Wall following robot
First Claim
1. A robot comprising:
- a body movable relative to a wall surface;
a bumper mounted on the body, the bumper being movable relative to the body between a fully uncompressed position and a fully compressed position; and
a controller to cause the robot to execute a wall following behavior in which the robotadvances along a first portion of the wall surface while causing the bumper to contact the wall surface and while maintaining a position of the bumper within a predefined range between the fully compressed position and the fully uncompressed position to maintain an angle between the bumper and the wall surface,in response to the position of the bumper being between the predefined range and the fully uncompressed position, rotates toward the first portion of the wall surface while advancing along the first portion of the wall surface such that contact between the robot and the wall surface is maintained, and thenadvances along a second portion of the wall surface orthogonal to the first portion of the wall surface.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An example robot includes a body that is movable relative to a surface, a bumper mounted on the body to enable movement of the bumper relative to the body, a sensor to produce a signal in response to the movement of the bumper relative to the body caused by contact between the bumper and the surface, and a controller to control movement of the body to cause the body to track the surface based on a value. The bumper is movable between an uncompressed position relative to the body and a compressed position relative to the body. The signal varies linearly with the movement of the bumper relative to the body. The value is based on the signal and indicates that the bumper in a partially compressed position has a compression range between the uncompressed position and the compressed position.
74 Citations
24 Claims
-
1. A robot comprising:
-
a body movable relative to a wall surface; a bumper mounted on the body, the bumper being movable relative to the body between a fully uncompressed position and a fully compressed position; and a controller to cause the robot to execute a wall following behavior in which the robot advances along a first portion of the wall surface while causing the bumper to contact the wall surface and while maintaining a position of the bumper within a predefined range between the fully compressed position and the fully uncompressed position to maintain an angle between the bumper and the wall surface, in response to the position of the bumper being between the predefined range and the fully uncompressed position, rotates toward the first portion of the wall surface while advancing along the first portion of the wall surface such that contact between the robot and the wall surface is maintained, and then advances along a second portion of the wall surface orthogonal to the first portion of the wall surface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A method of controlling a robot, comprising:
-
maintaining an angle between a first portion of a wall surface and the robot such that a position of a bumper of the robot between a fully uncompressed position and a fully compressed position is maintained within a predefined range between the fully uncompressed position and the fully compressed position during a wall following behavior in which the robot advances along the wall surface; and in response to the bumper being between the predefined range and the fully uncompressed position, rotating the robot toward the first portion of the wall surface while advancing the robot along the first portion of the wall surface and maintaining contact between the robot and the first portion of the wall surface, and then advancing along a second portion of the wall surface orthogonal to the first portion of the wall surface. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
-
Specification