Astm stp 1594 2016

ASTM INTERNATIONAL Selected Technical Papers Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor STP1594 Editors: Roger Bostelman Elena Messina www.astm.org Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 Selected technical PaPerS StP1594 Editors: Roger Bostelman, Elena Messina Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory  to the Factory  Floor ASTM Stock #1594 DOI: 10.1520/STP1594-EB ASTM International, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, PO Box C700, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959 Printed in the U.S.A Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Bostelman, Roger, editor | Messina, E R (Elena R.), editor | ASTM International Title: Autonomous industrial vehicles : from the laboratory to the factory f oor / editors, Roger Bostelman, Elena Messina Description: West Conshohocken, PA : ASTM International, [2016] | Series: Selected technical papers ; STP1594 | Papers presented at a workshop held May 26-30, 2015, in Seattle, Washington, USA | “ASTM Stock #STP1594.” | “DOI: 10.1520/STP1594-EB.” | Includes bibliographical references Identi f ers: LCCN 2015050464 (print) | LCCN 2015051463 (ebook) | ISBN 9780803176331 (pbk.) | ISBN 9780803176348 () Subjects: LCSH: Autonomous vehicles—Congresses | Motor vehicles—Automatic control—Congresses | Intelligent control systems—Congresses Classi f cation: LCC TL152.8 A87 2016 (print) | LCC TL152.8 (ebook) | DDC 629.04/6 dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015050464 Copyright © 2016 ASTM INTERNATIONAL, West Conshohocken, PA All rights reserved This material may not be reproduced or copied, in whole or in part, in any printed, mechanical, electronic, f lm, or other distribution and storage media, without the written consent of the publisher Photocopy Rights Authorization to photocopy items for internal, personal, or educational classroom use, or the internal, personal, or educational classroom use of speci f c clients, is granted by ASTM International provided that the appropriate fee is paid to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, Tel: (978) 646-2600; http://www.copyright.com/ The Society is not responsible, as a body, for the statements and opinions expressed in this publication ASTM International does not endorse any products represented in this publication Peer Review Policy Each paper published in this volume was evaluated by two peer reviewers and at least one editor The authors addressed all of the reviewers’ comments to the satisfaction of both the technical editor(s) and the ASTM International Committee on Publications The quality of the papers in this publication re f ects not only the obvious e forts of the authors and the technical editor(s), but also the work of the peer reviewers In keeping with long-standing publication practices, ASTM International maintains the anonymity of the peer reviewers The ASTM International Committee on Publications acknowledges with appreciation their dedication and contribution of time and e fort on behalf of ASTM International Citation of Papers When citing papers from this publication, the appropriate citation includes the paper authors, “paper title,” STP title, STP number, book editor(s), ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, year, page range, paper DOI listed in the footnote of the paper A citation is provided on page one of each paper Printed in Bay Shore, NY April, 2016 Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 Foreword THIS COMPILATION OF Selected Technical Papers, STP1594, Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor, contains peer-reviewed papers that were presented at a workshop held May 26–30, 2015, in Seattle, Washington, USA e workshop was sponsored by ASTM International Committee F45 on Driverless Automatic Guided Industrial Vehicles T Workshop Chairpersons and STP Editors: Roger Bostelman Elena Messina National Institutes of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, MD, USA Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 Con ten ts Overview Acknowledgments Towards Development of an Automated Guided Vehicle Intelligence Level Performance Standard Roger Bostelman and Elena Messina vi i xi Preliminary Development of a Test Method for Obstacle Detection and Avoidance in Industrial Environments 23 3D Sensors on Driverless Trucks for Detection of Overhanging Objects in the Pathway 41 Multi-AGV Systems in Shared Industrial Environments: Advanced Sensing and Control Techniques for Enhanced Safety and Improved E f ciency 57 The Safety-to-Autonomy Curve: An Incremental Approach to Introducing Automation to the Workforce 82 Dynamic Metrology Performance Measurement of a Six Degrees-of-Freedom Tracking System Used in Smart Manufacturing 91 Adam Norton and Holly Yanco Klas Hedenberg and Björn Åstrand Lorenzo Sabattini, Elena Cardarelli, Valerio Digani, Cristian Secchi, and Cesare Fantuzzi Daniel Theobald and Frederik Heger Roger Bostelman, Joseph Falco, Mili Shah, and Tsai Hong Hong Harmonization of Research and Development Activities Toward Standardization in the Automated Warehousing Systems 