AUTONOMOUS MONITORING ROBOT SYSTEMS

• US 20170203446A1
• Filed: 01/12/2017
• Published: 07/20/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: iRobot Corporation
• Original Assignee: iRobot Corporation
• Inventors: Taka, Orjeta, Kearns, Justin H., Dooley, Michael J., Romanov, Nikolai
• Granted Patent: US 10,471,611 B2
• Time in Patent Office: 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

operate the drive to navigate the robot to locations within the home,

adjust a height of the variable height member upon reaching a first of the locations, and,

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.

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 the top surface of the variable height member has a height of at least 1.5 meters.

3. The robot of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to, in a privacy mode, to move the variable height member to a position in which the camera is unable to capture images of the home.

4. The robot of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to

adjust the variable height member to at least two heights when the robot is at the first of the locations, and

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

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

6. The robot of claim 5, further comprising a sensor system to detect a location and a status of a networked 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 such that the digital imagery and data representing the location and the status of the networked device is transmittable to the remote computing device to present an indicator indicative of the location and the status of the networked device on the display.

7. The robot of claim 5, wherein:

the controller is configured to operate the drive to navigate the robot along a path through the locations while operating the camera to capture 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 the controller is configured to operate the drive to navigate the robot to the locations 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 controller is configured to adjust the variable height member to a 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 a user selection of the first of the locations and data representing a user selection of one or more heights for setting the variable height member at the first of the locations,

wherein the controller is configured to

operate the drive to navigate the robot to the first of the locations, and

operate the camera at the first of the locations to capture digital imagery while setting the variable height member to each of the one or more heights.

11. The robot of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to rotate the robot at the first of the locations while operating the camera to capture digital imagery spanning up to 360 degrees at the first of the locations, the digital imagery spanning up to 360 degrees comprising between 4 and 1000 images.

12. The robot of claim 1, wherein:

the controller is configured to rotate the robot to multiple predefined orientations at the first of the locations while operating the camera to capture the digital imagery spanning up to 360 degrees at the first of the location, and

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

13. A method comprising:

receiving data representing digital imagery of a home captured by a camera on an autonomous mobile robot and presented on a display of a remote computing device;

determining that a user-selected location in the home is above at least a portion of a floor surface in the home; and

causing the camera on the robot to be redirected toward the user-selected location while additional digital imagery is captured and presented on the display.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining that another user-selected location is on the portion of the floor surface; and

causing the robot to navigate toward the other user-selected location while additional digital imagery is captured and presented.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein:

causing the camera to be redirected toward the user-selected location comprises causing an indicator indicative of operation of the camera to be presented proximate to a portion of the digital imagery corresponding to the user-selected location; and

causing the robot to navigate toward the other user-selected location comprises causing an indicator indicative of movement of the robot to be presented proximate to another portion of the digital imagery.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein:

causing the camera to be redirected toward the user-selected location comprises causing an indicator indicative of operation of the camera to be presented proximate to a portion of the digital imagery corresponding to the user-selected location.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising causing a location of the indicator to be updated as the additional digital imagery is captured and presented.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein determining that the user-selected location is above at least the portion of the floor surface in the home comprises determining that the user-selected location is above the floor surface.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein determining that the user-selected location is above the floor surface comprises determining that a vector defined by a position of the camera and the user-selected location do not intersect the floor surface.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein determining that the user-selected location is above at least the portion of the floor surface in the home comprises determining that a distance between the camera on the robot and the user-selected location is above a predefined threshold distance.