Autonomous monitoring robot systems

• US 10,471,611 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2017
• Issued: 11/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: iRobot Corporation
• Original Assignee: iRobot Corporation
• Inventors: Dooley, Michael J., Romanov, Nikolai, Taka, Orjeta, Kearns, Justin H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Khoi H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Peche, Jorge O
• Application Number:
  US15/404,455
• Publication Number:
  US 20170203446A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,034 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 19/023 including video camera means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0038 by providing the operator with simple or augmented images from one or more cameras located onboard the vehicle, e.g. tele-operation images analyzed by a computer and used for automatic navigation G05D1/0246
• 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: G06V 20/10 Terrestrial scenes scenes under surveillance with static cameras G06V20/52; scenes perceived from the exterior of a vehicle G06V20/56; scenes perceived from the interior of a vehicle G06V20/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/51 Housings
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/57 Mechanical or electrical details of cameras or camera modules specially adapted for being embedded in other devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/62 Control of parameters via user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/631 Graphical user interfaces [GUI] specially adapted for controlling image capture or setting capture parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/185 from a mobile camera, e.g. for remote control

Abstract

An autonomous mobile robot includes a chassis, a drive supporting the chassis above a floor surface in a home and configured to move the chassis across the floor surface, a variable height member being coupled to the chassis and being vertically extendible, a camera supported by the variable height member, and a controller. The controller is configured to operate the drive to navigate the robot to locations within the home and to adjust a height of the variable height member upon reaching a first of the locations. The controller is also configured to, while the variable height member is at the adjusted height, operate the camera to capture digital imagery of the home at the first of the locations.

Claims

1. An autonomous mobile robot comprising:

a chassis;

a drive supporting the chassis above a floor surface in a home and configured to move the chassis across the floor surface;

a variable height member being coupled to the chassis and being vertically extendible;

a camera supported by the variable height member; and

a controller configured to perform operations comprising;

receiving data indicative of a user-selected location and a user-selected height for the variable height member at the user-selected location;

initiating a patrol routine in which the controller

operates the drive to navigate the robot to the user-selected location within the home,

moves the variable height member to the user-selected height upon the robot reaching the user-selected location, and,

while the variable height member is at the user-selected height, operates the camera to capture digital imagery of the home at the user-selected location of the robot within the home, wherein the operations comprise, in a privacy mode, moving the variable height member to a retracted position in which the camera is at least partially inside the robot and is unable to capture images of the home.

2. The robot of claim 1, wherein the variable height member is extendible from a first position in which a top surface of the variable height member is flush with a top surface of the chassis to a second position in which a maximum height of the top surface of the variable height member is at least 1.5 meters.

3. The robot of claim 1, wherein, in the patrol routine, the controller

moves the variable height member to at least two heights when the robot is at the user-selected location, the at least two heights including the user-selected height, and

operates the camera to capture at least some of the digital imagery of the home while the variable height member is at each of the at least two heights.

4. The robot of claim 1, further comprising a wireless transceiver operable by the controller and configured to communicate with a wireless network to transmit the digital imagery to a remote computing device operable to present an interactive representation of the home on a display based on the digital imagery.

5. The robot of claim 4, further comprising a sensor system to detect a location and a status of a connected device in communication with the wireless network while the controller operates the drive to navigate the robot within the home,

wherein the wireless transceiver is configured to communicate with the wireless network to transmit the digital imagery and data representing the location and the status of the connected device to the remote computing device to present an indicator indicative of the location and the status of the connected device on the display.

6. The robot of claim 5, wherein the wireless transceiver is configured to transmit the digital imagery to a remote computing device to combine the digital imagery captured at the user-selected location to form a portion of the interactive representation of the home, the portion of the interactive representation of the home representing a view of the home at the user-selected location. display.

