Dynamic manipulator strength augmentation
AssigneeEagle Technology, LLC
InventorPaul M. Bosscher
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems (100) and methods (900) for controlling movement of an articulating arm having a plurality of joints. The methods comprise: receiving, by the controller, a command to perform a task by the articulating arm; ranking movements of the joints based on how much each said joint needs to move at a first time in order to follow the command; selecting a first subset of joints with top-ranked movements from the plurality of joints, where the subset of joints comprises less than a total number of joints contained in the plurality of joints; and causing only the joints of the first subset to move during a first timeslot of a plurality of timeslots.
Claims20
A method for controlling movement of an articulating arm having a plurality of joints, comprising:
- receiving, by a controller, a command to perform a task by the articulating arm;
- transitioning from using a first joint movement control algorithm to a second joint movement control algorithm which is different from the first joint movement control algorithm, wherein the first joint movement control algorithm is configured to cause simultaneous movement of the plurality of joints and the second joint movement control algorithm is configured to cause staggered movement of at least some of the plurality of joints;
- performing, by the controller, the second joint movement control algorithm to:
- rank the joints based on desired operations of the joints or associated motors during a given time period in a process for completing the task;
- and
- select a first subset of joints based on a ranking of the plurality of joints, where the first subset of joints comprises less than a total number of joints contained in the plurality of joints;
- and
- increasing a lifting strength of the articulating arm when using the second joint movement control algorithm as compared to the first joint movement control algorithm by selectively limiting the instantaneous power draw of the articulating arm during a first timeslot of a plurality of timeslots associated with a duration of the task, wherein the instantaneous power draw is selectively limited by causing only the joints of the first subset to move during the first timeslot.
A system, comprising:
- an articulating arm having a plurality of j oints;
- a processor communicatively coupled to the articulating arm;
- and
- a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising programming instructions that are configured to cause the processor to implement a method for controlling movement of the articulating arm, wherein the programming instructions comprise instructions to:
- receive a command to perform a task by the articulating arm;
- transition from using a first joint movement control algorithm to a second joint movement control algorithm which is different from the first joint movement control algorithm, wherein the first joint movement control algorithm is configured to cause simultaneous movement of the plurality of joints and the second joint movement control algorithm is configured to cause staggered movement of at least some of the plurality of joints;
- rank movements of the joints based on desired operations of the joints or associated motors during a given time period in a process for completing the task in accordance with the second joint movement control algorithm;
- select a first subset of joints based on a ranking of the plurality of joints, where the first subset of joints comprises less than a total number of joints contained in the plurality of joints;
- and
- increase a lifting strength of the articulating arm when using the second joint movement control algorithm as compared to the first joint movement control algorithm by selectively limiting the instantaneous power draw of the articulating arm during a first timeslot of a plurality of timeslots associated with a duration of the task, wherein the instantaneous power draw is selectively limited by causing only the joints of the first subset to move during the first timeslot.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.