106 Recommendations for Autonomous Industrial Vehicle Performance Standards 129 Zdenko Kovačić, Michael Butler, Paolo Lista, Goran Vasiljević, Ivica Draganjac, Damjan Miklić, Tamara Petrović, and Frano Petric Roger Bostelman Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 v Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 Overvi ew Automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) were one of the earliest applications for mobile robots e rst AGVs were deployed in the 1950s to transport materials in large facilities and warehouses Mobile robot capabilities have advanced signi cantly in the past decades is progress is due in large part to researchers at technical universities who have made tremendous strides in applying computer control and sensors to mobile platforms for uses in applications such as manufacturing, health care, military, and emergency response As industrial vehicles gained more capabilities, the “A” in AGV began to transition from “automatic” to “automated” in informal usage is mirrors the progress in guided vehicles in areas such as safety sensing and reacting Further advancements in mobile robotics, such as in more general-purpose sensing, planning, communications, and control, are paving the way for an era where the “A” stands for “autonomous.” is evolution in onboard intelligence has greatly expanded the potential scope of applications for AGVs and thus raised the need for standard means of measuring performance A new committee was formed under ASTM International to develop these missing standards for measuring, describing, and characterizing performance for this new breed of AGVs ASTM’s Committee F45 on “Driverless Automatic Guided Industrial Vehicles” (http://www.astm.org/COMMITTEE/F45.htm) is scoped to include standardized nomenclature and de nitions of terms, recommended practices, guides, test methods, speci cations, and performance standards for AGVs ese new performance standards will complement the ongoing work in AGV safety standards by the Industrial Truck Standards Development Foundation [1] , the British Standards Institution [2] , and others F45 is addressing areas that are important for potential AGV users to understand when making purchase and task application decisions erefore, the committee is divided into ve technical subcommittees that focus on the key areas of interest for the community: Tf f T T T f T f T f F45.01 Environmental Efects F45.02 Docking and Navigation F45.03 Object Detection and Protection F45.04 Communication and Integration F45.91 Terminology Tf e rst event organized by the ASTM F45 Committee was a workshop intended to foster communication between researchers and practitioners and was held at the Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 vii 2015 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) Organized by Roger Bostelman of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Pat Picariello from ASTM International, the workshop “Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor” solicited researcher input for the development of consensus standards and sought to educate researchers about a standards-based mechanism for rapid technology transfer from the laboratory to industry is book comprises expanded versions of selected papers presented at the ICRA workshop e workshop and this book feature perspectives from related standards eforts, industry needs, and cutting-edge research e rst chapter, “Towards Development of an Automated Guided Vehicle Intelligence Level Performance Standard” by Bostelman and Messina, sets the stage by reviewing standards development for other mobile robot application domains, such as emergency response, and suggests approaches for tackling performance measurement for intelligent AGVs e authors discuss examples of performance standards that could be used for vehicle navigation performance and for perception systems (which would be key components of intelligent vehicles) Norton and Yanco’s chapter, entitled “Preliminary Development of a Test Method for Obstacle Detection and Avoidance in Industrial Environments,” builds on the rst chapter by documenting the process for developing a test method eir process starts with building an understanding of the deployment environment through the development of a taxonomy of relevant obstacles e key characteristics are abstracted to create recon gurable artifacts for conducting tests that are representative of robot tasks Statistical signi cance of performance data and other key aspects necessary for successful test methods are also considered One of the challenges of deploying AGVs in unstructured facilities is the possibility of obstacles appearing not just on the ground but also above the foor To broaden obstacle detection capabilities, Hedenberg and Åstrand implemented time of fight and structured light sensors on an unmanned vehicle and conducted several experiments to characterize the performance of this sensing combination in the laboratory and in an industrial setting e results of their experiments are presented in “3D Sensors on Driverless Trucks for Detection of Overhanging Objects in