Granted Patent B2

US 12,502,773 · App. 17/246,082 · Granted Dec 23, 2025

Inventors: Andre Gaschler (Munich, DE); Gregory J. Prisament (East Palo Alto, CA); Sean Alexander Rowan (Ben Lamond, CA); Nils Berg (Karlsruhe, DE); Michael Beardsworth (San Francisco, CA); Nicholas Julian Cox (Mountain View, CA); Benjamin Bremer (Ottobrunn, DE)

Assignee: Intrinsic Innovation LLC

B25J9/1664B25J9/1653B25J9/1694

Abstract

Claims (22)

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a real-time robotics control framework, custom real-time control code to be executed by one or more real-time threads of a control layer in order to drive positions at each predetermined tick of a real-time control cycle,

wherein the custom real-time control code defines functions comprising:

a custom get state function to read sensor inputs and to determine current values of one or more state variables from the sensor inputs, and

a custom control function that uses the obtained values of the one or more state variables to compute movement parameters in real-time;

performing compile-time check to determine that the custom get state function and the custom control function defined in the custom real-time control code involve no operation with nondeterministic timing; and

after performing compile-time check, repeatedly executing, by the real-time robotics control framework, the custom real-time control code at each predetermined tick of a real-time robotics control cycle, including:

executing the custom get state function defined by the custom real-time control code in a first real-time thread to read sensor inputs and to determine the current values of the one or more state variables from the sensor inputs,

executing the custom control function defined by the custom real-time control code in a second real-time thread to compute one or more updated movement parameters, and

driving the real-time robotics system according to the updated movement parameters computed by executing the custom control function defined by the custom real-time control code.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein executing the custom control function comprises using updated sensor values at a current tick of the real-time robotics control cycle.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the real-time robotics control framework is configured to automatically execute user-provided software modules as a state machine at each tick in the control cycle to implement custom real-time robotics control.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the real-time robotics control framework is configured to automatically execute user-provided non-real-time software modules to prepare the real-time environment for real-time robotics control.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the custom real-time control code further comprises a custom sensing function to obtain real-time sensor data,

and wherein executing the custom real-time control code further comprises:

executing the custom sensing function to obtain updated sensor values, and

wherein executing the custom control function comprises using the obtained updated sensor values.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the real-time robotics control framework, custom non-real-time control code defining a custom prepare parameters function; and

executing the custom non-real-time control code before executing the custom real-time control code.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the real-time robotics control framework executes the non-real-time control code in a non-real-time thread and executes the custom real-time control code in a real-time thread of the real-time robotics control cycle.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the operation with nondeterministic timing comprises an allocate memory operation or a network communication operation.

Assignments (3)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (25)