Method and apparatus for controlling the motion of a robotic device

• US 8,095,239 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2008
• Issued: 01/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: North End Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: North End Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Root, Timothy D., Muller, Jeffrey T
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Marc, McDieunel
• Application Number:
  US12/239,891
• Publication Number:
  US 20100082156A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,198 Days
• Field of Search: 700/245, 700/248, 700/258, 700/259, 700/260, 318/567, 318/568.1, 318/568.11, 318/568.12, 318/568.16, 701/25, 180/24.05
• US Class Current: 700/264
• 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

Abstract

A robot movement control device is connected to a communications network in a remote location relative to a robotic device that is also connected to the communications network. The robot movement control device is an electronic device with a video display for displaying a real-time video image sent to it by a camera associated with the robot. A robot movement control overlay is displayed in the field of the real-time video image at the robot control device and robot control commands are generated by selecting locations within the boundary of the movement control overlay which include speed and directional information. The control commands are sent by the robot control device over the network to the robot which uses the commands to adjust its speed and direction of movement.

Claims

1. A method for controlling the movement of a robotic device comprising:

capturing a real-time video image of the robotic device environment using a video capture device associated with the robotic device;

sending the captured real-time image to a robotic control module that is remote from the robotic device, and displaying the captured real-time image within a field on a video image display device associated with the remote robotic control module;

displaying a robotic device movement control overlay within the field of the displayed real-time video image;

selecting a location within the movement control overlay that corresponds to a robotic device speed and direction;

generating and sending a control message to the robotic device which is comprised of the selected speed and direction information; and

receiving the control message at the robotic device and using the speed and direction information contained in the control message to move in the selected direction at the selected speed.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the movement control overlay is comprised of first and second movement control sectors.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the first movement control sector includes information used to control the robotic device to move in a direction to the right of its current direction and the second movement control sector includes information used to control the robotic device to move in a direction to the left of its current direction.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the first movement control sector is bounded by a first and second movement control element and the second movement control sector is bounded by a first and third movement control element.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein positions along the first movement control element control the speed of the robotic device in a straight ahead direction, positions along the second movement control element control the speed of the robotic device in a direction to the right of the current direction and positions along the third movement control element control the speed of the robotic device to the left of the current direction.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein each of the first and second movement control sectors include a plurality of locations and each of the plurality of locations is associated with a single soft link.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein each one of the soft links are associated with a different set of movement control information.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein each of the sets of movement control information includes information about direction and speed.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the real-time video image is comprised of real-time video information captured by a camera on the robotic device and sent to a robot control device.

10. An apparatus for controlling the movement of a robotic device comprising:

a robotic device; and

a robot control device comprising;

a video display;

a transceiver;

a memory for storing robotic device movement control information and real-time video information received from the robotic device; and

a processor that operates on the real-time video information and the movement control information to display a robotic device movement control overlay within the field of a real-time video image, responds to a control pointer command to select a location within the robotic device movement control overlay that corresponds to a speed and direction of the robotic device;

generates and sends a control message to the robotic device containing the selected speed and direction information which the robotic device uses to move in the selected direction at the selected speed.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the video display included in the robot control device displays a robot movement control overlay that includes first and second movement control sectors.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 for displaying the first movement control sector which includes information used to control the robotic device to move in a direction to the right of its current direction and for displaying the second movement control sector which includes information used to control the robotic device to move in a direction to the left of its current direction.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 for displaying the first movement control element, selected positions along which first movement control element control the speed of the robotic device in a straight ahead direction, and for displaying the second movement control, selected positions along which second movement control element control the speed of the robotic device in a direction to the right of the current direction and for displaying the third movement control element, selected positions along which second movement control element control the speed of the robotic device in a direction to the left of the current direction.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 for displayed the first and second movement control sectors both of which include a plurality of locations and each of the plurality of locations is associated with a single soft link.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 for storing the soft links each of which is associated with a different movement control information set.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 for storing each of the movement control information sets which include information about the robots direction and speed.

17. The apparatus of claim 10 for displaying the first movement control sector which is bounded by a first and second movement control element and for displaying the second movement control sector which is bounded by a first and third movement control element.