the Pathway,” which discusses the implications of using these sensors in real-world settings In the chapter “Multi-AGV Systems in Shared Industrial Environments: Advanced Sensing and Control Techniques for Enhanced Safety and Improved Efciency,” Sabattini et al tackle the complexities of multiple AGVs operating in unstructured environments ey so through fusion of sensor data from the diferent vehicles e fused data produces a global environment representation that is updated in real-time and is used for assigning missions to AGVs and supporting path planning and obstacle avoidance T T Tf T f T f T f T T Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 viii T T eobald and Heger’s chapter considers the transition from research capabilities to implementations in industry from an incremental perspective eir chapter, entitled “ e Safety-to-Autonomy Curve: An Incremental Approach to Introducing Automation to the Workforce,” proposes gradual implementation of automation for robotic systems Starting with the deployment of the necessary safety systems, which include sensing and supporting algorithms, the authors advocate leveraging the sensor data from the safety systems to accumulate information and knowledge about the environment and humans us, the robots learn how to navigate and behave on an ongoing basis, building dence in the industry to allow incremental adoption e criticality of robust sensing to enable advanced performance and safety for AGVs heightens the importance of measuring how well a sensor system performs Performance test methods must have a basis for comparison to a reference—or ground truth—system that is typically ten times better than the system under test e chapter by Bostelman et al., “Dynamic Metrology Performance Measurement of a Six Degrees-of-Freedom Tracking System Used in Smart Manufacturing,” describes a method for evaluating the accuracy of a potential ground truth system e chapter “Harmonization of Research and Development Activities Toward Standardization in the Automated Warehousing Systems” by Kovačić et al highlights the role of standards in bridging research and commercialization eir work describes a European Commission project in advancing automated warehousing through a set of freely navigating AGVs in large-scale facilities e authors discuss performance standards and benchmarks that can enable technology transfer from the laboratory to industry e book’s nal chapter, “Recommendations for Autonomous Industrial Vehicle Performance Standards,” by Bostelman, summarizes and synthesizes a discussion session that was held at the ICRA workshop e ndings from the workshop presented in this chapter are meant to inform the standardization eforts under ASTM Committee F45 and accelerate the infusion of intelligence so as to enable autonomous guided vehicles T T T f T T T T T T f Tf References [1] ANSI/ITSDF B56.5:2012, Safety Standard for Driverless, Automatic Guided Industrial Vehicles and Automated Functions of Manned Industrial Vehicles, November 2012, http://www.itsdf.org [2] British Standard Safety of Industrial Trucks—Driverless Trucks and eir Systems Technical Report BS EN 1525, 1998 T Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 ix AUTONOMOUS INDUSTRIAL VEHICLES: FROM THE LABORATORY TO THE FACTORY FLOOR STP 1594, 2016 / available online at www astm org / doi: 10 1520/STP159420150055 Roger Bostelman Recommendations for Autonomous Industrial Vehicle Performance Standards Citation Bostelman, R., “Recommendations for Autonomous Industrial Vehicle Performance Standards,” Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor, ASTM STP1594, R Bostelman and E Messina, Eds., ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2016, pp 129–141, doi:10.1520/STP159420150055 ABSTRACT A workshop on “Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor” was held at the 2015 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers International Conference on Robotics and Automation Nine research papers were presented, followed by a discussion session All of the findings are summarized in this chapter and are intended to be used in the standards development process within ASTM International Committee F45 Driverless Automatic Guided Industrial Vehicles This paper provides feedback from the discussion and suggests recommendations for standards that evolved from the discussion Keywords standards, mobile robots, automatic guided vehicle (AGV), recommendations Introduction A workshop entitled “Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor” was held as a part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Manuscript received June 16, 2015; accepted for publication November 3, 2015 National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Dr., MS 8230, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8230 ASTM Workshop on Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor on May 26–30, 2015 in Seattle, Washington Copyright VC 2016 by ASTM International, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, PO Box C700, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959 Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 