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Autonomous coverage robot

  • US 8,972,061 B2
  • Filed: 03/08/2013
  • Issued: 03/03/2015
  • Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2012
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of operating mobile floor cleaning robot, the method comprising:

  • receiving, at a controller, a sequence of images of a floor surface from an imaging sensor in communication with the controller, each image having an array of pixels;

    for each image, segmenting the image into color blobs, using the controller, by;

    color quantizing pixels of the image;

    determining a spatial distribution of each color of the image based on corresponding pixel locations; and

    for each image color, identifying areas of the image having a threshold spatial distribution for that color;

    tracking, using the controller, a location of each color blob with respect to the imaging sensor across the sequence of images;

    identifying, using the controller, a location of an object on a floor surface away from the robot;

    issuing a first drive command from the controller to a drive system of the robot to drive the robot across the floor surface to clean the floor surface at the identified location of the object;

    determining, using the controller, whether the object persists on the floor surface; and

    when the object persists, issuing a second drive command from the controller to the drive system to drive the robot across the floor surface to re-clean the floor surface at the identified location of the object.

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