332 results about "Autonomous robot" patented technology

A control system for a mobile robot (10) is provided to Effectively cover a given area by operating in a Plurality of modes, including an obstacle following mode (51) and a random bounce mode (49). In other embodiments, spot coverage, such as spiraling (45), or other modes are also used to increase effectiveness. In addition, a behavior based architecture is used to implement the control system, and various escape behaviors are used to ensure full coverage.

A navigational control system for an autonomous robot includes a transmitter subsystem having a stationary emitter for emitting at least one signal. An autonomous robot operating within a working area utilizes a receiving subsystem to detect the emitted signal. The receiver subsystem has a receiver for detecting the emitted signal emitted by the emitter and a processor for determining a relative location of the robot within the working area upon the receiver detecting the signal.

The invention is generally related to the estimation of position and orientation of an object with respect to a local or a global coordinate system using reflected light sources. A typical application of the method and apparatus includes estimation and tracking of the position of a mobile autonomous robot. Other applications include estimation and tracking of an object for position-aware, ubiquitous devices. Additional applications include tracking of the positions of people or pets in an indoor environment. The methods and apparatus comprise one or more optical emitters, one or more optical sensors, signal processing circuitry, and signal processing methods to determine the position and orientation of at least one of the optical sensors based at least in part on the detection of the signal of one or more emitted light sources reflected from a surface.

An agricultural robot system and method of harvesting, pruning, culling, weeding, measuring and managing of agricultural crops. Uses autonomous and semi-autonomous robot(s) comprising machine-vision using cameras that identify and locate the fruit on each tree, points on a vine to prune, etc., or may be utilized in measuring agricultural parameters or aid in managing agricultural resources. The cameras may be coupled with an arm or other implement to allow views from inside the plant when performing the desired agricultural function. A robot moves through a field first to “map” the plant locations, number and size of fruit and approximate positions of fruit or map the cordons and canes of grape vines. Once the map is complete, a robot or server can create an action plan that a robot may implement. An action plan may comprise operations and data specifying the agricultural function to perform.

Some embodiments provide a system for fully autonomous order fulfillment and inventory management within a distribution site or warehouse. The system operates by autonomous robots directly pulling customer order items from distribution site shelves or pulling individual bins from distribution site shelves and dispensing appropriate quantities of items from the bins until all items of a customer order are retrieved without human involvement. The system further involves the robots autonomously monitoring item quantities within the distribution site, identifying and autonomously responding to shortages, and organizing the items within the distribution site for most efficient order fulfillment.

A method of establishing an area of confinement and an autonomous robot for performing a task within the area of confinement. In one aspect, the invention can be a method of defining an area of confinement for an autonomous robot comprising: a) positioning the autonomous robot at a first location point P1, the autonomous robot comprising a location tracking unit, and recording the first location point P1 within a memory device; b) moving the autonomous robot from the first location point P1 to a plurality of location points P2-N and recording each of the plurality of location points P2-N within the memory device; and c) defining, with a central processing unit, a first closed-geometry comprising the first location point P1 and the plurality of location points P2-N as a perimeter of the area of confinement within the memory device.

A control system for a mobile robot (10) is provided to effectively cover a given area by operating in a plurality of modes, including an obstacle following mode (51) and a random bounce mode (49). In other embodiments, spot coverage, such as spiraling (45), or other modes are also used to increase effectiveness. In addition, a behavior based architecture is used to implement the control system, and various escape behaviors are used to ensure full coverage.

A method for energy management in a robotic device includes providing a base station for mating with the robotic device, determining a quantity of energy stored in an energy storage unit of the robotic device, and performing a predetermined task based at least in part on the quantity of energy stored. Also disclosed are systems for emitting avoidance signals to prevent inadvertent contact between the robot and the base station, and systems for emitting homing signals to allow the robotic device to accurately dock with the base station.