129 130 STP 1594 On Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor Engineers (IEEE) Robotics and Automation Society’s International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) [1] on May 30, 2015, at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, WA The annual conference is a premier international forum for robotics researchers to present their work The workshop drew more than 60 attendees and participants who presented papers from organizations and countries around the world, including: O rg a n i z a ti o n Adept Technology, Inc a Amazon ASTM International Boeing Brain Corporation Clearpath Robotics Crown Equipment Elettric 80, Inc Johns Hopkins University Kirinson—Hokuyo Automatic Co., Ltd Microsoft Mujin National Institute of Standards and Technology Orebro University RWTH Aachen University ShanghaiTech University Sick University of Modena and Reggio Emilia University of Massachusetts Lowell University of Zagreb Vecna Technologies Co u n t ry USA USA USA USA USA Canada New Zealand USA USA USA USA Japan USA Sweden Germany China Germany Italy USA Croatia USA aCertain commercial equipment, instruments, or materials are identified in this paper in order to specify the experimental procedure adequately Such identification is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor is it intended to imply that the materials or equipment identified are necessarily the best available for the purpose The purpose of the workshop was to solicit researcher input for the development of consensus standards within ASTM International Committee F45 on Driverless Automatic Guided Industrial Vehicles [2] and to inform researchers of a standards-based mechanism for enabling rapid technology transfer from the laboratory to industry Additionally, the outputs from the workshop will help guide smart manufacturing robotics research for projects within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Robotic Systems for Smart Manufacturing Program Specifically, projects focusing on development of a performance assessment framework for robotic systems and performance of collaborative robot systems expect to utilize the workshop results Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 BOSTELMAN, DOI 10.1520/STP159420150055 Presenters and attendees were given application-oriented questions to consider prior to the event to help focus the workshop These included: • What various lighting, dust, and floor conditions are evident in industrial manufacturing environments? • What associated vehicle speeds, tolerances, and equipment access conditions are required in these environments? • What communication speeds, integration issues, and control strategies are useful on today’s typically closed industrial automatic guided vehicle (AGV) controllers versus tomorrow’s potentially more open controllers? • What is the minimum knowledge of its environment that a mobile robot requires in order to adapt to its surroundings? This is in contrast to current AGVs that only have path knowledge, navigation knowledge, and that have limited to no adaptability • What onboard or interactive equipment for AGVs (or mobile robots) should be considered, such as robots that access AGVs or are onboard AGVs as advanced mobile manipulation systems? Research papers presented at the workshop covered topics most closely related to ASTM F45 background and status, obstacle detection and avoidance, navigation, planning, ground truth measurement in support of AGV test method development, mobile robot and AGV capabilities, and evolution of industrial vehicle technological innovations from inception to commercial use As such, considerations of many of the aforementioned questions listed were embedded in presentations and postpresentation discussions This paper summarizes the ASTM Committee F45, the F45 standards activities that previously existed, discussion points from the ICRA 2015 Workshop, and recommendations toward standards developments within F45 Summarized notes from the final discussion session during the workshop are included here The notes have been collected and formalized to be used toward F45 committee and subcommittee standards development ASTM Committee F45 ASTM Committee F45 involves performance test methods and terminology for autonomous vehicles operating in industrial environments The committee was formed to dovetail with current AGV safety standards, such as American National Standards Institute/Industrial Truck Safety Development Foundation (ANSI/ITSDF) B56.5:2012, Safety Standard for Driverless, Automatic Guided Industrial Vehicles and Automated Functions of Manned Industrial Vehicles [3] The F45 scope is as follows: The development of standardized nomenclature and definitions of terms, recommended practices, guides, test methods, specifications, and performance standards for driverless automatic guided industrial vehicles The Committee will encourage research in this field and sponsor symposia, workshops, and publications to facilitate the development of such standards The work of Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 131 132 STP 