WO2023101365A1

WO2023101365A1 - Method and device for processing multi-robot work by using group-based work description

Info

Publication number: WO2023101365A1
Application number: PCT/KR2022/019088
Authority: WO
Inventors: 이재호; 최병기; 유인식
Original assignee: 서울시립대학교 산학협력단
Priority date: 2021-11-30
Filing date: 2022-11-29
Publication date: 2023-06-08
Also published as: KR20230081379A; KR102610426B1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a technology for controlling multiple robots. This method for processing a multi-robot work by a work processing device includes: receiving an input of a group-based work description which describes a work to be performed by multiple robots and includes the roles, interactions, and group structure with respect to the work; converting the group work based on the group-based work description which has been input, and generating a multi-robot service comprising one or more role services reconstructed in the form of works to be performed by individual robots; and allotting the role services of the multi-robot service to individual robots to guide each individual robot to construct a robot service by collecting at least one from among the actual work, situation, and knowledge information required for performing the service, on the basis of an allotted role service.

Description

Method and apparatus for processing multi-robot tasks using organization-based task specification

The present invention relates to a technology for controlling a plurality of robots, and more particularly, to a multi-robot task processing method and apparatus for controlling individual robots to perform their respective roles through the specification of tasks to be performed by the entire robot.

Recently, research on robots that can provide various services by utilizing intelligent elements such as recognition, movement, manipulation, interaction (Human-Robot Interaction, HRI), learning, and reasoning is active.

In the traditional point of view of controlling robots, even in the presence of multiple robots, individual robots perform actions or actions directly programmed and controlled to perform their respective roles. However, in a situation where a plurality of robots do not all have the same functions and abilities, there is a burden of directly designing tasks according to the capabilities of individual robots, and also, in an environment where these individual robots perform operations together, mutual relationships are created. This further complicates the situation of controlling multiple robots to perform tasks.

This development method creates difficulties in expressing services that require multilateral work by defining the actions performed by individual robots in performing services, and the type of robots that perform them is inevitably limited. Every time it happens, the inconvenience of having to develop a new service follows. Therefore, as introduced through the prior art documents below, a robot service technology that performs a service requiring multilateral work has appeared.

(Prior Art Literature) Korean Patent Publication No. 2020-0079703, "Method for generating service package and robot service development system performing the same"

However, considering the situation in which the functions and roles of robots gradually diversify and a large number of actors must participate in large-scale tasks, tasks to be performed by all of the multiple robots are specified through task specifications so that each individual is automatically A top-down approach to controlling the robot to perform the appropriate role needs to be considered.

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to prevent the problem of increasing the complexity of the multi-robot control because the conventional multi-robot control stays at the level of individual robot control, and the weakness that increases the burden of task designation and motion design by the developer and overcome the rigidity of inflexibility in changing circumstances.

In order to solve the above technical problem, a multi-robot job processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention describes a job including a role, interaction, and organizational structure for a job to be performed by a multi-robot. Receiving an organization-based work specification; Converting an organization job from the organization-based job specification input by the job processing device and generating a multi-robot service including at least one role service reconstructed in the form of a job to be performed by an individual robot; And by distributing the role service of the multi-robot service to individual robots by the task processing device, each robot collects at least one of actual tasks, situations, and knowledge information required for service execution based on the distributed role services. and inducing a robot service configuration.

In the multi-robot task processing method according to an embodiment, the step of generating the multi-robot service includes converting an organization-based task specification into a single robot task level in order to distribute an organization task to individual robots, but in the form of a role service. transform, create knowledge according to the knowledge used within the role, transform the policy of the organization-based job specification into the policy of the role service, and create multiple robot services through keyword-based matching and item delivery.

In the multi-robot task processing method according to an embodiment, the step of inducing the configuration of robot services includes distributing role services to individual robots according to the capabilities of the robots and performing robot services through queries for each element of the role services. It is possible to create a role service-based robot service by collecting tasks and situations required for this.

