Patent ID: 11858134
Assignee: GOOGLE LLC
Field: Handling (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G  H  Y | IPC B  G

Claim 7:
8. A method for performing a plurality of manufacturing processing steps, the method comprising:
selecting, by each of a plurality of robotic cells that each includes a set of end effectors, a selected set of end effectors from the set of end effectors to perform an assigned manufacturing process step, wherein:
the assigned manufacturing processing step is one of the manufacturing processing steps in the manufacturing process; and
the set of end effectors for each robotic cell includes end effectors to form a selected set for at least one of the manufacturing processing steps;

receiving, by a manufacturing execution system in data communication with each of the robotic cells, data describing a status of the manufacturing process, the data describing, for each robotic cell configured to perform a manufacturing processing step, a status of the robotic cell;
based on the status of each of the robotic cells described by received data:
determining that reconfiguring a first robotic cell will increase utilization of manufacturing equipment; and
in response to determining that reconfiguring the first robotic cell will increase utilization of manufacturing equipment, determining that the first robotic cell performing a first manufacturing processing step is to be reconfigured to perform a second manufacturing processing step, wherein the second manufacturing processing step is different from the first manufacturing processing step; and
in response to determining that first robotic cell performing the first manufacturing processing step is to be reconfigured to perform the second manufacturing processing step, instructing the first robotic cell to reconfigure from a selected first set of end effectors for performing the first manufacturing processing step to a selected second set of end effectors for performing the second manufacturing processing step.