In accordance with the present invention, systems and methods for reconfiguring an autonomous robot are provided. By using a system interface, the present invention provides an approach for distributing the complex and costly robotic components of the conventional autonomous robots. By distributing these components, users, such as software developers, may develop interactive software for robots without having any understanding of robotics. The present invention includes a processing device, a system interface, and a robot. The processing device at least partially executes an interactive robotic application that is configured to receive an instruction for the robot from a user. In response to receiving the instruction, the instruction is transmitted to the robot control interface. In response, the robot control interface is configured to convert the instruction, to the extent that the instruction is not comprehensible by the robot, to a robot control command that is comprehensible by the robot, and wirelessly transmit the robot control command to the robot. The robot, in response to receiving the robot control command, directs the motors and / or the sensors associated with the robot to execute the robot control command.

The invention is generally related to the estimation of position and orientation of an object with respect to a local or a global coordinate system using reflected light sources. A typical application of the method and apparatus includes estimation and tracking of the position of a mobile autonomous robot. Other applications include estimation and tracking of an object for position-aware, ubiquitous devices. Additional applications include tracking of the positions of people or pets in an indoor environment. The methods and apparatus comprise one or more optical emitters, one or more optical sensors, signal processing circuitry, and signal processing methods to determine the position and orientation of at least one of the optical sensors based at least in part on the detection of the signal of one or more emitted light sources reflected from a surface.

An autonomous robot performs maintenance and repair activities in oil and gas wells, and in pipelines. The robot uses the well and pipeline fluids to provide most of the energy required for the its mobility, and to charge a turbine from which it may recharge batteries or power a motor for additional propulsion. A control system of associated systems controls the robot, enabling the robot to share plans and goals, situations, and solution processes with wells, pipelines, and external control systems. The control system includes decision aids in a series of knowledge bases that contain the expertise in appropriate fields to provide intelligent behavior to the control system. The intelligent behavior of the control system enables real time maintenance management of wells and pipelines, through actively collecting information, goal-driven system, reasoning at multiple levels, context sensitive communication, activity performing, and estimation of the operators' intent.

A method of scheduling a robotic device enables the device to run autonomously based on previously loaded scheduling information. The method consists of a communication device, such as a hand-held remote device, that can directly control the robotic device, or load scheduling information into the robotic device such that it will carry out a defined task at the desired time without the need for further external control. The communication device can also be configured to load a scheduling application program into an existing robotic device, such that the robotic device can receive and implement scheduling information from a user.

An autonomous robot is controlled by the local robot information controller which is connected to a robot application network to which the transceiver to communicate with the autonomous robot is attached. The robot application network, a user LAN adaptive controller an information distribution manager and the third party information provider subsystem are linked with a public network. The information distribution manager acquires the information from the third party information provider subsystem on the schedule which is set by the user LAN adaptive controller. The local robot information controller receives the information distribution manager and convert it into the data that generates robot gestures. The robot performs actions in accordance to the gesture data received from the local robot information controller.

Provided herein are methods and systems for implementing three-dimensional perception in an autonomous robotic system comprising an end-to-end neural network architecture that directly consumes large-scale raw sparse point cloud data and performs such tasks as object localization, boundary estimation, object classification, and segmentation of individual shapes or fused complete point cloud shapes.

A robot configured to navigate a surface, the robot comprising a movement mechanism; a logical map representing data about the surface and associating locations with one or more properties observed during navigation; an initialization module configured to establish an initial pose comprising an initial location and an initial orientation; a region covering module configured to cause the robot to move so as to cover a region; an edge-following module configured to cause the robot to follow unfollowed edges; a control module configured to invoke region covering on a first region defined at least in part based at least part of the initial pose, to invoke region covering on least one additional region, to invoke edge-following, and to invoke region covering cause the mapping module to mark followed edges as followed, and cause a third region covering on regions discovered during edge-following.