A method for processing a multi-robot job according to an embodiment includes recognizing, by the job processing device, a change in a situation through the generation of a request; selecting, by the task processing device, an appropriate organization task from the organization-based task specification according to the recognized change in the situation; converting, by the job processing device, a robot service from the selected organization job; and instructing, by the job processing device, individual robots to perform the converted robot service.

Furthermore, hereinafter, a computer-readable recording medium in which a program for executing the multi-robot task processing method described above is recorded on a computer is provided.

In order to solve the above technical problem, an apparatus for processing multi-robot tasks according to another embodiment of the present invention is an organization-based task specification describing tasks including roles, interactions, and organizational structures for tasks to be performed by multiple robots. and an input unit that receives a change in a situation recognized through a request. and a processing unit configured to configure a robot service based on the input organization-based job specification and executing a program for controlling individual robots to perform the robot service, wherein the program is configured based on the input organization-based job specification. By transforming the organizational task, creating a multi-robot service including at least one role service reconstructed in the form of a task to be performed by an individual robot, and distributing the role service of the multi-robot service to the individual robot, each robot Based on the distributed role service, at least one of the actual work, situation, and knowledge information necessary for service execution is collected to derive the robot service configuration, and according to the recognized change in the situation, a suitable organization from the organization-based task specification Select a task, convert robot services from the selected organization tasks, and command individual robots to perform the converted robot services.

Embodiments of the present invention enable the development of multiple robot tasks at once through an organization-based task specification that describes the tasks to be performed by multiple robots, enabling service development that maintains vocabulary consistency among each robot service, and Since services are formed through the combination of actors and roles that define robots, it is possible to provide the openness of organizational work for robot types and functions. It is possible to automatically generate and apply.

1 is a flowchart illustrating a multi-robot job processing method using organization-based job specification according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram showing an overview of a system for processing multi-robot tasks proposed by embodiments of the present invention.

3 is a diagram for explaining a process of generating a multi-robot task proposed by embodiments of the present invention.

4 is a diagram showing the overall structure and example of an organization-based job specification.

5 is a diagram for explaining the components of an organization-based work specification.

6 is a diagram for explaining a multi-robot service model.

7 is a flow diagram illustrating a process of converting multi-robot services from an organization-based job specification.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a process of constructing a robot service from multiple robot services.

9 is a diagram for explaining a process of performing a robot service according to a situation change according to an embodiment of the present invention.

10 is a block diagram illustrating a multi-robot task processing device using organization-based task specification according to another embodiment of the present invention.

10: processing unit of multi-robot operation

11: input unit

13: processing unit

20: multiple robots

A multi-robot task processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of receiving, by a task processing device, an organization-based task specification describing a task including roles, interactions, and organizational structures for tasks to be performed by multiple robots. ; Converting an organization job from the organization-based job specification input by the job processing device and generating a multi-robot service including at least one role service reconstructed in the form of a job to be performed by an individual robot; And by distributing the role service of the multi-robot service to individual robots by the task processing device, each robot collects at least one of actual tasks, situations, and knowledge information required for service execution based on the distributed role services. and inducing a robot service configuration.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, detailed descriptions of well-known functions or configurations that may obscure the gist of the present invention will be omitted in the following description and accompanying drawings. In addition, throughout the specification, 'including' a certain component means that other components may be further included, not excluding other components unless otherwise stated.

Terms used in the present invention are only used to describe specific embodiments, and are not intended to limit the present invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In this application, the terms "comprise" or "comprise" are intended to designate that the described feature, number, step, operation, component, part, or combination thereof exists, but that one or more other features or It should be understood that the presence or addition of numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof is not precluded.

Unless specifically defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention belongs. Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the meaning in the context of the related art, and unless explicitly defined in this application, they are not interpreted in an ideal or excessively formal meaning. .

