Autonomous Child Carriage Navigation With Sensor-Guided Stopping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Baby strollers are unsafe and vulnerable to user error, posing potential dangers to children due to uncontrolled movement during outings.
Innovation Solution
A carriage with guided autonomous locomotion, equipped with environmental and operator sensors, a drive motor, drivetrain, and a controller, allowing it to navigate and stop autonomously based on environmental and operator characteristics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a carriage operates autonomously with sensors and controllers, then safety and control are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The carriage is equipped with environmental sensors, operator sensors, and a controller that enable it to autonomously sense its environment, detect operator presence, and control its own movement without continuous human intervention. The system serves itself by making independent navigation decisions based on sensor inputs
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical control with an automated control system comprising environmental sensors, operator sensors, and an electronic controller that uses sensor data to autonomously operate the drive motor, eliminating the need for constant human mechanical intervention
2Ease of operation
If the carriage moves autonomously without operator intervention, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability may worsen due to potential system failures
Solution Approach 1:
The carriage incorporates environmental sensors and operator sensors that continuously monitor the surroundings and operator presence, feeding this information back to the controller. The controller uses this feedback to adjust its operation in real-time, ensuring safe and appropriate responses to changing conditions
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary sensing of the environment and operator presence before initiating movement. The controller evaluates sensor data in advance to determine appropriate navigation actions, ensuring that the carriage only moves when conditions are safe and appropriate
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects relate to systems and methods for guided autonomous locomotion of a carriage, including a compartment configured to ensconce a child, a frame configured to support the compartment, a drive motor, a drivetrain operatively coupled to the drive motor; a drive wheel rotatably affixed to the frame, configured to contact a support surface and operatively coupled to the drivetrain, wherein operating the at least a drive motor causes the at least a drive wheel to rotate, an environmental sensor configured to sense an environmental characteristic related to an environment substantially surrounding the carriage; a battery configured to power the at drive motor and a controller configured to control the drive motor in response to the environmental characteristic.