A method for exchanging data within a robotic system including at least three robotic units, each robotic unit having a first communication device with a short range communication reach for exchanging data with each other and a data storage. The method includes the acts of recognizing a necessity of a data transfer for a first robotic unit of the at least three robotic units, determining an area of interference of the short range communication reach of the first robotic unit and the short range communication reach of a second robotic unit of the at least three robotic units, the second robotic unit being out of the short range communication reach of the first robotic unit, determining a waypoint within the area of interference for a third robotic unit of the at least three robotic units, and commanding the third robotic unit to move to the waypoint.

Provided is a method for controlling, in a space where a plurality of robots autonomously travel, the robots such that each of the plurality of robots can successively pass through a designated region, by identifying the designated region to be passed through by the robots and i) controlling the robots to pass through the corresponding designated region via a first point defined in the designated region or ii) triggering a designated region traveling mode of the robots and controlling the robots to pass through the corresponding designated region in the designated region traveling mode.

An autonomous distributed coordination system is provided which is intended to be used for a broad-area search in an unknown environment without the need for a prior plan and map sharing. It includes: a sensor input processing section 302 for acquiring (i) relative position information relative to another mobile body, (ii) path information in past and (iii) surrounding shape information; other mobile body avoidance module 310 for generating, based on the relative position information, a first action candidate for avoiding the another mobile body; a past path avoidance module 311 for generating, based on the path information, a second action candidate for avoiding the path information in the past; an obstruct avoidance module 312 for generating, based on the depth information, a third action candidate for avoiding a surrounding obstruct; and an integration module 313 for determining a velocity or angular velocity of the mobile body based on the first action candidate, the second action candidate and the third action candidate.

A control device includes a communication unit, a restriction condition calculation unit, and a control unit. The communication unit receives, from a second robot, a current position of the second robot, and restriction-related information used for controlling the second robot based on positions of a first robot and the second robot at past times. The restriction condition calculation unit calculates restriction condition candidates indicating conditions of a range in which movement is possible, based on the current position and the restriction-related information received from the second robot. The restriction condition calculation unit also identifies a restriction condition having the most recent time among the calculated restriction condition candidates. The control unit controls the position of the first robot so as to move in a manner satisfying the restriction condition identified by the restriction condition calculation unit.

A method and system are provided for task allocation for a material handling system with autonomous mobile robots (AMR) operating within a material handling facility. The AMRs are configured to self-select tasks to perform utilizing a computer based warehouse execution system (WES) utilizing a pending workflow list of tasks to be performed within the material handling facility. The AMRs include onboard computers for communicating with the WES and to self-select tasks from the pending workflow list. The AMR may be directed to a prioritized task or task queue, and the WES may lock an AMR to a task or task queue until the task or tasks are performed, or until the AMR determines that the AMR should be reassigned or otherwise relieved of the task or task queue. The AMRs are thus adapted to independently self-select tasks, where the AMR and/or WES may enable the AMR to self-select tasks.

A system and methods for operating a multi-robot system (MRS) are disclosed. An example method can include receiving at least one transportation task; determining an optimal path for executing the at least one transportation task based at least in part on: (i) one or more transportation task parameters, (ii) a shared global critic function accessible to the first robot and the at least one additional robot, and (iii) a local critic function unique to the first robot; and executing the at least one transportation task in accordance with the determined optimal path.

A material outbound method includes: determining a first outbound order corresponding to a first robot among at least one robot, where a carrying task performed by the at least one robot corresponds to a same workstation, and the first robot is a robot that first carries a material to the workstation; controlling a third robot according to a control strategy; and determining the control strategy for the third robot based on whether robots corresponding to the first outbound order include a second robot, where the second robot is a robot other than the first robot that corresponds to the first outbound order, the control strategy includes controlling the third robot to suspend performing a carrying task, the carrying task includes a carrying task corresponding to at least one second outbound order, and the at least one second outbound order is an outbound order other than the first outbound order.

The present invention discloses systems, modules and methods for an autonomous orchestrion of at least one first swarm, comprising offline model-based subsystem for precomputation of swarm strategies to be performed at real-time; and a real-time subsystem intercommunicated with the offline pre-commutating subsystem.

The present invention discloses systems, modules and methods for an autonomous orchestrion of at least one first swarm, comprising offline model-based subsystem for precomputation of swarm strategies to be performed at real-time; and a real-time subsystem intercommunicated with the offline pre-commutating subsystem.

Embodiments of the disclosure provide an unmanned vehicle system, including a plurality of unmanned vehicles. The plurality of unmanned vehicles include a first unmanned vehicle and a second unmanned vehicle. The first unmanned vehicle provides an information pattern, wherein the information pattern indicates a control information. The second unmanned vehicle acquires the control information by identifying the information pattern.