Prior to description of embodiments of the present invention, common terms are first introduced. 'Robot service' refers to a set of information such as tasks, situations, and knowledge necessary for a robot to perform a service, and 'actor' refers to a subject that performs a task, such as robots, cameras, people, etc. It can be of various types, and 'circumstance information' represents the processing of environmental information observed through sensors into a form that a robot can understand. Circumstance information may be defined in the form of a predicate, and may be expressed as, for example, a cargo location (“box01”, 3, 10, 1), a person request (“warehousing and transporting”), and the like.

1 is a flowchart illustrating a multi-robot task processing method using an organization-based task specification according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which a task to be performed by multiple robots is described through one specification, and based on this, each individual robot's Suggest how to configure the service. To this end, a series of processes described in FIG. 1 may be implemented through a program composed of instructions that are executed time-sequentially, and may be executed by a task processing device having at least one processor.

In step S110 , the task processing device receives an organization-based task specification describing tasks including roles, interactions, and organizational structures for tasks to be performed by multiple robots. Here, the Robot Organization Task Specification (hereinafter referred to as 'RoOTS') is a means for specifying an architecture design model within an organization methodology and deriving an organization composition and role in a specific and technical manner based on this specification. am. Therefore, the organization-based job specification must define the method of distributing appropriate services to multiple robots according to the situation and performing interactions by describing the organization of the organization, roles within the organization, interactions between roles, common policies and norms, etc. do.

In step S130, the task processing device converts the organization task from the organization-based task specification input through step S110 and generates a multi-robot service including at least one role service reconstructed in the form of a task to be performed by an individual robot. do. In this process, from an organization-based task specification to a single robot task level for distributing organizational tasks to individual robots, but in the form of role services, generating knowledge according to the knowledge used within the role, and organization-based tasks The policy of the specification is converted into the policy of the role service, but multiple robot services can be created through keyword-based matching and item delivery.

In step S150, the task processing device distributes the role service of the multi-robot service to individual robots, so that each robot has at least one of actual tasks, situations, and knowledge information necessary for service execution based on the distributed role service. Collect one to induce robot service configuration. In this process, the step of inducing robot service composition distributes role services to individual robots according to their capabilities, collects tasks and situations necessary for robot service performance through queries for each element of the role service, and provides role services. Based robot service can be created.

In the above series of processes, since services of multiple robots are created through one specification, it is possible to maintain consistency in the way each robot understands the environment or the vocabulary of work. In addition, since services are formed through the combination of actors and roles that define robot capabilities, it is possible to provide openness of organizational work for robot types and functions. Furthermore, in the case of domains having similar purposes and different organizational structures, reuse of roles or interactions can be supported.

The organization-based job specification 210 is a means to describe the jobs of multiple robots in a consistent way. The multi-robot service 230 describes information necessary for each robot to configure a service using the organization-based job specification 210 . The robot service 250 refers to a service for individual robots to perform by distributing multiple robot services 230 .

A single robot job and a multi-robot job are divided into a multi-robot service 330 that is a form for distributing to individual robots by receiving the organizational job specification 310 described and converting the organizational job 320 . Then, the role service is distributed to each robot (340), and each robot collects information necessary for service execution to configure a robot service (350). Here, the organization-based task specification 310 describes tasks in the form of organizations, roles, and interactions, and the multi-robot service 330 uses the organization-based task specification 310 to describe the tasks required by each robot to configure the service. It consists of role services that declaratively describe information, and the robot service 350 is configured by collecting actual tasks, situations, and knowledge information necessary for service execution based on role services.

4 is a diagram showing an overall structure (a) and an example (b) of an organization-based job specification. Referring to (a) of FIG. 4, it can be seen that abstract elements necessary for multiple robots to perform consistent tasks, such as roles constituting an organization, relationships between roles, interaction elements, common policies, and norms, are defined respectively. can In addition, it shows that the service of each robot can be configured through transformation by defining the range of services and knowledge to be assigned to each robot through roles, interactions, policies, and norms.

