Mobile Robot Coordinate Mapping for Targeted Cleaning Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional cleaning robots require manual relocation and lack an efficient method for users to specify cleaning operations at precise locations within a house, limiting their ability to perform targeted cleaning tasks.
Innovation Solution
A method that uses a mobile device to determine a mapping between two coordinate systems, allowing users to instruct a mobile robot to perform cleaning operations at specified locations through a user interface, enabling interaction and control beyond line of sight and displaying environmental data with overlaid information on an augmented reality interface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a conventional cleaning robot roams around the house to clean, then it can cover floor areas, but the user cannot easily specify particular areas for cleaning without manually relocating the robot
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a mobile device (smartphone, tablet, or computer) as an intermediary between the user and the cleaning robot. This intermediary communicates with the robot via a network, allowing users to specify cleaning areas remotely without physically moving the robot. The mobile device receives user input about target areas, translates it into navigation commands, and sends them to the robot, eliminating the need for manual relocation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical interaction of physically picking up and moving the robot with an electronic/digital system. Users interact with a graphical user interface on a mobile device to specify cleaning locations, and the system automatically translates this into robot navigation commands. This substitution of mechanical relocation with electronic communication and automated navigation resolves the contradiction between ease of operation and time loss.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the robot establishes a map of traveled areas, then it can navigate autonomously, but the user interface for specifying locations must bridge different coordinate systems
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile device serves as an intermediary that handles coordinate system translation between the user's familiar reference frame and the robot's internal coordinate system. The system includes a coordinate system determination module that establishes the relationship between different coordinate systems and converts location specifications from user input into robot navigation commands, managing the complexity within the software layer rather than requiring hardware modifications.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a digital representation or copy of the physical environment through mapping, which exists in the robot's coordinate system. When users specify locations through the mobile device interface, the system maps these specifications onto the digital map copy, then translates them into the robot's navigation coordinate system. This copying approach allows flexible user interaction while maintaining accurate robot navigation.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for operating or interacting with a mobile robot includes determining, using at least one processor, a mapping between a first coordinate system associated with a mobile device and a second coordinate system associated with the mobile robot, in which the first coordinate system is different from the second coordinate system. The method includes providing at the mobile device a user interface to enable a user to interact with the mobile robot in which the interaction involves usage of the mapping between the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system.