Running Cooperative Tasks in a Multi-Robot System with Cyber-Physical Features

• Héber Renato Fadel de Morais UTFPR / IFPR
• João Paulo Lima Silva de Almeida UTFPR / IFPR
• Lúcia Valéria Ramos de Arruda UTFPR

Resumo

This paper develops a system based on cyber-physical concepts to support robots in tasks that require cooperative work and information sharing. The work's inspiration is the need of the 4.0 industry for cobots visiting different workstations to assist human workers, for tools and raw material transportation, and other tasks. As in any industrial environment, unexpected events may occur, and the cobots must face them, reducing their effects on the production line. In this work, multiple robots (MR) managed by a system with cyber-physical (CP) features cooperate in an experimental dynamic environment to safely accomplish several tasks. For this, the robots must visit targets (analogous to workstations) in an orderly way, while one support robot must deal with oil stains on the environment's floor detected along the robots' navigation (unexpected event). The proposed CP-MR system is evaluated through experimental results allowing a performance analysis.

Palavras-chave: Visualization, Service robots, Federated learning, Information sharing, Robot sensing systems, Workstations, Multi-robot systems, Cyber-Physical Environment, Cooperation and Collaboration