MOBILE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY ROBOTS

• US 20180304465A1
• Filed: 04/19/2017
• Published: 10/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Global Tel-Link Corporation
• Original Assignee: Global Tel-Link Corporation
• Inventors: HODGE, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 10,690,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: F41B 15/02 Batons; Truncheons; Sticks; Shillelaghs
• CPC Class Codes: F41H 13/0012 Electrical discharge weapons, e.g. for stunning
• CPC Class Codes: F41H 7/005 Unmanned ground vehicles, i.e. robotic, remote controlled or autonomous, mobile platforms carrying equipment for performing a military or police role, e.g. weapon systems or reconnaissance sensors F41H11/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F41H 9/04 Gas-blowing apparatus, e.g. for tear gas F41H9/10 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F42B 12/745 the core being made of plastics; Compounds or blends of plastics and other materials, e.g. fillers
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0282 generated in a local control room

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to mobile correctional facility robots and systems and methods for coordinating mobile correctional facility robots to perform various tasks in a correctional facility. The mobile correctional facility robots can be used to perform many of the tasks traditionally assigned to correctional facility guards to help reduce the number of guards needed in any given correctional facility. When cooperation is employed among multiple mobile correctional facility robots to execute tasks, a central controller can be used to coordinate the efforts of the multiple robots to improve the performance of the overall system of robots as compared to the performance of the robots when working in uncoordinated effort to execute the tasks.

Claims

1. A mobile correctional facility robot comprising:

a plurality of actuators;

a sensor array;

a memory comprising computer program instructions; and

a hardware processing unit configured to execute the computer program instructions to perform a task execution method using the plurality of actuators and sensor data corresponding to physical properties of the environment surrounding the mobile correctional facility robot detected using the sensor array, the task execution method comprising;

traversing a route to perform an enforcement action,

determining or receiving the enforcement action, and

performing the enforcement action using one or more of the plurality of actuators to deploy non-lethal force.

2. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 1, wherein the hardware processing unit is further configured to execute the computer program instructions to perform a coordination method among a plurality of mobile correctional facility robots.

3. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 2, wherein the coordination method comprises:

transmitting status information of the mobile correctional facility robot to a central controller;

receiving a task from the central controller; and

executing the task by performing the task execution method.

4. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 3, wherein the status information of the mobile correctional facility robot comprises a location of the mobile correctional facility robot or an alert issued by the mobile correctional facility robot.

5. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 4, wherein the alert is issued by the mobile correctional facility robot in response to recognizing an event in the sensor data, wherein the event is a predetermined spoken word or phrase or a predetermined behavior.

6. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 3, wherein the hardware processing unit is configured to execute the computer program instructions to perform the task execution method upon receiving the task from the central controller.

7. The mobile correction facility robot of claim 6, wherein the task is received from the central controller based on both the status information of the mobile correctional facility robot transmitted to the central controller and status information transmitted to the central controller from the plurality of mobile correctional facility robots.

8. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 3, wherein the central controller is one of the plurality of mobile correctional facility robots.

9. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 1, wherein non-lethal force includes a use of an electro-shock weapon, a rubber projectile gun, gas, or physical contact.

10. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 1, further comprising a mechanical arm, wherein the mechanical arm is used to deploy the non-lethal force.

11. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 1, wherein the task execution method is performed in response to detection of an attempted to suicide or fight between two or more inmates.

12. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 1, wherein the hardware processing unit is further configured to execute the computer program instructions to perform a monitoring method comprising:

detecting an object in the sensor data;

extracting one or more features of the object in the sensor data; and

recognize an event in the sensor data associated with the object, wherein the event comprises physical harm to an inmate or physical contact between inmates.

13. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 12, wherein the hardware processing unit is configured to execute the computer program instructions to perform the task execution method upon recognizing the event.

14. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 12, wherein the monitoring method further comprises:

transmitting an alert based on the event recognized in the sensor data.

15. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 14, wherein the alert is transmitted to a central controller as part of a coordination method among a plurality of mobile correctional facility robots.

16. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 12, wherein the hardware processing unit is further configured to execute the computer program instructions to perform the task execution method and the monitoring method in parallel.

19. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 1, wherein the hardware processing unit is further configured to execute the computer program instructions to perform a monitoring method comprising:

detecting an object in the sensor data;

extracting one or more features of the object in the sensor data; and

recognize an event in the sensor data associated with the object, wherein the event comprises physical harm to an inmate or physical contact between inmates.

17. A method for operating a mobile correctional facility robot, the method comprising:

transmitting status information of the mobile correctional facility robot to a central controller;

receiving an enforcement task from the central controller, wherein the enforcement task is received from the central controller based on both the status information of the mobile correctional facility robot transmitted to the central controller and status information transmitted to the central controller from a plurality of mobile correctional facility robots; and

performing the enforcement task using a plurality of actuators and sensor data corresponding to physical properties of the environment surrounding the mobile correctional facility robot by;

traversing a route to perform an enforcement action,

determining or receiving the enforcement action, and

performing the enforcement action using one or more of the plurality of actuators to deploy non-lethal force.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the status information of the mobile correctional facility robot comprises a location of the mobile correctional facility robot.

20. A mobile correctional facility robot comprising:

a plurality of actuators;

a sensor array;

a memory comprising computer program instructions; and

a hardware processing unit configured to execute the computer program instructions to perform a method comprising;

transmitting status information of the mobile correctional facility robot to a central controller;

receiving an enforcement task from the central controller, wherein the enforcement task is received from the central controller based on both the status information of the mobile correctional facility robot transmitted to the central controller and status information transmitted to the central controller from a plurality of mobile correctional facility robots; and

performing the enforcement task using the plurality of actuators and sensor data corresponding to physical properties of the environment surrounding the mobile correctional facility robot detected using the sensor array.