MOBILE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY ROBOTS

• US 20180307246A1
• 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 10,949,940 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 5/007 mounted on wheels
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0282 generated in a local control room
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/403 Solvency checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/26 Government or public services business processes related to the transportation industry G06Q50/40
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 Mobile robot

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 receive an item for delivery,

receiving the item for delivery, and

transporting the item for delivery to an intended destination.

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 is 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 the item for delivery is an item from the correctional facility commissary and the intended destination is a location of an inmate who ordered the item from the correctional facility commissary.

10. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 9, wherein the task execution method further comprises:

verifying that the inmate who ordered the item from the correctional facility commissary has sufficient funds in an account to pay the for the item from the correctional facility commissary.

11. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 1, wherein the item for delivery is a voice or video message from a person in the correctional facility and wherein the transporting the item for delivery to the intended destination is carried out by electronic transmission.

12. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 1, wherein the task execution method further comprises:

activating one or more of the plurality of actuators to control an arm of the mobile correctional facility robot to receive the item for delivery.

13. 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;

recognize an event in the sensor data associated with the object; and

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

wherein the event is a predetermined spoken word or phrase or a predetermined behavior.

14. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 13, wherein the alert is transmitted to a central controller as part of a coordination method among a plurality of mobile correctional facility robots.

15. The mobile correctional facility robot of claim 13, 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.

16. 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 a delivery task from the central controller, wherein the delivery 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 delivery 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 receive an item for delivery,

receiving the item for delivery, and

transporting the item for delivery to an intended destination.

17. The method of claim 16, 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.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the item for delivery is an item from the correctional facility commissary and the intended destination is a location of the inmate who ordered the item from the correctional facility commissary.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

verifying that the inmate who ordered the item from the correctional facility commissary has sufficient funds in an account to pay for the item from the correctional facility commissary.

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 a delivery task from the central controller, wherein the delivery 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 delivery 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.