In summary, the organization-based work specification proposed by the embodiments of the present invention includes an organizational structure that represents the roles constituting the organization, interactions, and relationships between roles constituting the organization, but describes common policies and norms to multiple Depending on the situation given to robots, appropriate services can be distributed to define the elements required to perform interactions, and the range of services and knowledge to be assigned to individual robots can be defined through roles, interactions, policies, and norms.

Referring to FIG. 5 (a) illustrating a role representing service procedures and configurations to be performed by each agent in an organization, a role is a service sequence that can be assigned to agents to perform complex tasks by configuring an organization. It includes the component that has the agent, and represents the described abstract service procedure and component unit regardless of the agent's ability. The detailed composition of a role includes interactions and activities that are applied as tasks that can be performed according to the abilities of the agent to whom the role is assigned through the declaration of the entire interaction and tasks to be performed by the role, and activities that the role mainly performs. Liveness, which represents an abstract service procedure composed of actions and interactions, safety, which is reflected as a constraint on the work performed by an agent as a situation to be maintained in the process of performing a role, and roles in an organization It may include permission indicating creation, modification, and access rights for the environment and context information to perform.

Referring to FIG. 5 (b) illustrating an organization structure representing the relationship between roles constituting the organization, the organization structure is a component describing the relationship between roles for identifying collaboration targets of each agent. Depending on the structure of the system to which the work is to be applied, it is possible to reuse the existing organizational structure.

Referring to FIG. 5(c), which illustrates a policy representing criteria for evaluating and comparing general suitability of tasks, the policy is a component whose value is determined through context information to support comparison of usefulness of tasks. As, it is applied differently according to the ability of the role assigned to the agent to support optimal task selection according to each situation.

Referring to FIG. 5 (d) illustrating an interaction representing a service unit in which a plurality of agents participate to exchange knowledge and perform tasks, the interaction is for generating an interaction task based on an interaction template. As a component that describes necessary information, it provides a communication protocol between agents that uses the same vocabulary for work or environment. The detailed configuration of the interaction includes a template for configuring the interaction task, an interaction template (InteractionTemplate) that describes the vocabulary to be used in the interaction, an initiator that plays a role in timing the interaction, and a participant who participates in the interaction. You can include a Participant representing the entire role.

6 is a diagram for explaining a multi-robot service model.

The multi-robot service model is a service configuration model required for robots to perform services. A model composed of the minimum information required to create a service before a service is assigned to an individual robot is stored, but activity (Activity ), interaction, etc. to configure the tasks, situations, and knowledge to be performed for each role, which are then distributed to individual robots and then converted into role services and completed.

Referring to (c) of FIG. 6 exemplifying a role service (RoleService) representing a service model composed of conditions such as tasks and situations required for service generation by each robot, the role service includes work procedures for robots to perform services. Tasks that describe the conditions of tasks required for an agent to perform a service, such as Workflow, Activity, and Interaction, for acquiring situation information and situation creation rules used in the service. A context describing conditions and knowledge declaring a domain knowledge model necessary for configuring a service may be included as components.

Figure 7 is a flow diagram illustrating the process of converting multi-robot services from an organization-based job specification to a single-robot job level for distributing an organization job to each robot. Referring to FIG. 7 , first, an organization-based job description (RoOTS) is input (step S710), and a series of creation and conversion processes are performed until there is no role to be converted (step S715). Role is converted into RoleService and RoleService is created (step S720). The Liveness of the Role is converted into the workflow of the RoleService (Step S730), the Activity of the Role is converted into a Task of the RoleService (Step S740), the Interaction of the Role is converted into a Task of the RoleService (Step S750), and the Permission of the Role is converted into the RoleService Context of (step S760), Knowledgefmf is created according to the knowledge used in the role (step S770), and policy of organization-based work specification (RoOTS) is converted into Policy of RoleService (step S780). Now, if all roles are converted, the multi-robot service conversion is completed (step S790).

