ROBOTIC ASSISTANCE IN SECURITY MONITORING

• US 20160266577A1
• Filed: 01/22/2016
• Published: 09/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alarm.com Inc. (Alarm.com Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Alarm.com Inc. (Alarm.com Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kerzner, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 9,494,936 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0022 characterised by the communication link data switching networks in general H04L12/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/104 involving a plurality of aircrafts, e.g. formation flying traffic control systems for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19645 Multiple cameras, each having view on one of a plurality of scenes, e.g. multiple cameras for multi-room surveillance or for tracking an object by view hand-over
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19697 Arrangements wherein non-video detectors generate an alarm themselves
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/22 Electrical actuation
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 15/00 Identifying, scaring or incapacitating burglars, thieves or intruders, e.g. by explosives
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 15/002 with occupancy simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 15/005 by electric shock
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 19/00 Alarms responsive to two or more different undesired or abnormal conditions, e.g. burglary and fire, abnormal temperature and abnormal rate of flow
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/10 using wireless transmission systems G08B25/009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on storage devices, for monitoring, security, and surveillance of a property. In one aspect, a system includes multiple robotic devices, multiple sensors, wherein the multiple sensors includes a first sensor, multiple charging stations, and a monitor control unit. The monitor control unit may include a network interface, one or more processors, and one or more storage devices that include instructions to cause the one or more processors to perform operations. The operations may include receiving data from the first sensor that is indicative of an alarm event, accessing information describing the capabilities of the each of the robotic devices, selecting a subset of robotic devices from the multiple robotic devices, and transmitting a command to each robotic device in the subset of robotic devices that instructs each respective robotic device to deploy to the location of the first sensor.

Claims

1. A monitoring system, comprising:

one or more robotic devices;

a plurality of sensors located at different locations throughout a property;

one or more charging stations; and

a monitor control unit, wherein the monitor control unit includes;

a network interface;

one or more processors; and

one or more storage devices that include instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more processors, to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

detecting one or more events based on data received from one or more of the plurality of sensors;

determining a location of one or more sensors of the plurality of sensors that has broadcasted data indicative of an event;

determining a time of day;

determining a number of detected events;

determining an amount of time that the monitor control unit has been detecting events;

determining a current state of the monitoring system based on the number of detected events and the amount of time that the monitor control unit has been detecting events;

determining, from among multiple security strategies, a particular security strategy for responding to one or more of the detected events based on an evaluation of multiple factors including the data received from the one or more sensors, the determined time of day, and the determined current state of the monitoring system;

accessing information describing the capabilities of each of the one or more robotic devices;

selecting one or more of the robotic devices based on the particular security strategy; and

transmitting a command to the one or more robotic devices that instructs each respective robotic device to navigate to one or more of the determined locations of the property to investigate one or more of the detected events based on the particular security strategy.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each robotic device of the one or more robotic devices is a quad-copter drone.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more robotic devices includes at least one of a helicopter drone, a rolling helicopter drone, or a land vehicle device.

4. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

receiving a communication from one or more of the selected robotic devices that provides a real-time update regarding the status of one or more of the detected events.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein determining, from among multiple security strategies, the particular security strategy for responding to one or more of the detected events further comprises:

selecting either a deterrence based security strategy or a confrontation based security strategy.

7. The system of claim 6, the operations further comprising:

receiving data from one or more sensors of the plurality of sensors that is indicative of the force that was applied to a window or a door.

8. The system of claim 7, the operations further comprising:

determining that the force exceeds a predetermined threshold; and

in response to determining that the force exceeds a predetermined threshold, selecting a confrontation based security strategy.

9. The system of claim 7, the operations further comprising:

determining that the force falls below a predetermined threshold; and

in response to determining that the force falls below a predetermined threshold, selecting a deterrence based security strategy.

10. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

determining that a deterrence based strategy should be utilized based on the data received from one or more sensors of the plurality of sensors; and

in response to determining that a deterrence based strategy should be utilized, selecting a one or more of the robotic devices that are equipped to deter a person from entering into a building on the property.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein robotic devices equipped to deter a person from entering the property include robotic devices that are equipped with one or more of a biometric reader, a facial recognition camera, or a holographic projector.

12. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

determining that a confrontation based strategy should be utilized based on the data received from one or more sensors of the plurality of sensors; and

in response to determining that a confrontation based strategy should be utilized, selecting one or more of the robotic devices that are equipped to confront a person.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein robotic devices equipped to confront a person include robotic devices that are equipped with one or more of an audio output device, a bright light, or a taser.

14. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

determining the current location of two or more of the robotic devices;

selecting a particular robotic device of the two or more robotic devices that is currently nearest in proximity to a particular sensor of the one or more sensors that has broadcasted data indicative of an event; and

,

deploying the particular robotic device to a location that is associated with the particular sensor.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein determining the location of one or more sensors of the plurality of sensors includes:

obtaining a sensor identifier from a particular sensor of the one or more sensors;

accessing a set of information associated with each of the plurality of sensors; and

obtaining, from the set of information associated each of the plurality of sensors, the location information that corresponds to the received sensor identifier.

16. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

determining whether one or more of the robotic devices have a current battery level that exceeds a predetermined battery level threshold; and

selecting at least one robotic device based, at least in part, on the determination that the at least one robotic device has a current battery level that satisfies the predetermined threshold.

17. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

determining that the current battery level of at least one deployed robotic device has fallen below a predetermined battery level threshold; and

transmitting an instruction to the at least one deployed robotic device that instructs the at least one deployed robotic device to return to a particular wireless charging station that was identified based on location and occupancy status.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more robotic devices are configured to function only within a predetermined distance of a property where the central monitor control unit resides.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the command also includes a particular action that each respective robotic device is to perform.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the command includes an instruction to navigate according to a predetermined flight path learned by a robotic device.

5. (canceled)