AUTOMATED CLEANING IN A SENSOR NETWORK

• US 20130304301A1
• Filed: 05/11/2012
• Published: 11/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rakshit, Sarbajit K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,965,623 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/25
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0276 using signals provided by a source external to the vehicle involving a plurality of vehicles G05D1/0287; automatically controlling vehicle speed responsive to externally generated signals B60K31/0058
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 2201/0203 Cleaning or polishing vehicle

Abstract

A system, method and computer program product for attending to an environmental condition by an electronic cleaning device. A computer receives one or more data signals from one or more sensors through a network, with each of the one or more sensors associated with a physical location. The computer determines that due to an environmental condition a signal strength of the one or more data signals received from the one or more sensors is out of a threshold value range. The computer determines an optimal route from a current location of the electronic cleaning device to the one or more physical locations of the one or more sensors associated with the one or more data signals experiencing signal strength out of the threshold value range.

Claims

1. A method for attending to an environmental condition by an electronic cleaning device, the method comprising the steps of:

a computer receiving one or more data signals from one or more sensors through a network, with each of the one or more sensors associated with a physical location;

the computer determining that due to the environmental condition a signal strength of the one or more data signals received from the one or more sensors is out of a threshold value range; and

the computer determining an optimal route from a current location of the electronic cleaning device to the one or more physical locations of the one or more sensors associated with the one or more data signals experiencing signal strength out of the threshold value range.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer determines the optimal route from the current location of two or more electronic cleaning devices to the location of the environmental condition.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer is associated with the electronic cleaning device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the network connecting the electronic cleaning device and the computer is a wireless network connection.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic cleaning device includes a user interface that is configured to depict one or more locations where the one or more sensors experiencing signal strength out of the threshold value range occurs.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors comprises an infrared sensor, a Doppler sensor, and a proximity sensor.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer determines the optimal route to two or more sensors experiencing an environmental condition by considering, at least in part, an order of attending to the sensor having a signal strength further out of the threshold value range before attending to the sensor having a signal strength closer to the threshold value range.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer determines the optimal route to the one or more sensors experiencing an environmental condition by considering, at least in part, a least amount of distance traveled.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

the computer calibrating each of the one or more sensors to the environmental conditions to determine the signal strength threshold limit range; and

responsive to the computer calibrating each sensor, the computer receiving a request to alter the threshold limit range by a user of the electronic cleaning device attending to the environmental condition.

19. A computer system comprising one or more processors, one or more computer-readable memories, one or more computer-readable, tangible storage devices and program instructions which are stored on the one or more storage devices for execution by the one or more processors via the one or more memories and when executed by the one or more processors implement all the steps of claim 1.

10. A computer program product for attending to an environmental condition by an electronic cleaning device, the compute program product comprising:

one or more computer-readable, tangible storage devices;

program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to receive one or more data signals from one or more sensors through a network, with each of the one or more sensors associated with a physical location;

program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to determine that due to the environmental condition a signal strength of the one or more data signals received from the one or more sensors is out of a threshold value range; and

program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to determine an optimal route from a current location of the electronic cleaning device to the one or more physical locations of the one or more sensors associated with the one or more data signals experiencing signal strength out of the threshold value range.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the program instructions to determine an optimal route from a current location of the electronic cleaning device to the one or more physical locations of the one or more sensors associated with the one or more data signals experiencing signal strength out of the threshold value range, determines the optimal route from the current location of two or more electronic cleaning devices to the location of the environmental condition.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the computer is associated with the electronic cleaning device.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the network connecting the electronic cleaning device and the computer is a wireless network connection.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the electronic cleaning device includes a user interface that is configured to depict one or more locations where the one or more sensors experiencing signal strength out of the threshold value range occurs.

15. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the one or more sensors comprises an infrared sensor, a Doppler sensor, and a proximity sensor.

16. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein instructions to determine an optimal route from a current location of the electronic cleaning device to the one or more physical locations of the one or more sensors associated with the one or more data signals experiencing signal strength out of the threshold value range, determines the optimal route to two or more sensors experiencing an environmental condition by considering, at least in part, an order of attending to the sensor having a signal strength that is further out of the threshold value range before attending to the sensor having a signal strength closer to the threshold value range.

17. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein instructions to determine an optimal route from a current location of the electronic cleaning device to the one or more physical locations of the one or more sensors associated with the one or more data signals experiencing signal strength out of the threshold value range, determines the optimal route to the one or more sensors experiencing an environmental condition by considering, at least in part, a least amount of distance traveled.

18. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising:

program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to calibrate each of the one or more sensors to the environmental conditions to determine the signal strength threshold limit range; and

program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, responsive to calibrating each sensor, to receive a request to alter the threshold limit range by a user of the electronic cleaning device attending to the environmental condition.