7. The robot of claim 4, wherein:

the operations comprise operating the drive to navigate the robot along a path extending through at least the user-selected location while operating the camera to capture the digital imagery of the home, and

the wireless transceiver is configured to transmit the digital imagery to a processor to combine the digital imagery captured along the path to form a sequence of views of the home along the path that is presentable in the interactive representation of the home.

8. The robot of claim 1, further comprising a wireless transceiver in communication with a wireless network, wherein, in the patrol routine, the controller operates the drive to navigate the robot to the user-selected location within the home while localizing a pose of the robot based on a signal received by the wireless transceiver.

9. The robot of claim 1, wherein the operations comprise adjusting the variable height member to a specific height based on a position of an object in the home.

10. The robot of claim 1, further comprising a wireless transceiver in communication with a wireless network to receive data representing the user-selected location and data representing the user-selected height to which the variable height member is moved at the user-selected location.

11. The robot of claim 10, wherein the user-selected height is selected from a plurality of predefined heights for the variable height member.

12. The robot of claim 1, wherein, in the patrol routine, the controller rotates the robot at the user-selected location while operating the camera to capture the digital imagery, the digital imagery spanning up to 360 degrees comprising between 4 and 1000 images.

13. The robot of claim 1, wherein:

in the patrol routine, the controller rotates the robot to multiple predefined orientations at the user-selected location while operating the camera to capture the digital imagery spanning up to 360 degrees at the user-selected location, and

the digital imagery includes multiple images captured at each of the predefined orientations and captured at different exposure levels.

14. The robot of claim 1, wherein the variable height member is extendible to a maximum height between 10 cm and 1.5 meters.

15. The robot of claim 1, further comprising a sensor system to detect an object within the home, wherein, in the patrol routine the controller operates the drive to navigate the robot to the user-selected location within the home while localizing a pose of the robot based on the detected object.

16. The robot of claim 1, further comprising a wireless transceiver in communication with a wireless network to receive data representing the user-selected location and a path comprising the user-selected location.

17. The robot of claim 1, further comprising an optical detector, wherein, in the patrol routine, the controller

operates the drive to rotate the robot at the user-selected location to detect light within the home using the optical detector,

stores data representing the detected light, and

operates the drive to rotate the robot at the user-selected location to capture the digital imagery using the camera while controlling image capture based on the data representing the detected light.

18. The robot of claim 1, further comprising a wireless transceiver operable by the controller and configured to communicate with a wireless network to transmit the digital imagery to a remote computing device operable to present a live video feed on a user display in response to data representing a user input on the remote computing device.

19. The robot of claim 18, wherein the data representing the user input further comprise the data indicative of the user-selected location and the user-selected height, the live video feed comprises a representation of the home at the location.

20. The robot of claim 1, wherein the user-selected location is a first user-selected location, and the user-selected height is a first user-selected height, and

wherein the operations further comprise receiving data indicative of a second user-selected location and a second user-selected height for the variable height member at the second user-selected location, and

wherein, in the patrol routine, the controller

operates the drive to navigate the robot to the second user-selected location,

moves the variable height member to the second user-selected height upon the robot reaching the second user-selected location, and,

while the variable height member is at the second user-selected height, operates the camera to capture the digital imagery of the home at the second user-selected location of the robot within the home.

21. The robot of claim 1, wherein the user-selected height is a first user-selected height, and

wherein the operations further comprise receiving data indicative of a second user-selected height for the variable height member at the user-selected location, and

wherein, in the patrol routine, the controller

operates the drive to navigate the robot to the user-selected location,

moves the variable height member to the first user-selected height upon the robot reaching the user-selected location,

operates the camera to capture the digital imagery of the home at the first user-selected height of the variable height member and at the user-selected location of the robot within the home,

moves the variable height member to the second user-selected height after operating the camera to capture digital imagery of the home at the first user-selected height of the variable height member and the user-selected location of the robot within the home, and

operates the camera to capture the digital imagery of the home at the second-user selected height of the variable height member and at the user-selected location of the robot within the home.