Topic 4: Industrial Workflow Integration

Topic 4 focuses on connecting your robots to the existing machinery and software that run warehouses, factories, and labs. Rather than building standalone demos, you will design interfaces to conveyors, shelves, gates, and enterprise systems so that robots become part of an end-to-end workflow.

4.1 Module A — Conveyor, Shelf, Gate & Tool Integration

ROS-Driven Actuator and IO Control

You will:

• Control conveyors, gates, and doors through ROS 2 nodes that interface with:
  • Industrial IO modules (digital outputs for start/stop).
  • PLCs or microcontrollers via fieldbuses or serial links.
• Model these external systems in simulation (e.g., moving belts, actuated doors) to test logic before connecting to real hardware.

Key patterns:

• Use ROS 2 topics or services to send high-level commands (start, stop, reverse).
• Maintain clear state machines for each device (idle, running, faulted).

Barcode, QR, and RFID Item Recognition

Robots must identify items to handle:

• Pallets, bins, or totes with barcodes or QR codes.
• Tagged items with RFID labels.

You will:

• Use camera-based scanning pipelines to detect and decode labels.
• Understand when RFID is preferable (e.g., tags not visible, bulk scanning).
• Integrate item identifiers into your task- and job-management APIs.

Pick-Place and Material Handling

Building on manipulation skills from Chapter 5, you will:

• Define standardized pick and place actions for common containers (totes, trays, boxes).
• Handle variable bin locations within shelves, including:
  • Position tolerances and offsets.
  • Fallback behaviors when perception is uncertain.

You will design:

• Simple verification steps (e.g., weight sensors, secondary scans) to confirm a successful pick or place.

Safety Interlocks with Equipment

Integration with industrial equipment must be safety-aware:

• Conveyors should not start when a human is in a restricted area.
• Gates should not close on robots or people.

You will:

• Design interlock logic that considers both robot and equipment states.
• Ensure that your ROS 2 nodes respect and expose safety signals (e.g., “equipment safe to move”).

4.2 Module B — ERP + API Robotics Control

Connecting to Warehouse and Enterprise Systems

Warehouses and factories typically use:

• WMS (Warehouse Management Systems) for inventory and order management.
• ERP systems for broader business processes.

You will:

• Design APIs for robots to:
  • Receive jobs (e.g., pick order, move pallet, inspect location).
  • Report status, completion, and errors.
• Choose between:
  • REST/HTTP APIs.
  • gRPC.
  • Message queues or event streams.

Job Models and Task Abstractions

You will define:

• A job schema that includes:
  • Source and destination locations.
  • Item identifiers and quantities.
  • Priority and due time.
• How jobs decompose into:
  • Navigation tasks.
  • Pick/place sequences.
  • Validation or inspection steps.

The goal is to separate business logic (orders, SKUs, SLAs) from low-level robot control.

Telemetry Dashboards and KPIs

Operating teams need visibility into:

• What each robot is doing.
• How many tasks are queued, in progress, or blocked.
• Throughput and error rates over time.

You will:

• Design telemetry exports (metrics, logs, events) suitable for dashboards.
• Identify key KPIs:
  • Tasks per hour.
  • Average and 95th-percentile route times.
  • Failure, rework, and abort rates.
• Build or sketch dashboards that allow operators to:
  • Filter by robot, zone, or task type.
  • Drill into errors and bottlenecks.

4.3 Module C — Automated Fleet Scheduling

Time-Slot Scheduling and Resource Conflicts

With multiple robots and shared resources:

• Only one robot can occupy narrow aisles or docks at a time.
• Shared tools (e.g., inspection stations, loading bays) become scheduling bottlenecks.

You will:

• Design time-slot or token-based systems that prevent conflicting use of resources.
• Coordinate robot schedules to reduce contention and idle time.

Priority Routing and Service Levels

Not all tasks are equal:

• Some are urgent (rush orders, critical inspections).
• Others can be deferred (routine restocking, low-priority transfers).

You will:

• Implement or conceptually design:
  • Priority queues or weighted scheduling algorithms.
  • Rules for preempting or reordering tasks when urgent work arrives.

Power-Down and Recharge Rotation Strategy

Charging and maintenance must be planned:

• Robots cannot all leave the floor at once.
• Charging stations are limited resources.

You will:

• Develop strategies for:
  • Staggered charging windows.
  • Opportunistic charging when robots are idle near docks.
  • Ensuring that sufficient robots remain available to meet service targets.

Topic 4 thus turns your autonomy stack into a first-class component of the broader operational system, connected to equipment, software, and human operators.