An online supervisor for robotic tasks

To increase task flexibility in a robotic assembly environment, a hierarchical planning and execution system is being developed which will map user-specified three-dimensional part assembly tasks into various target robotic workcells, and execute these tasks efficiently using manipulators and sensors available in the workcell. One level of this hierarchy, the supervisor, is responsible for assigning subtasks of a system-generated task plan to a set of task specific specialists, and online coordination of the activity of these specialists to accomplish the user-specified assembly. The design is broken down into five major functional blocks: resource management; concurrency detection; task scheduling; error recovery; and interprocess communication. The overall function of the supervisor is examined in relation to the other levels of the hierarchical system. The theoretical design of each module of the supervisor is presented and a sample assembly is executed under the supervisor´s control