Method and system for automatically determining a motion data sample of a given robot and its surrounding object set

A data processing system, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• an accessible memory;
• the data processing system configured to:
• a) provide access to a virtual simulation system capable of simulating a plurality of robotic tasks of a plurality of robots interacting with corresponding object sets within a virtual environment;
• b) use the virtual simulation system to receive virtual data inputs on the virtual environment including its plurality of virtual robots and corresponding plurality of virtual object sets;
• c) use the virtual simulation system, for each given robot, to receive input data on one or more robotic instruction sets representing one or more corresponding robotic tasks;
• d) receive, from the virtual simulation system, resulting data of a simulation of all of the robotic tasks of the plurality of robots and of all of the plurality object sets, the resulting simulation data being sampled at defined sampling times until each robot has performed at least one iteration;
• e) collect, from the received resulting simulation data, sampled position data of one or more robots and of one or more corresponding object sets at the defined sampling times;
• f) for at least one given robot, define a given robotic relation group including the given robot and a set of corresponding surrounding objects in the robot's own virtual environment portion and relevant time stamps, with repetitive actions within the robotic relation group not being considered and objects not belonging to the robotic relation group being blanked;
• g) define a given virtual camera point of view suitable for dynamically displaying the given robot and the object set of the given robotic relation group;
• h) within the virtual simulation system, place the given robot and the object set of the given related robotic group on their corresponding collected sampled position data at their relevant time stamps, and determine their corresponding motion data sample by recording their motion data sample at the virtual camera point of view;
• and
• i) generate, from the recorded motion data sample, a preview video with a predefined video format exportable as a disconnected animation mode that does not require execution by a simulation application to assist in understanding the functionality of a robotic program associated to a physical robot at the shopfloor.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more data processing systems to:

• a) provide access to a virtual simulation system capable of simulating a plurality of robotic tasks of a plurality of robots interacting with corresponding object sets within a virtual environment;
• b) use the virtual simulation system to receive virtual data inputs on the virtual environment including its plurality of virtual robots and corresponding plurality of virtual object sets;
• c) use the virtual simulation system, for each given robot, to receive input data on one or more robotic instruction sets representing one or more corresponding robotic tasks;
• d) receive, from the virtual simulation system, resulting data of a simulation of all of the robotic tasks of the plurality of robots and of all of the plurality object sets, the resulting simulation data being sampled at defined sampling times until each robot has performed at least one iteration;
• e) collect, from the received resulting simulation data, sampled position data of one or more robots and of one or more corresponding object sets at the defined sampling times;
• f) for at least one given robot, define a given robotic relation group including the given robot and a set of corresponding surrounding objects in the robot's own virtual environment portion and relevant time stamps, with repetitive actions within the robotic relation group not being considered and objects not belonging to the robotic relation group being blanked;
• g) define a given virtual camera point of view suitable for dynamically displaying the given robot and the object set of the given robotic relation group;
• h) within the virtual simulation system, place the given robot and the object set of the given related robotic group on their corresponding collected sampled position data at their relevant time stamps, and determine their corresponding motion data sample by recording their motion data sample at the virtual camera point of view;
• and
• i) generate, from the recorded motion data sample, a preview video with a predefined video format exportable as a disconnected animation mode that does not require execution by a simulation application to assist in understanding the functionality of a robotic program associated to a physical robot at the shopfloor.