CROSS REFERENCE

This application claims priority to Chinese Application No. 202011319788.4 filed on Nov. 23, 2020 with China National Intellectual Property Administration, the entirety of which is herein incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of mobile communication, and in particular relates to a distributed congestion control method and a robot.

BACKGROUND

In a related art, with the continuous development of robot technologies, robots play a more and more important role in the field of storage. In the working process of storage robots, a large number of robots are often required to cooperate to complete a task. For example, in a warehouse where mobile robots are used for picking, hundreds or even thousands of robots may cooperate with each other to complete a commodity picking task. In the process that a large number of robots cooperate in the same environment, when a plurality of mobile robots have the same target point and go to the same picking area, or a plurality of mobile robots go to a packing table at the same time, robot congestion often occurs. When robot congestion occurs, the risk of robot collision may be greatly increased. At the same time, the slow movement of the robots may greatly affect the efficiency of commodity picking. Therefore, congestion management is very necessary in a multi-machine system where a large number of robots cooperate with each other.

In the related art, the congestion problem is generally solved by centralized control, that is, a central server is used for calculating an optimal moving trajectory for each robot in a robot group, so as to reduce the risk of robot congestion. However, the above processing scheme has obvious disadvantages: on one hand, the scheme relies heavily on the central server, and when the central server fails, the whole system may be paralyzed; on the other hand, with the increase of the number of robots, the computing pressure of the central server may be greater and greater, and the production cost may be higher and higher.

SUMMARY

The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a distributed congestion control method, which includes the following operations.

A first area and a second area are disposed centered on a target point. The first area is included in the second area.

When a first robot moves towards the target point, whether there are other robots in the second area or not is detected. In a case where there are other robots in the second area, the first robot and the other robots are coordinated to determine a second robot allowed to simultaneously enter the first area.

The second robot is controlled to move towards the target point in a case where the second robot has entered the first area.

In at least one exemplary embodiment, before the operation that the first area and the second area are disposed centered on the target point, wherein the first area is included in the second area, the method may include the following operations.

Each robot independently maintains a state machine.

A normal state, a suspended state, a locked state and a continue state of the robot are determined by the state machine.

In at least one exemplary embodiment, the operation that whether there are other robots in the second area or not is detected when the first robot moves towards the target point, and in a case where there are other robots in the second area, the first robot and the other robots are coordinated to determine the second robot allowed to simultaneously enter the first area includes the following operations.

When the first robot moves towards the target point, it is determined that the first robot is in the normal state.

When the first robot enters the second area, whether there are other robots in the second area or not is detected.

In at least one exemplary embodiment, the operation that whether there are other robots in the second area or not is detected when the first robot moves towards the target point, and in a case where there are other robots in the second area, the first robot and the other robots are coordinated to determine the second robot allowed to simultaneously enter the first area further includes the following operations.

In the case where there are other robots in the second area, whether target points of the other robots are the same as the target point of the first robot or not is detected.

In a case where the target points of the other robots are the same as the target point of the first robot, the first robot is switched from the normal state to the suspended state.

In at least one exemplary embodiment, the operation that whether there are other robots in the second area or not is detected when the first robot moves towards the target point, and in a case where there are other robots in the second area, the first robot and the other robots are coordinated to determine the second robot allowed to simultaneously enter the first area further includes the following operations.

A third area corresponding to the first robot is determined centered on the first robot.

The first robot is controlled to perform obstacle avoidance movement in the third area.

In at least one exemplary embodiment, the operation that whether there are other robots in the second area or not is detected when the first robot moves towards the target point, and in a case where there are other robots in the second area, the first robot and the other robots are coordinated to determine the second robot allowed to simultaneously enter the first area further includes the following operations.

Whether a state of the first robot is able to be changed or not is detected according to a preset detection cycle.

A first probability of keeping the suspended state is determined, and a second probability of switching from the suspended state to the continue state is determined.

In at least one exemplary embodiment, the operation that whether there are other robots in the second area or not is detected when the first robot moves towards the target point, and in a case where there are other robots in the second area, the first robot and the other robots are coordinated to determine the second robot allowed to simultaneously enter the first area further includes the following operations.

The first robot is controlled to move towards the target point in a case where the first robot is switched from the suspended state to the continue state.

The first robot is switched from the continue state to the normal state when the first robot reaches the target point.

In at least one exemplary embodiment, after the operation that whether there are other robots in the second area or not is detected when the first robot moves towards the target point, and in a case where there are other robots in the second area, the first robot and the other robots are coordinated to determine the second robot allowed to simultaneously enter the first area, the method may include the following operations.

The second robot is switched from the normal state to the locked state in a case where the second robot in the normal state is outside the second area and a robot in the suspended state or the locked state is detected.

The second robot in the locked state is controlled to perform obstacle avoidance movement in the third area, and the second robot is switched from the locked state to the suspended state when the second robot reaches the second area during the obstacle avoidance movement.

The second robot is switched from the normal state to the locked state in a case where the second robot is outside the second area and a robot in the suspended state or the locked state is not detected.

The embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a robot. The robot is capable of performing autonomous obstacle avoidance control among a plurality of robots. The robot is configured to perform moving tasks under distributed congestion control. The robot includes a mobile base, a sensing assembly and a processor.

The mobile base is configured to drive a robot to independently navigate to a target point of a task to be executed.

The sensing assembly determines whether there are other robots in an adjacent area of the robot or not through distance detection.

The processor is configured to perform distributed congestion control to control the robot to reach the target point;

dispose a first area and a second area centered on the target point, wherein the first area is included in the second area;

detect, when a first robot moves towards the target point, whether there are other robots in the second area or not, and in a case where there are other robots in the second area, coordinate the first robot and the other robots to determine a second robot allowed to simultaneously enter the first area; and

control the second robot to move towards the target point in a case where the second robot has entered the first area.

The embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a computer-readable storage medium. A distributed congestion control program is stored on the computer-readable storage medium. When the distributed congestion control program is executed by a processor, the operations of the distributed congestion control method as described in any one of the above embodiments are performed.

By implementation of the distributed congestion control method and the robot in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the first area and the second area are disposed centered on the target point, wherein the first area is included in the second area; when the first robot moves towards the target point, whether there are other robots in the second area or not is detected, and in a case where there are other robots in the second area, the first robot and the other robots are coordinated to determine the second robot allowed to simultaneously enter the first area; and the second robot is controlled to move towards the target point in a case where the second robot has entered the first area. Amore efficient distributed congestion control scheme is implemented, so that the robot can independently perform anti-congestion control according to the position of the robot and the states of adjacent robots in the process of task execution, the problems of system instability and relatively high resource occupation caused by centralized congestion control are avoided, the execution efficiency of congestion control is increased, and the production cost is reduced.

