Semi-autonomous dolly

• US 9,459,624 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2014
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mega Trax Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mega Trax Corporation
• Inventors: Kuklish, David, McCain, Howard
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, SHARDUL D
• Application Number:
  US14/325,026
• Publication Number:
  US 20150012168A1
• Time in Patent Office: 820 Days
• Field of Search: 701/23
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F16M 11/18 with mechanism for moving the apparatus relatively to the stand
• CPC Class Codes: F16M 11/425 along guiding means
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/56 Accessories carrying-cases A45C11/38
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/561 Support related camera accessories
• 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: G05D 1/02 Control of position or course in two dimensions
• 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 5/222 Studio circuitry; Studio devices; Studio equipment cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors, or control thereof H04N23/00

Abstract

Various systems and methods are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a system comprises a track comprising one or more sections, the track including track indicators readable by a track indicator sensor and used to determine a dolly'"'"'s position on the track, and the dolly including one or more sensors and a processor, the one or more sensors including the track indicator sensor, the processor executing instructions that control an operation of the dolly including moving the dolly at least semi-autonomously along the track based on the track indicators, wherein moving the dolly at least semi-autonomously includes one of moving the dolly autonomously and moving the dolly semi-autonomously.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a reconfigurable track comprising a plurality of connectable, portable, modular track sections, the plurality of connectable, portable, modular track sections including a first track section and a second track section, the first track section and the second track section each including two or more track indicators readable by a track indicator senor and used to build a virtual model of the reconfigurable track in a current configuration, wherein one or more safety parameters for movement of the dolly along the reconfigurable track are determined automatically based on the virtual model of the reconfigurable track used to determine a dolly'"'"'s position on the track and;

the dolly including one or more sensors and a processor, the one or more sensors including the track indicator sensor, the dolly including a removable camera as a payload, a movement of the removable camera controlled independent of a movement of the dolly, the processor executing instructions that control an operation of the dolly including moving the dolly at least semi-autonomously along the reconfigurable track based on the track indicators,

wherein the virtual model of the current configuration of the reconfigurable track is generated based on the track indicator sensor reading the track indicators of the first and second track sections, wherein moving the dolly at least semi-autonomously includes one of moving the dolly autonomously and moving the dolly semi-autonomously, the movement of the dolly restricted based on one or more thresholds associated with one or more safety parameters, the one or more thresholds determined based on the virtual model of the current configuration of the reconfigurable track and the dolly'"'"'s position on the reconfigurable track, the position of the dolly on the track determined based in part on a detection of a track indicator.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein moving the dolly at least semi-autonomously includes repeating a previous operation of the dolly using sensor data captured during the previous operation of the dolly that is to be repeated.

3. The system of claim 1, the processor executing instructions that control an operation of the dolly including moving the dolly at least semi-autonomously along the reconfigurable track based on the track indicators includes recording sensor data from at least a subset of the one or more sensors of the dolly during a first operation of the dolly, the sensor data describing the first operation of the dolly and, responsive to receiving a request to repeat the first operation of the dolly during a subsequent operation of the dolly, determining one or more control signals for repeating the first operation of the dolly based on the recorded sensor data and automatically operating the dolly based on the one or more determined control signals thereby repeating the first operation of the dolly in the subsequent operation of the dolly.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the first operation of the dolly includes movement of the dolly along the reconfigurable track based the track indicators and operation of the removable camera payload.

5. The system of claim 1, the processor executing instructions that control an operation of the dolly including determining a threshold associated with a safety parameter;

monitoring sensor data associated with the safety parameter, the sensor data from at least a subset of the one or more sensors;

determining that the sensor data satisfies the threshold associated with the safety parameter;

determining a safety protocol associated with the satisfied threshold responsive to determining that the threshold is satisfied; and

operating the dolly based on the determined safety protocol.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein a track indicator is a barcode.

7. A method comprising:

generating, using one or more processors, a virtual model of a present configuration of a reconfigurable track based on track indicators read using a track indicator sensor of a dolly, the reconfigurable track including a plurality of connectable, portable, modular track sections, the plurality of connectable, portable, modular track sections including a first track section and a second track section, the first track section and the second track section each including two or more track indicators readable by a track indicator senor;

receiving, using the one or more processors, sensor data from one or more sensors of a dolly during a first operation of the dolly, the dolly including a removable camera as a payload, a movement of the removable camera able to be controlled independent of a movement of the dolly, the sensor data describing the first operation of the dolly, the first operation of the dolly restricted based on one or more thresholds associated with one or more safety parameters, the one or more thresholds determined based on the virtual model of the current configuration of the reconfigurable track and the dolly'"'"'s position on the reconfigurable track, the position of the dolly on the track determined based in part on a detection of a track indicator;