8 is a flowchart illustrating a process of configuring robot services from multiple robot services, assigning roles based on capabilities, and configuring service packages based on role services. In this process, roles are assigned according to the capabilities of actors, and individual robot services are created through role service distribution. Here, a role and an actor may be assigned through reasoning between a skill to perform a role and a robot's capability. In addition, it is possible to collect tasks and situations necessary for robot service performance through queries for each element of the role service. Referring to FIG. 8, multiple robot services are received (step S810), role services are distributed to each actor (step S820), tasks, contexts, and knowledge of the role services are And policy (Step S830 ~ S860 steps), each of which performs knowledge query and collection based on the policy (Step S830 ~ S860), completes the configuration of the robot service (Step S870).

9 is a diagram for explaining a process of performing a robot service according to a situation change according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 9 , when the task processing device, such as a human request, recognizes a change in circumstances through the occurrence of a request, an appropriate organization task is selected from the organization-based task specification 310 according to the recognized change in the situation, and from the selected organization task. By transforming the robot service 350, individual robots are commanded to perform the transformed robot service 350.

10 is a block diagram showing a multi-robot task processing apparatus 10 using organization-based task specification according to another embodiment of the present invention, and is a diagram reconstructed from the hardware point of view of FIG. 1 described above. Therefore, in order to avoid duplication of description, the function and operation of each component will be briefly described here.

The input unit 11 is a component that receives a change in the situation recognized through an organization-based job specification describing a job including a role, interaction, and organizational structure for a job to be performed by the multi-robot 20 and generation of a request. .

The processing unit 13 configures a robot service based on the inputted organization-based job specification and executes a program for controlling individual robots to perform the robot service. Such a program converts an organization task from the input organization-based task specification, creates a multi-robot service including at least one role service reconstructed in the form of a task to be performed by an individual robot, and creates a role of the multi-robot service. By distributing the service to individual robots, each of the individual robots collects at least one of actual work, situation, and knowledge information necessary for service execution based on the distributed role service to induce robot service configuration, According to the change of , an appropriate organization task is selected from the organization-based task specification, a robot service is converted from the selected organization task, and an individual robot is commanded to perform the converted robot service.

Meanwhile, the embodiments of the present invention can be implemented as computer readable codes in a computer readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium includes all types of recording devices in which data that can be read by a computer system is stored.

Examples of computer-readable recording media include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage device, and the like. In addition, the computer-readable recording medium may be distributed to computer systems connected through a network, so that computer-readable codes may be stored and executed in a distributed manner. In addition, functional programs, codes, and code segments for implementing the present invention can be easily inferred by programmers in the technical field to which the present invention belongs.

In the above, the present invention was examined focusing on various embodiments thereof. Those of ordinary skill in the art pertaining to the present invention will be able to understand that the present invention can be implemented in a modified form without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered from an illustrative rather than a limiting point of view. The scope of the present invention is shown in the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all differences within the equivalent scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.

According to the embodiments of the present invention described above, it is possible to develop services maintaining consistency of vocabulary between each robot service by developing tasks of multiple robots at once through an organization-based task specification that describes tasks to be performed by multiple robots, and , Since services are formed through the combination of actors and roles that define robot capabilities, it is possible to provide openness of organizational work for robot types and functions, and robots can self-select organizational tasks suitable for them according to changes in the environment. It is possible to automatically generate and apply necessary services.