An autonomous robot apparatus that is activated to perform a work routine upon detecting the accumulation of precipitation. In one aspect, the invention can be an autonomous robot apparatus comprising: a chassis; a plurality of wheels mounted to the chassis; a drive system mounted to the chassis and operably coupled to the plurality of wheels; a control module operably coupled to the drive system; a precipitation sensing module comprising an accumulation level sensor configured to generate and transmit, to the control module, a first signal upon a predetermined initial accumulation level being detected; and the control module configured to activate the autonomous robot apparatus to perform a first instance of a work routine upon receipt of the first signal.

A system for determining a location of an object. The system includes an object location tracker and a computer system. The object location tracker is configured for attachment to a mobile vehicle and includes an object identification reading device and a position-tracking device. The object identification reading device senses object identification indicia on the object, such as RF ID tags, bar codes, etc., as the mobile vehicle moves around an environment in which the object is situated. The position-tracking device computes the location of the object location tracker as the mobile vehicle moves throughout environment. The computer system associates the sensed object identification indicia of the object, as determined by the reading device, with a location in the environment based on the position of the object location tracker in the environment, as determined by the position-tracking device, when the reading device senses the object identification indicia. The mobile vehicle may include its own mobility system, such as a forklift or an autonomous robotic device, or the mobile vehicle may be, for example, a pushcart that is pushed around the environment.

An agricultural robot system and method of harvesting, pruning, culling, weeding, measuring and managing of agricultural crops. Uses autonomous and semi-autonomous robot(s) comprising machine-vision using cameras that identify and locate the fruit on each tree, points on a vine to prune, etc., or may be utilized in measuring agricultural parameters or aid in managing agricultural resources. The cameras may be coupled with an arm or other implement to allow views from inside the plant when performing the desired agricultural function. A robot moves through a field first to “map” the plant locations, number and size of fruit and approximate positions of fruit or map the cordons and canes of grape vines. Once the map is complete, a robot or server can create an action plan that a robot may implement. An action plan may comprise operations and data specifying the agricultural function to perform.

There is therefore provided, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a robotic system for systematically moving about an area to be covered. The system includes at least one boundary marker (48) located along the outer edge of the area to be covered, a robot (40) with a navigation system (41) and a sensor unit (43). The navigation system (41) navigates the robot (40) in generally straight, parallel lines from an initial location and turns the robot (40) when the robot (40) encounters one of the boundary markers (48), thereby to systematically move about the area to be covered. The sensor unit (43) senses proximity to one of the at least one boundary marker (48).

A method of establishing an area of confinement and an autonomous robot for performing a task within the area of confinement. In one aspect, the invention can be a method of defining an area of confinement comprising: positioning the autonomous robot at a starting point P0 and recording the starting point P0 as a reference point within a memory device; moving the autonomous robot from the starting point P0 about a perimeter of the area of confinement, wherein said movement of the autonomous robot is controlled by a user; continuously tracking location of the autonomous robot relative to the reference point P0 during said movement using a distance-traveled measuring mechanism and a directional indicating instrument; recording the tracked location as a map in the memory device; and upon detecting that the map includes a closed-geometry, defining the closed-geometry as the perimeter of the area of confinement within the memory device.

The different advantageous embodiments may provide an apparatus that may comprise a number of robotic platforms, a wireless communications system, and a computer system. The number of robotic platforms may be configured to move to a number of locations in an assembly area and interact with a number of robotic devices. The wireless communications system may be configured to provide communication with the number of robotic platforms and the number of robotic devices within the assembly area. The computer system may be configured to exchange information with the number of robotic platforms and the number of robotic devices using the wireless communications system.

A control system for a mobile robot (10) is provided to effectively cover a given area by operating in a plurality of modes, including an obstacle following mode (51) and a random bounce mode (49). In other embodiments, spot coverage, such as spiraling (45), or other modes are also used to increase effectiveness. In addition, a behavior based architecture is used to implement the control system, and various escape behaviors are used to ensure full coverage.

