Method and apparatus for automatic and efficient location generation for cooperative motion

A data processing system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• an accessible memory, the data processing system particularly configured to:
• receive a cooperative operation comprising a master operation performed by a master robot and a slave operation performed by a slave robot, wherein the master operation comprises a master trajectory, a start location and an end location, and wherein the slave operation comprises a slave trajectory and a plurality of slave locations;
• simulate the slave operation to obtain a slave duration between consecutive slave locations and a trajectory time to perform the slave operation;
• populate a plurality of potential locations along the master trajectory;
• generate a plurality of candidate operations in a population, wherein each of the plurality of candidate operations comprises a number of candidate locations at the potential locations on the master trajectory equal to the difference between a number of locations in the master operation and the plurality of slave locations;
• for each of the plurality of candidate operations in the population:
• simulate a candidate operation with the slave operations to calculate an efficiency factor to perform the candidate operation;
• remove the candidate operation from the population when the efficiency factor is not better as compared to other candidate operations in the population;
• and
• return the candidate operation remaining in the population.

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

• receive a cooperative operation comprising a master operation performed by a master robot and a slave operation performed by a slave robot, wherein the master operation comprises a master trajectory, a start location and an end location, and wherein the slave operation comprises a slave trajectory and a plurality of slave locations;
• simulate the slave operation to obtain a slave duration between consecutive slave locations and a trajectory time to perform the slave operation;
• populate a plurality of potential locations along the master trajectory;
• generate a plurality of candidate operations in a population, wherein each of the plurality of candidate operations comprises a number of candidate locations at the potential locations on the master trajectory equal to the difference between a number of locations in the master operation and the plurality of slave locations;
• for each of the plurality of candidate operations in the population:
• simulate a candidate operation with the slave operation to calculate an efficiency factor to perform the candidate operation;
• remove the candidate operation from the population when the efficiency factor is not better as compared to other candidate operations in the population;
• and
• return the candidate operation remaining in the population.