Multi-tool scheduling for cooperative manufacturing

A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoding instructions programmed to cause one or more hardware processors of one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:

• determining a set of multiple tasks to be performed by two or more robots in a shared build volume to manufacture a three-dimensional (3D) object in the shared build volume, wherein each of the tasks in the set has a spatial dimension extent and a temporal dimension extent;
• assigning the tasks to respective queues of respective ones of the two or more robots, wherein each queue includes two or more assigned tasks;
• ordering the tasks within each queue of assigned tasks based on the spatial dimension extent;
• generating wait times within the queues of assigned tasks in accordance with timing dependencies among tasks in the queues of assigned tasks to avoid spatial overlap;
• identifying which of the queues of assigned tasks takes a most amount of time from among all of the respective queues of assigned tasks in accordance with the temporal dimension extents and the wait times;
• creating at least one variant of the queues of assigned tasks by moving a task in the identified queue, or a task on which a task in the identified queue depends, to another of the queues of assigned tasks;
• repeating the ordering, the generating, and the identifying to reduce a total time of manufacturing;
• and
• providing a finalized version of the queues of assigned tasks for conducting synchronized activities of the two or more robots when manufacturing the 3D object in the shared build volume.

A system comprising:

• two or more robots configured and arranged to perform manufacturing operations in a shared build volume;
• a non-transitory storage medium having instructions of a manufacturing conductor program stored thereon;
• and
• one or more hardware processors configured to run the instructions of the manufacturing conductor program to
• determine a set of multiple tasks to be performed by the two or more robots in the shared build volume to manufacture a three-dimensional (3D) object in the shared build volume, wherein each of the tasks in the set has a spatial dimension extent and a temporal dimension extent,
• assign the tasks to respective queues of respective ones of the two or more robots, wherein each queue includes two or more assigned tasks,
• order the tasks within each queue of assigned tasks based on the spatial dimension extent,
• generate wait times within the queues of assigned tasks in accordance with timing dependencies among tasks in the queues of assigned tasks to avoid spatial overlap,
• identify which of the queues of assigned tasks takes a most amount of time from among all of the respective queues of assigned tasks in accordance with the temporal dimension extents and the wait times,
• create at least one variant of the queues of assigned tasks by moving a task in the identified queue, or a task on which a task in the identified queue depends, to another of the queues of assigned tasks,
• repeat the ordering of tasks, the generating of wait times, and the identifying of a queue to reduce a total time of manufacturing, and
• provide a finalized version of the queues of assigned tasks for conducting synchronized activities of the two or more robots when manufacturing the 3D object in the shared build volume.