There is therefore provided, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a robotic system for systematically moving about an area to be covered. The system includes at least one boundary marker (48) located along the outer edge of the area to be covered, a robot (40) with a navigation system (41) navigates the robot (40) in generally straight, parallel lines from an initial location and turns the robot (40) when the robot (40) encounters one of the boundary markers (48), thereby to systematically move about the are to be covered. The sensor unit (43) senses proximity to one of the at least one boundary marker (48).

An autonomous robot and a positioning method thereof are disclosed. The autonomous robot includes an environment information detection device, a map construction module, a setting module, a path planning module, and a driving module. The environment information detection device is for detecting environment information about an environment where the autonomous robot is situated. An environment map is constructed based on the environment information detected by the environment information detection device. The setting module is used for setting a working boundary on the environment map. The path planning module is for planning a moving path in a working zone and is electrically connected to the setting module. The driving module for driving the autonomous robot to move along the moving path is electrically connected to the path planning module.

The invention relates to an autonomous multi-robot collaboration control method which belongs to the automatic control field and aims to solve the problems that the multi-robot in the prior art can not realize the collaboration control in a real sense, has low efficiency and is not adaptable to the complex task. Based on a wireless sensor network, a control center establishes a collaboration task allocation plan for each robot according to the state and the position of a task object to be executed and the capability and the location of the robots, thereby achieving the effect of cooperative control of the multi-robot. Therefore, the robot can operate collaboratively under the unified allocation of the control center using the wireless sensor only, without occupying other network resources. The autonomous multi-robot collaboration control method ensures the collaboration of the multiple robots in the real sense within a wide range.

A behavior control system and a behavior control method for a robot apparatus are disclosed. The behavior control system and the behavior control method for a robot apparatus include a function of adaptively switching between a behavior selection standard, taking into account the own state, required of an autonomous robot, and a behavior selection standard, taking into account the state of a counterpart, responsive to a situation. A behavior selection control system in a robot apparatus includes a situation-dependent behavior layer (SBL), capable of selecting a particular behavior from plural behaviors, and outputting the so selected behavior, and an AL calculating unit 120 for calculating the AL (activation level), indicating the priority of execution of the behaviors, for behavior selection. This AL calculating unit 120 includes a self AL calculating unit 122 and a counterpart AL calculating unit 124 for calculating the self AL and the counterpart AL, and an AL integrating unit 125 for summing the self AL and the counterpart AL with weighting by a parameter used for determining whether emphasis is to be placed on the self state or on the counterpart state, to output an ultimate AL. The counterpart is a subject of interaction of the robot apparatus. The self AL and the counterpart AL indicate the priority of execution of the behavior with the self and with the co8unbterpart as a reference, respectively.

A control system for a mobile robot (10) is provided to effectively cover a given area by operating in a plurality of modes, including an obstacle following mode (51) and a random bounce mode (49). In other embodiments, spot coverage, such as spiraling (45), or other modes are also used to increase effectiveness. In addition, a behavior based architecture is used to implement the control system, and various escape behaviors are used to ensure full coverage.

An autonomous wireless mobile network is established between mobile nodes configured as wireless autonomous robotic mobile access points. Each mobile node includes a mobility platform, an executable routing resource, and a standardized interface. The mobility platform is configured for supplying sensor data from attached physical sensors, and responding to motor commands from the standardized interface. The standardized interface is configured for converting each sensor datum into a corresponding sensor object, and converting received movement directives into the respective motor commands. The executable routing resource is configured for maintaining a database of world objects representing attributes within an infosphere established by the wireless mobile network based on the sensor objects and received network objects. The executable routing resource also is configured for generating the received movement directives and executing network decisions based on periodic evaluation of the world database, and exchanging the world objects with other mobile nodes.

The present invention provides systems and corresponding methods for autonomous robotic navigation that are capable of obtaining a volumetric image data set of the structure having a lumen, defining a volume of interest between a first point within the structure having a lumen and a second point within the structure having a lumen, creating a virtual navigation pathway for navigating a navigable device with a robotic device between the first and second points, registering the navigable device within the volume of interest, and navigating the navigable device iteratively along the virtual navigation path with the robotic device.