In people's daily lives, robots have expanded from industrial applications to commercial applications. In many restaurants, robots can be seen assisting in meal delivery. In many shopping malls, robots are also taking on roles such as welcoming guests and providing guidance. This represents the gradual maturity of related technologies and the decreasing costs, leading to the increasing popularity of robot applications. This article will introduce the development of robot applications and related solutions introduced by onsemi.
Robotic systems capable of autonomously executing tasks and navigating within their environment
With the continuous development of technology, the interaction between humans and robots will continue to increase. From collaborative robots (cobots) brewing coffee for you in the local coffee shop in the morning to autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) moving around warehouses to pick packages, these various types of collaborative robots can play many roles in our daily lives.
AMRs are a type of robotic system capable of autonomously executing tasks and moving within their environment. These robots typically possess perception, decision-making, and execution capabilities, enabling them to adapt to different environments and perform various tasks with minimal human intervention. AMRs are widely used in industries such as manufacturing, services, healthcare, agriculture, etc., with the aim of improving efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing safety.
These types of robots consist of several complex components, primarily including perception systems, decision-making systems, and execution systems. The perception system comprises sensors capable of sensing the environment, such as cameras, LiDAR, infrared sensors, etc., which are used to gather information about the surrounding environment. The decision-making system utilizes the information obtained from the perception system for analysis, combined with decision algorithms and software, enabling the robot to understand the environment, plan paths, and execute tasks. The execution system includes actuators that control the robot's actions, such as motors, hydraulic systems, etc., which are used to achieve the robot's movement and operations within the environment.
The future development direction of AMRs encompasses various aspects. Through more powerful artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, robots will be better equipped to adapt to complex and dynamic environments, improving decision-making capabilities and the flexibility of autonomous actions. Additionally, future AMRs may focus more on team collaboration planning and collaborative work to accomplish more complex tasks. This involves further development of distributed decision-making among robots and communication protocols, as well as effective interaction between robots and humans to execute more complex and collaborative tasks.
Autonomous mobile robots with enhanced intelligent perception capabilities
Looking ahead to future development trends, robot applications will further advance high-level intelligent perception technologies, such as 3D vision, sound recognition, tactile sensing, olfactory perception, etc. These advancements aim to enhance the robot's perception capabilities of the environment and strengthen the navigation and positioning abilities of AMRs in unknown or dynamic environments. This includes more precise identification of terrain, obstacles, and other moving objects to cope with complex and dynamic scenarios. Additionally, leveraging augmented reality and virtual reality technologies will enhance the robot's perception and operation capabilities in the real world, while also providing better tools for remote operation and training.
To extend the operating time of robots, improve energy efficiency, and sustainability, there will be a focus on researching the energy efficiency of robots and developing more advanced autonomous charging technologies to prolong their working hours. Furthermore, exploration of self-sustaining energy solutions, such as solar charging or other innovative energy technologies, will reduce reliance on external charging facilities. Additionally, to meet the needs of different application domains, there will be a focus on developing customized AMRs equipped with more functions and adaptability.
On the other hand, people also place considerable importance on the safety and ethical considerations of robots. There should be a stronger emphasis on enhancing the safety of AMRs when interacting with humans, ensuring that they can comply with relevant regulations and ethical guidelines in environments where they coexist with humans. This includes adherence to moral principles, privacy protection, and respect for human dignity. Moreover, there should be increased emphasis on the safety of robots, which may also involve the formulation of regulations and ethical guidelines.
Robots will also move towards more specialized and customized AMRs to meet the specific needs of particular industries or sectors, such as healthcare, logistics, agriculture, etc. Additionally, integrating AMRs with Internet of Things (IoT) technology will achieve higher levels of automation and intelligence, enabling robots to better collaborate with other devices and systems.
Providing complete demonstrations and solutions for autonomous mobile robots
onsemi is a semiconductor components company with a wide range of product lines. In response to the development of robot applications, onsemi has developed a demonstration of an AMR. This demonstration is derived from subsystem solution development, representing a comprehensive robot design using innovative products from onsemi. By combining onsemi’s various sensing and intelligent power solutions, this concept can be used to design various types of robots, collaborative robots, power tools, and automated guided vehicles.
onsemi produces evaluation boards (EVBs) and development platforms for robot applications using its own products. These platforms are used for AMR subsystems, including motion, sensors, power, lighting, and communication. They form an autonomous mobile base along with the control unit, capable of navigating in their environment and safely replanning paths around obstacles when needed, utilizing collision avoidance features. In order to be able to upgrade and use onsemi's latest evaluation boards, and include some of onsemi's customized products (such as cameras), AMRs use DIN rails to mount the evaluation boards and use ball head mounts ¼-20 to mount the sensors.
