Patent ID: 11883965
Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
Field: Handling (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B

Claim 0:
1. A robotic tool selection method, comprising the steps of:
in response to determining that a specified tool is not available for use in executing a rotation action on a standardized work-piece, a robotic device determining, via graphical image analysis, physical attributes of an engagement area slot of the standardized work-piece that the specified tool physically engages to execute the rotation action, wherein the physical attributes comprise slot length, depth and width dimensions;
identifying, via image analysis that distinguishes between different body portions and matches each of the different body portions to different material image data within an object data repository, a model set plurality of alternate substitute tools that are each available within a physical environment of the engagement area and have a body portion end shape with physical dimensions that conform to the physical dimensions of the work-piece engagement area slot to fit within the slot and comprise a thickness dimension that is less than the width dimension of the engagement area slot by a threshold value;
performing a feasibility analysis on the plurality of alternate substitute tools to determine material properties and operative capacities of each alternate substitute tool of the plurality of alternate substitute tools, wherein the material properties and operative capacities are obtained from a tool knowledge base;
performing a contextual analysis of the rotation action to be executed on the standardized work-piece, wherein the contextual analysis determines, in part, an estimated torque required to rotate the standardized work-piece based on previous executions of the rotation action on the standardized work-piece by historic tools including the specified tool and other alternate substitute tools;
identifying, based on the feasibility analysis, a subset of alternate substitute tools from the plurality of alternate substitute tools that have a material modulus value that exceeds the estimated torque required to rotate the standardized work-piece in the rotation action by a threshold percentage value of the estimated torque;
selecting a substitute tool for the specified tool from the subset of alternate substitute tools, wherein the selected substitute tool has a lowest failure cost value relative to failure cost values of each of remaining others of the subset of alternate substitute tools; and
executing, by the robotic device, the rotation action on the standardized work-piece using the selected substitute tool.