Delivery Robot Lighting and Display for Pedestrian Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing delivery systems, particularly those involving human-operated vehicles, face challenges such as human error and environmental impacts like traffic, and robots designed for public spaces must navigate unpredictable environments with varying rules and objects, requiring innovative solutions for efficient and safe operation.
Innovation Solution
A delivery robot equipped with a chassis, wheels, motor, body, lighting systems, display devices, and sensors, utilizing machine learning algorithms to analyze sensory input and control lighting and display outputs to interact with pedestrians and navigate through public spaces, ensuring safe and efficient delivery of items.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a robot travels in public spaces shared with humans, then delivery efficiency is improved, but safety and predictability worsen due to unpredictable human behavior and lack of defined travel rules
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces communication systems including display devices, lighting systems, and audio output devices as intermediaries between the robot and humans. These intermediaries enable the robot to convey its intentions, status, and actions to pedestrians and other road users, facilitating predictable interactions in shared public spaces while maintaining delivery efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The robot employs sensors to continuously monitor its environment and receives feedback about human presence, obstacles, and spatial conditions. This feedback loop allows the robot to adapt its navigation and communication strategies in real-time, improving both safety and delivery efficiency in dynamic public spaces
2Reliability
If a robot operates autonomously in uncontrolled environments, then human error is reduced, but the complexity of navigating unpredictable objects and varying travel rules increases
Solution Approach 1:
The robot integrates multiple functions into a unified autonomous system, combining navigation, obstacle detection, communication, and decision-making capabilities. This multi-functional approach handles the complexity of unpredictable environments through a single integrated autonomous controller, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The robot performs preliminary actions by pre-planning its route, pre-communicating its intentions through display and lighting systems, and pre-adapting to known environmental constraints before entering complex navigation scenarios. This preliminary preparation reduces the computational complexity during actual navigation while maintaining high reliability
Data Source
AI summary
Described herein is a delivery robot that can be programmed to travel from one location to another in open spaces that have few restrictions on the robot's path of travel. The delivery robot may operate in an autonomous mode, a remote controlled mode, or a combination thereof. The delivery robot can include a cargo area for transporting physical items. The robot can include exterior display devices and/or lighting devices to convey information to people that the robot may be encountering, including indications of the robot's direction of travel, current status, and/or other information.