In the lighting subsystem, it is possible to convey the state, status, and intentions of the AMR to the surrounding people. In smart retail inventory applications, the lighting system can also be used to illuminate products in dark stores. The NCV7685 linear current driver and NCL31000 intelligent LED driver are used for these purposes, including functions of visible light communication and indoor positioning evaluation boards.
The motion subsystem includes onsemi's 60V multi-purpose three-phase gate driver NCD83591, as well as the NCP730 CMOS LDO voltage regulator with extremely low quiescent current, fast transient response, and a high input and output voltage ranges, and the latest Trench 10 MOSFET NVMFWS0DxN04XM solution designed for compact and efficient applications with high thermal performance, used for BLDC motor drive.
In the sensor subsystem, the 1/2.6-inch 2Mp CMOS digital image sensor AR0234 and the 1/3.2-inch CMOS active-pixel digital image sensor AR1335 are used. Additionally, the NCS32100 angular sensing position sensor is employed to achieve high-resolution, high accuracy angular sensing, while the NCV75215 ultrasonic sensor provides obstacle distance measurements during the AMR's halt periods.
In the power subsystem, the FAN65008B is a PWM buck regulator with integrated MOSFETs, capable of creating the power levels required for the AMR through the 48V battery. The FAN65008B includes a range of protection circuits, including overcurrent protection (OCP), thermal shutdown (TSD), overvoltage protection (OVP), undervoltage protection (UVP), and short-circuit protection (SCP). The power subsystem also includes battery monitoring and a compact charging solution based on bridgeless totem pole NCP1681 and e-Fuse NIS3071, as well as current monitoring.
The communication subsystem includes the NCN26010, a multi-drop Ethernet 10Base-T1S transceiver compliant with the IEEE 802.3cg standard, including MAC, PLCA, and Reconciliation Sublayer (RS). The 10Base-T1S serves as the backbone connecting all AMR subsystems. Finally, using the NVIDIA® Jetson™ as the control unit provides a well-integrated example of how onsemi's subsystems enable the implementation of the Robot Operating System (ROS) as a docker container.
Collaborating with partners to jointly expand the functionality and applications of robots
onsemi manufactures AMRs using DIN rails to facilitate the addition of new products and functionalities, allowing for continuous integration of more sensors. Additionally, they can expand the power subsystem by using the new onsemi electronic fuse product, e-Fuse NIS3071.
onsemi collaborates with companies integrating onsemi image sensors and LiDAR technology into their camera systems, thus fusion of image sensing and depth perception into a single system. This collaboration aims to better support these customers and transfer onsemi's algorithms or functionalities into their systems.
onsemi's AMRs collaborate with Nvidia to gain further insights into running ROS (Robot Operating System) environments on Nvidia Jetson and determine the level of drivers needed. Additionally, onsemi delves into Nvidia Omniverse™ and Isaac Sim™ for robot simulation and synthetic data, which are crucial for safe AMR design. Simulation environments are used to train mobile robots based on Syntectica data (obstacles requiring safe navigation for mobile robots). These simulation environments can also be used to navigate the most energy-efficient paths, extend the time between battery charges, or take advantage of charging opportunities by highlighting onsemi's advantages through energy-saving and intelligent sensing in AMR subsystems.
Currently, AMRs can navigate freely around people as physical barriers have been largely eliminated, making them quite safe and efficient. These robots can operate in environments such as warehouses and/or office spaces with controlled lighting and level floors. However, future AMRs will continue to evolve to be able to adapt to any environment much like humans.
Furthermore, true deployment flexibility is a key characteristic for the success of AMRs, requiring an interface to indicate or train the robot on what to do without the need for programming. Advances in natural language processing (NLP), smart and efficient hardware sensors, as well as improvements in power and control, will be integrated into AMRs to perform general tasks. This will enable future robots to sometimes operate CNC machines and at other times package products. For example, in agricultural settings, AMRs can not only weed but also harvest ripe vegetables, then package them for shipment.
Conclusion
As the robotics industry continues to become more efficient and reliable in our daily lives, onsemi will continue to develop technologies that can be integrated into AMRs. These technologies include modules for motion, sensors, power, lighting, and communication subsystems, allowing robots to move, observe, and operate safely with minimal human interaction. onsemi minimizes this complexity through reliable intelligent power and sensing solutions, providing essential building blocks for your designs, worthy of further exploration and adoption.