1594 On Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor this Committee will be coordinated with other ASTM technical committees and other national and international organizations having mutual or related interests The thrust of this effort is toward vehicles working in industrial environments, which includes AGVs and mobile robots The development of autonomous mobile robots has been applied to other fields, resulting in vehicle technology that can provide advancements to the manufacturing vehicle industry Some robot companies (such as workshop attendees Adept Technology, Inc and Vecna Technologies) are already operating in manufacturing and other domains As such, standards and test method developments that may provide advancements to both types ofvehicles should be considered The ASTM Committee F45 structure is as follows: • Subcommittee F45.01 on Environmental Effects • Subcommittee F45.02 on Docking and Navigation • Subcommittee F45.03 on Object Detection and Protection • Subcommittee F45.04 on Communication and Integration • Subcommittee F45.91 on Terminology Existing F45 Standards Activities Prior to the Workshop To date, three initial working items have been submitted to ASTM Committee F45 and are being developed by task groups with regards to navigation, docking, and terminology The ASTM standards process begins with the definition of a “work item,” which proposes a standard to be developed, describes its scope, and lists keywords After that, a working (draft) document is developed The working document is refined through a series of interactions, including by electronic means, until it is deemed ready for balloting by the pertinent subcommittee Test methods already under development within subcommittee ASTM F45.02 on Docking and Navigation are for evaluating a vehicle’s ability to traverse through a space or along a path of varying characteristics (or both) The test method design allows for many navigation methods, such as computer-aided design (CAD) model point-topoint, line segment, path following, and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) navigation CAD model-commanded navigation is more traditional for AGVs, whereas SLAM is mainly used in mobile robots, although it recently has been implemented in some AGVs Fig shows an example of a defined area layout for a navigation test method that allows for various vehicle sizes and capabilities by using variable settings for course width, length, and so on The blue line depicts the traditional AGV path followed while the red lines depict moveable walls to allow SLAM navigation within reconfigurable corridors The test method is agnostic to the navigation solution used by the vehicle; the walls can be used for localization by the vehicle (if appropriate) or as defined space obstacles that cause the vehicle to stop (or for both) Alternatively, open-space autonomous industrial vehicle navigation has yet to be defined as a test method in the ASTM F45.02 navigation working document Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 BOSTELMAN, DOI 10.1520/STP159420150055 FIG Example navigation test method setup for defined areas as shown in the ASTM F45.02 navigation working document Open-space tests could be defined as simple geometric shaped paths (e.g., square, circle, straight line) for the vehicle to navigate These tests could be used to evaluate the vehicle’s accuracy in maintaining its commanded path over time As with the defined space navigation test method, this one will be agnostic to the manner in which the paths are commanded to the vehicle, as long as the geometric shapes, dimensions, and so on are consistent Combinations of defined and open space navigation test methods should also be considered where barriers may define one side of the vehicle and, for example, a tape line defining a pedestrian walkway may define the other side ofthe vehicle The ASTM F45.02 subcommittee has also started a working document on docking for industrial vehicles Challenges for docking are the positioning uncertainty and repeatability to which the vehicle can dock to a location and the speed at which the docking can occur; again, as with navigation, various sizes and types of vehicles are taken into account within the document, as shown in Fig Fig 2a and 2c show unit load vehicles of different sizes, and Fig 2b shows a tugger vehicle (Not shown is a forklift vehicle.) Fig 2d shows examples of vehicle size variations, and Fig 2e shows an AGV procured and used by NIST with an added onboard robot arm (mobile manipulator) being used for performance test method development for assembly tasks All of the vehicles require docking with varying levels of precision; for example, the NIST mobile manipulator requires much less docking uncertainty than a typical unit load or tugger vehicle because the vehicle Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 33 134 STP 1594 On Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor FIG Top view of example AGV size variability: (a) low-profile, (b) industrial tug [4], and (c) container AGV (d) Vehicle size variability examples (e) NIST mobile manipulator