Communication method for controlling and monitoring robots

Claim 1

A method for communication between a control center and a plurality of mobile robots, wherein the robots have common sets of devices, the method comprising: a. assigning a first point address to the control center; b. assigning second, mutually dissimilar point addresses to the robots; c. establishing a database that is common among the control center and the robots and that represents controllable features of the robots, including the substeps of: (1) giving like identification codes to like devices of the robots; (2) representing value ranges for attributes of the like devices; the value ranges being the similar for the like devices; (3) developing data unit types and giving data unit type codes thereto; (4) putting the codes in memories both at the control center and the robots; d. creating a transmission from the codes by: (1) choosing one of the devices and an associated one of the attributes; (2) determining a value of the one attribute; (3) from one of the memories, getting appropriate codes, including an appropriate unit identification code, appropriate attribute code and a representation of the value in the transmission; (4) put the appropriate codes in the transmission; (5) add a source address to the transmission identifying a sender of the transmission; (6) add a destination address to the transmission; (7) after substep d.(6), keep the transmission as so far created at constant length; (8) add a sequence number code to the transmission; (9) add the point address codes to the transmission; e. sending each of the transmissions on direct path between the center and one of the robots; f. allow only robot-to-center and center-to-robot transmissions, whereby the robots form a mutually independent, non-networking set.

Claim 2

A method for communication between a control center and a plurality of mobile robots, wherein the robots have common sets of devices, the method comprising: a. assigning a first point address to the control center; b. assigning second, mutually dissimilar point addresses to the robots; c. establishing a database that is common among the control center and the robots and that represents controllable features of the robots, including the substeps of: (1) giving like identification codes to like devices of the robots; (2) representing value ranges for attributes of the like devices; the value ranges being the similar for the like devices; (3) developing data unit types and giving data unit type codes thereto; (4) putting the codes in memories both at the control center and the robots; d. creating a transmission from the codes by: (1) choosing one of the devices and an associated one of the attributes; (2) determining a value of the one attribute; (3) from one of the memories, getting appropriate codes, including an appropriate unit identification code, appropriate attribute code and a representation of the value in the transmission; (4) put the appropriate codes in the transmission; (5) add a source address to the transmission identifying a sender of the transmission; (6) add a destination address to the transmission; (7) after substep d.(6), keep the transmission as so far created at constant length; (8) add a sequence number code to the transmission; (9) add the point address codes to the transmission; e. sending each of the transmissions on direct path between the center and one of the robots; f. allow only robot-to-center and center-to-robot transmissions, whereby the robots form a mutually independent, non-networking set.

Claim 4

A method for communication between a control center and multiple vehicular robots, wherein the robots have common sets of devices, the method comprising: a. assigning mutually dissimilar point addresses to the control center and each of the robots; b. using a database common to the control center and the robots and representing controllable features of the robots, including the substeps of: (1) giving like identification codes to like devices of the robots; (2) representing value ranges for attributes of the like devices; the value ranges being the similar for the like devices; (3) developing data unit types and giving data unit type codes thereto; (4) putting the codes in memories both at the control center and the robots; c. creating a transmission from the codes by: (1) choosing one or more of the devices and one or more attributes associated therewith: (2) determining values of the one or more associated attributes; (3) from one of the memories, getting appropriate codes, including an appropriate unit identification code, appropriate attribute code and a representation of the value in the transmission; (4) grouping together in the transmission the appropriate codes associated with a same device; (5) adding a source address to the transmission identifying a sender of the transmission; (6) adding a destination address to the transmission; (8) adding the point address codes to the transmission; d. sending each of the transmissions on direct path between the center and one of the robots; e. allow only robot-to-center and center-to-robot transmissions, whereby the robots form a mutually independent, non-networking set.

Claim 5

A method for communication between a control center and multiple vehicular robots, wherein the robots have common sets of devices, the method comprising: a. assigning mutually dissimilar point addresses to the control center and each of the robots; b. using a database common to the control center and the robots and representing controllable features of the robots, including the substeps of: (1) giving like identification codes to like devices of the robots; (2) representing value ranges for attributes of the like devices; the value ranges being the similar for the like devices; (3) developing data unit types and giving data unit type codes thereto; (4) putting the codes in memories both at the control center and the robots; c. creating a transmission from the codes by: (1) choosing one or more of the devices and one or more attributes associated therewith: (2) determining values of the one or more associated attributes; (3) from one of the memories, getting appropriate codes, including an appropriate unit identification code, appropriate attribute code and a representation of the value in the transmission; (4) grouping together in the transmission the appropriate codes associated with a same device; (5) adding a source address to the transmission identifying a sender of the transmission; (6) adding a destination address to the transmission; (8) adding the point address codes to the transmission; d. sending each of the transmissions on direct path between the center and one of the robots; e. allow only robot-to-center and center-to-robot transmissions, whereby the robots form a mutually independent, non-networking set.