The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 20, 1998
Filed:
Mar. 11, 1997
Tomoo Matsuda, Fujisawa, JP;
Komatsu Ltd., , JP;
Abstract
An object of the device according to the present invention is to enable small-volume, high-diversity production to be conducted efficiently, in the same way as in the conventional FMS, whilst at the same time overcoming problems associated with the conventional techniques, such as the complexity of creating programs for manufacturing processes, work interruptions due to robot breakdown, and `deadlock` incidents arising during operation. When seed data indicating an objective task (for example, the task of completing a particular product) is input to a computer, by communicating with hardware robots via a communications network, the computer selects a plurality of hardware robots, which are capable of implementing cooperatively the objective task indicated by the input seed data, and which are not engaged in any task based on other seed data. A software robot is created by inputting the seed data to at least one of the selected plurality of hardware robots. When the plurality of robots have been operated by means of the generated software robot and have completed the objective task, the seed data is withdrawn from the hardware robot(s) to which it was input.