being used for performance test method development for assembly tasks position can be compensated by the onboard manipulator One concept for generic docking, shown in Fig , is to command the vehicle to access a point (a) followed by a second point (b) or to contact both point (a) and point (b) simultaneously as with the Fig (right) photo showing two forklift tines simultaneously docking to an apparatus The taped points on the tines are to align with the apparatus repeatedly with uncertainty measurement from the tape point to the target centers to be recorded Various tines’ heights could also be measured The ASTM F45.02 subcommittee has also received further recommendations toward standards developments for docking and navigation Specifically, three questions were documented and distributed to the committee to foster discussion toward supporting current or developing new working documents: With what accuracy does the AGV need to stop at dock/assembly mating locations? • Pallets (low or high pick/place)—least accuracy needed • Tray stations, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) lock insertion—more accuracy needed • Peg/part insertion (sheet goods, long rods, etc.) into assemblies—high accuracy needed • Pick up/place delicate equipment—high accuracy needed Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 BOSTELMAN, DOI 10.1520/STP159420150055 FIG Example docking test method showing (left) block vehicle and apparatus dock points (a) and (b) for docking tests using various AGVs Points (a) and (b) are fixed points in a facility or on an apparatus as shown in the photo (right) Approach vectors and sensor point spacing and locations are variable How accurately does the AGV need to navigate? • Straight or curved paths • Ackerman, all-wheel, or crab/quad steering • What is the tightest turning radius at various speeds? • When programmed to make the tight turn, does it actually accomplish it or navigate a different curve? • Between error-correcting fiducials or markers (e.g., inertial, magnets, radio frequency identification [RFID], etc.) • Between obstacles, racks, other infrastructure What does the vehicle when it senses a human versus another obstacle? The ASTM F45.91 subcommittee task group has started working on a terminology document to define typically used terms within the AGV and mobile robot industries Initial document development began with terms defined by three organizations: ANSI/ITSDF, Material Handling Industry of America [4], and ISO/FDIS 8373:2011 [5] The terminology from this document will include much of the language used in other subcommittee documents Additional questions and parameters were also distributed for input and comment for ASTM F45.01, ASTM F45.03, and ASTM F45.04 subcommittees to foster standard test method developments, including: F45.01 Environmental Effects How fast and capable is the vehicle to navigate in the following environments? • Indoor, under conditions such as • Temperature (e.g., freezer) Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 35 136 STP 1594 On Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor Lighting (e.g., none, sunlight) Humidity (e.g., none, wet) • Dust/dirt • Outdoor, under conditions such as • Temperature (e.g., extreme heat, cold) • Lighting (e.g., day, night) • Humidity/precipitation (e.g., dry, rain, snow) • Fog, smoke • Dust/dirt • Surfaces • Smooth/rough terrain • Floor gaps • Dusty/dirty • Wet • Surface Slope • Level • Slope angle > 0? • Areas • Defined * Walls * Obstacles (safety guards, rails, columns, etc.) * Other agents • Open • Entrance and exit to/from areas * Softwall curtain partitions * Automated doors * Open doorway spaces • Interaction with other agents • Humans working on the line • Humans operating other machinery • Humans working side-by-side with collaborative robots • Humans operating/programming the vehicle • Other vehicles performing similar tasks What procedure is required to implement the vehicle within an environment with the characteristics outlined above? • Map of the space • Manually program/provide map to the vehicle • Drive vehicle around the space to build its own map • Augment space with path following/boundary edge markers • Modifications to task space (activities aside from navigation) • • F45.03 Object Detection and Protection How well does the vehicle react to situations? • Obstacles appearing in the path • Potential obstacles headed toward the path • Unstructured areas not on the original planned path or that rapidly change Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 BOSTELMAN, DOI 10.1520/STP159420150055 What conditions cause the vehicle to violate its commanded path? • Offset-pitched/rolled vehicle can’t see reflectors, magnets, wire, etc • Detection tape is worn or broken • Terrain causes “bouncing” or unintended moving of navigation sensors Human detection • Represented by test pieces, mannequins, humans • Coverings (e.g., clothes worn) Interaction with manual operations (e.g., forklifts, machines) Intelligence • Autonomy level (e.g., based on the Autonomous Levels for Unmanned Systems [ALFUS] framework [6] • Situation