Drone and robot control systems and methods

• US 10,228,694 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2017
• Issued: 03/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Commando, LLC
• Original Assignee: Animusoft Corporation
• Inventors: Rodriguez, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Frejd, Russell
• Application Number:
  US15/449,165
• Publication Number:
  US 20170255198A1
• Time in Patent Office: 739 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B63B 2035/006 Unmanned surface vessels, e.g. remotely controlled
• CPC Class Codes: B63G 2008/002 unmanned
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/25 Fixed-wing aircraft VTOL aircraft B64U10/20
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/00 UAVs characterised by their flight controls
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 30/20 Rotors; Rotor supports
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0027 involving a plurality of vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling fleet control of land vehicles from a control room G05D1/0297; traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00; for marine craft G08G3/00; for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0088 characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours using knowledge based models G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30

Abstract

A system may be configured to manage at least one robotic device. The system may comprise one or more databases and one or more processors in communication with the one or more databases. The one or more processors may be configured to provide an operating system for the at least one robotic device, control motion of the at least one robotic device, configure at least one sensor removably coupled to the at least one robotic device, process data collected by the at least one sensor, and/or perform localization and/or area mapping for the at least one robotic device by comparing data collected by the at least one sensor with data in the one or more databases to generate localization and/or area mapping data.

Claims

1. A system configured to manage at least one robotic device, the system comprising:

one or more databases; and

one or more processors in communication with the one or more databases, the one or more processors being configured to;

provide an operating system for the at least one robotic device;

control motion of the at least one robotic device;

configure at least one sensor removably coupled to the at least one robotic device;

process data collected by the at least one sensor; and

perform localization and/or area mapping for the at least one robotic device by a process comprising analyzing data collected by the at least one sensor to generate localization and/or area mapping data by;

detecting a positional sound; and

determining a direction of the positional sound.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one robotic device comprises a land-based drone or robot, an air-based drone or robot, a sea-based drone or robot, a space-based drone or robot, or a combination thereof.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein:

at least one of the one or more databases and the one or more processors is disposed in at least one server;

at least one of the one or more databases and the one or more processors is disposed in at least one computer in communication with the at least one server and the at least one robotic device;

at least one of the one or more databases and the one or more processors is disposed in the at least one robotic device;

or

a combination thereof.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the at least one sensor comprises at least one plug and play sensor; and

the one or more processors are configured to configure the at least one plug and play sensor upon detecting a change in a sensor configuration of the at least one robotic device during operation of the at least one robotic device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are configured to process the data collected by the at least one sensor by performing a process comprising:

identifying object data within the data collected by the at least one sensor; and

storing the object data in the at least one database.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are configured to process the data collected by the at least one sensor by performing a process comprising:

contextualizing the data collected by the at least one sensor to generate data comprising a meaning; and

storing the data comprising the meaning in the at least one database.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are configured to process the data collected by the at least one sensor by performing a process comprising:

determining a machine learning workflow to process the data collected by the at least one sensor;

selecting and arranging, based on the machine learning workflow, at least one of a plurality of machine learning processes;

processing the data collected by the at least one sensor according to the selected and arranged at least one machine learning process to generate a machine learning result; and

storing the machine learning result in the at least one database.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

adding the localization and/or area mapping data to an internal map; and

storing the internal map in the at least one database.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the analyzing the data collected by the at least one sensor to generate the localization and/or area mapping data comprises:

comparing the data collected by the at least one sensor with data in the at least one database to determine distance to an object based on an observed object size;

processing a range finder reading;

processing a touch sensor reading;

or

a combination thereof.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the at least one robotic device comprises a single camera; and

the analyzing the data collected by the at least one sensor to generate the localization and/or area mapping data comprises comparing the data collected by the single camera with data in the at least one database to determine distance to an object based on an observed object size.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to generate, using the data collected by the at least one sensor as a seed, a random number.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more additional robotic skin sensors removably coupled to the at least one robotic device, wherein the one or more processors is further configured to update the localization and/or area mapping data by:

querying the one or more additional robotic skin sensors for additional sensor data; and

updating the localization and/or area mapping data based on the additional sensor data;

wherein the additional sensor data comprises one or more of points of heat and points of moisture on the at least one robotic device.

13. A method for managing at least one robotic device, the method comprising:

providing, by one or more processors in communication with the one or more databases, an operating system for the at least one robotic device;

controlling, by the one or more processors, motion of the at least one robotic device;

configuring, by the one or more processors, at least one sensor removably coupled to the at least one robotic device;

processing, by the one or more processors, data collected by the at least one sensor; and

performing, by the one or more processors, localization and/or area mapping for the at least one robotic device by a process comprising analyzing data collected by the at least one sensor to generate localization and/or area mapping data, wherein analyzing the data collected by the at least one sensor comprises;

detecting a positional sound; and

determining a direction of the positional sound.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one robotic device comprises a land-based drone or robot, an air-based drone or robot, a sea-based drone or robot, a space-based drone or robot, or a combination thereof.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein:

at least one of the one or more databases and the one or more processors is disposed in at least one server;

at least one of the one or more databases and the one or more processors is disposed in at least one computer in communication with the at least one server and the at least one robotic device;

at least one of the one or more databases and the one or more processors is disposed in the at least one robotic device;

or

a combination thereof.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one plug and play sensor, the method further comprising configuring, by the one or more processors, the at least one plug and play sensor upon detecting a change in a sensor configuration of the at least one robotic device during operation of the at least one robotic device.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein processing the data collected by the at least one sensor comprises:

identifying object data within the data collected by the at least one sensor; and

storing the object data in the at least one database.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein processing the data collected by the at least one sensor comprises:

contextualizing the data collected by the at least one sensor to generate data comprising a meaning; and

storing the data comprising the meaning in the at least one database.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein processing the data collected by the at least one sensor comprises:

determining a machine learning workflow to process the data collected by the at least one sensor;

selecting and arranging, based on the machine learning workflow, at least one of a plurality of machine learning processes;

processing the data collected by the at least one sensor according to the selected and arranged at least one machine learning process to generate a machine learning result; and

storing the machine learning result in the at least one database.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the analyzing the data collected by the at least one sensor to generate the localization and/or area mapping data comprises:

comparing the data collected by the at least one sensor with data in the at least one database to determine distance to an object based on an observed object size;

processing a range finder reading;

processing a touch sensor reading;

or

a combination thereof.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

adding, by the one or more processors, the localization and/or area mapping data to an internal map; and

storing the internal map in the at least one database.

22. The method of claim 13, wherein:

the at least one robotic device comprises a single camera; and

the analyzing the data collected by the at least one sensor to generate the localization and/or area mapping data comprises comparing the data collected by the single camera with data in the at least one database to determine distance to an object based on an observed object size.

23. The method of claim 13, further comprising generating, by the one or more processors, using the data collected by the at least one sensor as a seed, a random number.

24. The method of claim 13, further comprising updating the localization and/or area mapping data by:

querying one or more additional robotic skin sensors removably coupled to the at least one robotic device for additional sensor data; and

updating the localization and/or area mapping data based on the additional sensor data;

wherein the additional sensor data comprises one or more of points of heat and points of moisture on the at least one robotic device.