Hierarchical planning for error recovery in automated industrial robotic systems

In recent automated production lines, industrial robots are required to recover from unexpected errors autonomously. In this paper, a hierarchical planning system that realizes autonomous error recovery of robots is proposed with some virtually demonstrated results. In order to realize a variety of flexible error recovery functions, a partial order planning scheme as well as a “deliberate” re-planning capability based on semantic information on the production equipment and/or workpieces are proposed. Its effectiveness in cooperative work simulations of multiple robotic manipulators is verified.