awareness (e.g., LASSO [7]) • Location (where it is within a global map; orientation with respect to landmarks?) • Activities (what activities it is performing or should be; progress toward completing its task/mission?) • Surroundings (what obstacles are nearby, what type of terrain it is on, local information?) • Status (battery health, damaged sensor, askew camera, current mode) • Overall mission (total progress toward completing a task/mission involving all agents; i.e., for these purposes the entire manufacturing floor or a particular group working on the same overall task) F45.04 Communication and Integration What is the communications integrity? • How well does the vehicle function with intermittent or complete communications loss? Systems integration • Addition of equipment, sensors, algorithms • Autonomous/manually reconfigurable • Assistance using sensors (e.g., RFID) or specific factory clothes worn by workers • Given the type of power system, such as AC or DC, low-voltage or high-voltage, lead-acid/sealed-lead acid batteries/hydrogen fuel cell, etc and given payload, daily use, system longevity, environmental effects: • Mean time between failures/maintenance? • Mean time between battery charge? • Synchronization among vehicles • Wait to pick up load • Not cause congestion • Reliability—fewer faults • Reduced dependence on operators • Maintenance Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 37 138 STP 1594 On Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor • • • Diagnostics Changes Repairs Recommendations for Development of Standards within ASTM Committee F45 A discussion was held during the closing session of the ICRA “Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor” workshop The discussion session was an open forum for workshop presenters and attendees to discuss their views on developing standards within ASTM Committee F45 for AGVs and mobile robots The response was impressive with much participant interaction The workshop hosts captured responses in bulleted form and displayed the written responses on screen during the discussion for audience viewing The responses were as follows: • Representative facility components within test methods: • How closely related the components need to be to real-world objects? • Use test piece coatings that represent worst-case scenarios for sensing • Physical relationships between facility components should be relevant to the application, task, system, etc • Performance test methods vs safety test methods • If safety standards don’t include test methods, perhaps performance test methods should be standardized for the “safety” situations • Performance standards should “dovetail” with safety standards • Obstacle detection and avoidance: • Exists in two forms: “stop” or “drive around obstacles” • Multiple vehicles (e.g., vs 10 vs 100); how to test multiple vehicles when manufacturers and users don’t have so many vehicles? * Develop standards for virtual modeling of vehicles so that the test does not require many vehicles • Dynamic routing provides variable options for avoiding obstacles • Vehicle-to-vehicle (local) communication vs vehicle-to-central controller (broad) communication • Understand the environment—environments that remain the same (floor, dust, light, infrastructure, communication, etc.) vs environments that change • Autonomy and learning—how to measure? • Over long and short periods of time • Need standard basis for the performance of perception systems • Testing mapping accuracy and the repeatability of created maps • Mean time to failure for communication between vehicles and central controllers • Communication interference measurement • “Heartbeat” communication from central controller/monitor vs no need for continuous communication (e.g., intelligent vehicles) Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 BOSTELMAN, DOI 10.1520/STP159420150055 Test methods should not be designed specifically for a particular vehicle system and should instead allow any vehicle design the developers choose to be a viable option • Networking should be standardized for connections to vehicles so that all systems installed in a facility can communicate regardless of the network or manufacturer • Building integration/interface standards—should there be a working group in this area? * Similar to elevators and fire doors * Standards that allow vehicles to adapt to the facility, including communicating with any of the facility components • Central vs decentralized vehicle control performance comparison • Measure communication—level of autonomy dependent • For example, a remote switch for safety—how reliable is it? • Navigation with or without physical markers or fiducials • Don’t over-specify how vehicles navigate—should it be absolute or relative accuracy? • Is it based on accuracy, speed, etc.? • Standards for communications interfaces to robots, vehicles, and facility sensors • Standard interfaces and data sets of facilities—warehouses, hospitals, etc., used to allow manufacturers to develop and test their vehicle systems prior to integration into facilities • Standard