moving the actuator to the robot driving module 90.

Information about the surroundings is input to the recognition module 60 through the sensor 80 mounted on the robot hardware. In the recognition module 60, the position of the robot, the information about the obstacle, and the like are calculated and transmitted to the behavior adjustment module 40, thereby affecting the determination of the behavior.

Referring to FIG. 10, when the community robot control system 100 operates in an emergency, such as when communication is interrupted or when a problem arises with the sensor 80, (40) receives the emergency action from the emergency action planning module (70) without receiving the action information through the action planning module (30). At this time, the surrounding information through the sensor 80 is processed by the recognition module 60 and is not transmitted to the behavior adjustment module 40 again. Instead, the emergency action planning module 70 directly receives the peripheral information from the sensor 80 Determine emergency actions.

If an emergency situation occurs in any of the robots of the community robots, it is not determined by the server or the leader robot in deciding the action of the robot, but is determined directly by the emergency action planning module 70 of the robot. The action to do is immediately decided and can be dealt with more quickly.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing a distributed control structure for an operation platform of the community robot control system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and is a cluster distributed control platform in which a behavior control system of the above- It is a structural diagram. As shown in FIG. 11, the MOOSDB is employed in the mission-action-based control layer (L3) to control and control the cluster robot. However, this is an example, and an arbitrary cluster robot management program may be introduced.

As described above, the behavior-based community robot control system 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention is a control system based on a mixed behavior having advantages of reflective behavior and pondering behavior. Each module adopts a distributed processing structure, It is easy to expand to the distributed control robot platform of heterogeneous robot.

It can also be applied to complex tasks by organizing the decision-making process of activities, generalizing actions to be applied to various robot hardware, coordinating and combining these actions, and creating new actions.

The community robot control system 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention is configured to have a software structure that can be simultaneously operated on all the robots, minimize data exchange so as to reduce the burden on the network, and can be applied to various tasks. Also, since the control system 100 has a hierarchical structure that can be applied to various tasks and can be generalized and coordinated with a lot of actions, the control system 100 can be divided into roles and operated with a minimum amount of data. Also, some of the actions are performed in a distributed manner, so that the burden of the server or the reader robot can be reduced.

The foregoing detailed description is illustrative of the present invention. It is also to be understood that the foregoing is illustrative and explanatory of preferred embodiments of the invention only, and that the invention may be used in various other combinations, modifications and environments. That is, it is possible to make changes or modifications within the scope of the concept of the invention disclosed in this specification, the disclosure and the equivalents of the disclosure and / or the scope of the art or knowledge of the present invention. The foregoing embodiments are intended to illustrate the best mode contemplated for carrying out the invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention to other modes of operation known in the art for utilizing other inventions such as the present invention, Various changes are possible. Accordingly, the detailed description of the invention is not intended to limit the invention to the disclosed embodiments. It is also to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover such other embodiments.

100: Cluster Robot Control System
10: environment module, 20: mission planning module,
30: Behavior planning module, 40: Behavior adjustment module,
50: action execution module, 60: recognition module,
70: Emergency planning module, 80: Sensor,
90: Robot driving module

Claims (12)

A system for controlling a community robot including a server or a leader robot and a follower robot,
A behavior plan module mounted on the server or the leader robot and receiving a task and generating a time action tree for performing the task,
An emergency action planning module mounted on the tracking robot and generating an emergency action list by selecting an emergency action suitable for a current situation among preset emergency actions using the emergency data and sensor data when the emergency data is inputted,
If the emergency data is not present, receives the time action tree from the action planning module and adjusts the behavior of the following robot, and if the emergency data exists, displays the emergency action list from the emergency action planning module A behavior adjustment module that receives input and determines an action of the following robot
And a robot control system. The method of claim 1,
The action planning module,
A database for storing a plurality of actions,
An action scheduler for selecting an action for performing the task in the database, and
And a time event behavior generator for generating the time behavior tree so that the selected action is operated over time. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the action plan module further comprises an analyzer for receiving the evaluation information after one task is completed and updating the parameter for the performed action. The method of claim 1,
Wherein the behavior adjustment module comprises:
A default behavior database that remembers basic behavior, and
And a behavior analyzer for determining which basic action should be performed from the time action tree and generating a time path point tree to which the follower robot should move to perform the determined basic action. 5. The method of claim 4,
And a velocity profile generating unit that receives the time path point tree from the behavior adjusting module and generates a velocity profile of a distance between a current position of the following robot and a target position and a speed at which the following robot moves And a behavior execution module. The method of claim 1,
Further comprising a recognizing module for generating preprocessing data including the position, speed, direction, current state, and obstacle information of the following robot using raw sensor data from the sensor, and transmitting the preprocessed data to the behavior adjustment module ,
And the behavior adjustment module adjusts the behavior of the following robot using the preprocessed data. 1. A method for controlling a community robot including a server or a leader robot and a follower robot,
Generating a time action tree for performing tasks by the server or the leader robot,
Generating an emergency action list by selecting an emergency action suitable for the current situation among preset emergency actions using the emergency data and the sensor data when the following robot inputs the emergency data,
If the follower robot does not have the emergency data, receives the time action tree from the server or the leader robot to adjust the behavior of the following robot, and if there is the emergency data, Determining step
Wherein the robot control method comprises: 8. The method of claim 7,
The server or the reader robot includes:
A database for storing a plurality of actions,
An action scheduler for selecting an action for performing the task in the database, and
And a time event action generator for generating the time action tree so that the selected action is operated according to time. 9. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the server or the leader robot further comprises an analyzer for receiving the evaluation information after one task is completed and updating the parameter for the performed action. 8. The method of claim 7,
The follow-
A default behavior database that remembers basic behavior, and
And a behavior analyzer for determining a basic action from the time action tree and generating a time path point tree to which the following robot should move in order to perform the determined basic action. 11. The method of claim 10,
Wherein the tracking robot uses the time path point tree to generate a distance profile between a current position and a target position of the following robot and a speed profile of a speed at which the following robot moves. 8. The method of claim 7,
The tracking robot generates preprocessing data including the position, speed, direction, current state, and obstacle information of the following robot using raw sensor data from the sensor, and adjusts the behavior of the following robot using the preprocessed data A method for controlling a robot in a cluster.

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