Claims

Receiving, by the task processing device, an organization-based task specification describing tasks including roles, interactions, and organizational structures for tasks to be performed by multiple robots;

Converting an organization job from the organization-based job specification input by the job processing device and generating a multi-robot service including at least one role service reconstructed in the form of a job to be performed by an individual robot; and

By distributing the role service of the multi-robot service to individual robots, the task processing device collects at least one of the actual task, situation, and knowledge information required for service execution based on the distributed role service for each robot Inducing a robot service configuration; including, processing method of multi-robot work.
According to claim 1,

The organization-based job specification,

Including an organizational structure that represents the roles that make up the organization, the interactions, and the relationships between the roles that make up the organization;

Define common policies and norms to distribute appropriate services to multiple robots according to the given situation, define the elements needed to perform interactions, and service and knowledge to be assigned to individual robots through roles, interactions, policies and norms A processing method for multi-robot tasks, which defines the scope of
According to claim 2,

The role is

Describe service procedures and units regardless of the agent's ability to perform the task,

Interactions and activities applied as tasks that can be performed according to the abilities of the agent assigned to the role through the declaration of the entire interaction and tasks to be performed by the role;

Liveness, which represents a service procedure composed of actions and interactions performed by a role;

Safety, which is reflected as a constraint on the task performed by the agent, as a situation to be maintained in the process of performing the role; and

A method for processing a multi-robot task, including; Permission indicating creation, modification, and access rights for environment and context information in which roles within an organization perform services.
According to claim 2,

The interaction is

As a service unit in which a plurality of agents participate to exchange knowledge and perform tasks, a communication protocol between agents for tasks or environments is provided,

an interaction template (InteractionTemplate) describing templates for constructing interaction tasks and vocabulary to be used in interactions;

an initiator that serves to time the interaction; and

A method for processing a multi-robot task, including; a Participant representing all of the roles participating in the interaction.
According to claim 1,

The multi-robot service,

Before a service is assigned to an individual robot, a model consisting of the minimum information required to create a service is stored, but the individual robot is converted from the organization-based task specification to include the task, situation, and knowledge to be performed for each role. After being distributed to robots, create role services;

The role service,

Workflow representing work procedures for robot service performance;

A task that describes the conditions of work required for an agent to perform a service;

Context describing conditions for acquiring situation information and situation creation rules utilized in the service; and

A method for processing multi-robot tasks, including; knowledge that declares a domain knowledge model required for service configuration.
According to claim 1,

The step of generating the multi-robot service,

Transform organization-based task specifications from organization-based task specifications to a single robot task level for distributing organization tasks to individual robots, but in the form of role services;

Generate knowledge according to the knowledge used within the role,

Convert the policies of the organization-based statement of work to the policies of the role service,

A method for processing multi-robot jobs, which creates multi-robot services through keyword-based matching and item delivery.
According to claim 1,

Inducing the robot service configuration,

Processing of multi-robot tasks that distributes role services to individual robots according to their capabilities and collects tasks and situations necessary for performing robot services through queries for each element of the role services to create role-service-based robot services. method.
According to claim 1,

Recognizing, by the task processing device, a change in circumstances through the generation of a request;

selecting, by the task processing device, an appropriate organization task from the organization-based task specification according to the recognized change in the situation;

converting, by the job processing device, a robot service from the selected organization job; and

Further comprising, the method of processing a multi-robot job; the step of commanding, by the job processing device, individual robots to perform the converted robot service.
A computer-readable recording medium recording a program for executing the method of any one of claims 1 to 8 in a computer.
An input unit that receives changes in situations recognized through organization-based task specifications and request generation that describe tasks including roles, interactions, and organizational structures for tasks to be performed by multiple robots; and

A processing unit configured to configure a robot service based on the inputted organization-based job specification and executing a program for controlling individual robots to perform the robot service;

said program,

Converting an organization task from the input organization-based task specification and generating a multi-robot service including at least one role service reconstructed in the form of a task to be performed by an individual robot;

By distributing the role service of the multi-robot service to individual robots, each of the individual robots collects at least one of actual work, situation, and knowledge information necessary for service execution based on the distributed role service to induce robot service configuration. but

According to the recognized change in the situation, an appropriate organization task is selected from the organization-based task specification, a robot service is converted from the selected organization task, and a multi-robot task is commanded to perform the converted robot service. processing unit.