benchmarks and standard testbeds to support this industry • Integration of multiple-vendor components and vehicles * There is not only one vehicle system and therefore need to demonstrate integration from multiple manufacturers * Eliminate friction to adoption of autonomous vehicles by providing open source • Develop generalized test methods to test the relevant part or activity of the system so that the component, system, etc., performance can be measured as compared to the task * Can’t test every possible combination of the system as compared to a task, therefore generalize the test method to capture the most important aspects • ASTM E54.08.01 [8] and other standards can be used as a good model for vehicle performance standards development The workshop presentations and closing discussion provided several areas that have not been previously considered toward standards developments The enthusiasm of the workshop presenters and attendees demonstrated an obvious need for developing new industrial vehicle performance standards, as well as the components (e.g., communication/network, virtual test data sets, testbed facilities, etc.) that support these systems • Summary and Conclusions NIST and ASTM organized a workshop called “Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor” to bring together representatives from the research, industrial, and standards communities The workshop was designed to Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 139 140 STP 1594 On Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor promote autonomous vehicle developments by highlighting existing and emerging autonomous vehicle implementations as examples to inspire attendees to consider standards that could benefit the community Three working documents for potential ASTM F45 standards are currently being developed A postpresentation discussion session allowed workshop attendees to provide input for new ASTM F45 and other standards document developments This enthusiastic session provided continuous flow of brainstorming ideas that, in summary, can be organized under the following key topics that directly match ASTM F45 subcommittee thrusts, except terminology: • Environmental Effects • Docking and Navigation • Object Detection and Protection • Communication and Integration Other key areas identified were in standardized building infrastructure protocols, networking, testbeds, and other important standards development areas Future efforts will utilize this workshop summary to develop new standard performance test methods for autonomous industrial vehicles ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to thank the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation “Autonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor” workshop attendees and participants Their feedback and support for the workshop provided necessary standard development focus As well, the author would like to thank Sebti Foufou, University of Qatar, for his editorial guidance References [1] International Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Seattle, WA, May 26–30, 2015, http://icra2015.org (accessed April 3, 2016) [2] ASTM Committee F45 for Driverless Automatic Guided Industrial Vehicles, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2015, www.astm.org [3] ANSI/ITSDF B56.5:2012, Safety Standard for Driverless, Automatic Guided Industrial Vehicles and Automated Functions of Manned Industrial Vehicles, Industrial Truck Standards Development Foundation, Washington, DC, 2012, www.itsdf.org [4] Material Handling Industry of America, “Glossary, Automatic Guided Vehicle Systems,” MHI, Charlotte, NC, 2014, www.mhi.org/glossary (accessed April 3, 2016) [5] ISO/FDIS 8373:2011(E/F), Robots and Robotic Devices—Vocabulary, International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, 2014 [6] Huang, H.-M., Messina, E., Wade, R., English, R., Novak, B., and Albus, J., “Autonomy Measures for Robots,” ASME 2004 International Mechanical Engineering Congress Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 BOSTELMAN, DOI 10.1520/STP159420150055 and Exposition , American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York, NY, 2004, pp 1241–1247 Proceedings of AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems North America 2005 [7] ISO/FDIS 18646-1, Robots and Robotic Devices—Performance Criteria and Related Test Methods for Service Robots—Part 1: Locomotion for Wheeled Robots, International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, 2016 (in review), http:// www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=63127 [8] ASTM E54.08.01, Robots for Urban Search and Rescue, Performance Metrics and Standards, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2015, www.astm.org Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 41 Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 www a s tm org ISBN: 978-0-8031 -7633-1 Stock #: STP1594 Copyright by ASTM Int'l (all rights reserved); Tue May 16 20:41:07 EDT 2017 Downloaded/printed by Coventry University (Tongji University) pursuant to License Agreement No further reproductions authorized