recording, using the one or more processors, the sensor data describing the first operation of the dolly;

receiving, using the one or more processors, a request to repeat the first operation of dolly during a subsequent operation of the dolly;

determining, using the one or more processors, one or more control signals based on the recorded sensor data for repeating the first operation of the dolly; and

automatically operating, using the one or more processors, the dolly based on the one or more determined control signals thereby repeating the first operation of the dolly in the subsequent operation of the dolly and recreating the sensor data.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the operation of the dolly includes movement of the dolly along the reconfigurable track based sensor data associated with a track indicator and operation of the removable camera payload.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the operation of the dolly includes a movement of the dolly along the reconfigurable track and an operation of a device associated with the dolly, wherein the sensor data includes sensor data describing the movement of the dolly along a track, which is received and recorded as a first set of one or more channels, and sensor data describing the operation of the removable camera payload associated with the dolly, which is received and recorded as a second set of one or more channels, and a user individually modifies one or more selected channels to alter the subsequent operation of one or more of the dolly and the removable camera payload.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the operation of the dolly includes a movement of the dolly along the reconfigurable track and an operation of the removable camera payload, wherein the removable camera payload includes a multi-axis camera head and automatically operating the dolly based on the one or more determined control signals repeats the movement of the dolly along the reconfigurable track and repeats the operation of the multi-axis camera head including one or more of the pan, tilt, roll and focus of the multi-axis camera.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the first operation of the dolly is controlled at least in part by control signals from user input and, responsive to receiving the request to repeat the first operation of the dolly, the one or more control signals are determined and the dolly is operated automatically and without further user input.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the first operation of the dolly is performed manually by a human user and repeated automatically when the dolly determines the one or more control signals and operates itself.

13. A method comprising:

determining, using one or more processors, a threshold associated with a parameter for safely operating a dolly in a present configuration of a reconfigurable track based on a virtual model generated using track indicators read using a track indicator sensor of the dolly, the reconfigurable track including a plurality of connectable, portable, modular track sections, the plurality of connectable, portable, modular track sections including a first track section and a second track section, the first track section and the second track section each including two or more track indicators readable by the track indicator sensor;

monitoring, using the one or more processors, sensor data associated with the parameter, the sensor data from one or more sensors of a dolly, the dolly having a payload including a removable camera as a payload, a movement of the removable camera able to be controlled independent of a movement of the dolly;

determining, using the one or more processors, that the sensor data satisfies the threshold associated with the parameter;

determining, using the one or more processors, a safety protocol associated with the satisfied threshold responsive to determining that the threshold is satisfied; and

operating, using the one or more processors, the dolly based on the determined safety protocol.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein monitoring sensor data associated with the parameter comprises:

determining a position of the dolly on the reconfigurable track based at least in part on sensor data associated with a track indicator; and

determining a safety parameter associated with the position of the dolly on the reconfigurable track.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein determining a position of the dolly on the reconfigurable track based at least in part on sensor data associated with the track indicator comprises:

determining whether a most recent track indicator received from a track indicator sensor is a live track indicator, wherein the live track indicator is associated with a position on the track where the dolly is presently;

responsive to determining that the most recent track indicator is a live track indicator, determining that the dolly'"'"'s position on the track is the position associated with the most recent track indicator; and

responsive to determining that the most recent track indicator is not a live track indicator, determining a distance traveled since the most recent track indicator was received and determining that the dolly'"'"'s position on the track is the determined distance from the most recent track indicator.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the track indicator is a barcode and a plurality of barcodes run the length of the reconfigurable track.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the sensor data satisfies the threshold associated with the parameter when the sensor data indicates an obstruction or break in a track.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the sensor data satisfies the threshold associated with the parameter when the sensor data indicates that an end of the reconfigurable track is approaching.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the sensor data satisfies the threshold associated with the parameter when the sensor data indicates one or more of the dolly'"'"'s speed exceeds a maximum speed and the dolly'"'"'s payload is exerting a torque in excess of a maximum torque.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein determining a threshold associated with a parameter for safely operating the dolly on the reconfigurable track comprises:

receiving sensor data including track indicators detected using a track indicator sensor while traversing the dolly across the track during a slow-speed initialization;

generating the virtual model based at least in part on the received track indicators, the virtual model representing the reconfigurable track'"'"'s present configuration; and

determining the threshold based on the virtual model.