Mobile Robot Hazard Detection and Path Control in Retail Aisles
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Retail environments face significant costs due to pedestrian injuries from walking hazards, with expenditures for safety and shopping experience improvements often disassociated, leading to exorbitant costs for providers.
Innovation Solution
An autonomous mobile robot system equipped with sensors and processing systems for hazard detection and control, capable of mapping navigation paths, detecting hazards, and taking actions to address them, such as alerting personnel and changing paths to prevent injuries.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple separate systems are deployed for hazard detection and shopping experience improvement, then safety coverage is enhanced, but overall system complexity and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines hazard detection functionality with shopping assistance capabilities into a single mobile robot platform. The robot integrates sensors for detecting hazards (spills, obstacles, uneven surfaces) while simultaneously providing shopping-related services, thereby achieving both safety coverage and shopping experience enhancement through one unified system rather than multiple separate systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile robot is designed with multi-functionality, serving both as a hazard detection device and a shopping assistance tool. It can detect environmental hazards while also navigating retail environments, interacting with customers, and providing shopping information, thus reducing the need for separate specialized systems and lowering overall complexity.
2Reliability
If autonomous mobile robots are deployed for hazard detection, then pedestrian safety is improved, but implementation cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The robot performs multiple functions including hazard detection, navigation, and customer interaction within a single platform. This multi-functionality justifies the implementation cost by providing return on investment through both safety improvements and enhanced shopping experience capabilities that would otherwise require separate systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The autonomous mobile robot operates independently to detect and report hazards without requiring constant human intervention. It autonomously navigates the retail environment, processes sensor data, and communicates findings, thereby reducing operational costs and making the safety system more cost-effective over time.
3Reliability
If traditional hazard detection methods are used separately from shopping experience initiatives, then safety monitoring is maintained, but total expenditure becomes exorbitant
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges hazard detection operations with shopping experience enhancement activities into a single integrated system. The mobile robot simultaneously performs safety monitoring and shopping assistance tasks, eliminating the need for separate expenditures on independent systems and reducing total operational costs while maintaining comprehensive safety monitoring.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus, system and method capable of providing an autonomous mobile robot hazard detection and control system. The apparatus, system and method may include: a robot having a robot body; a plurality of sensors physically associated with the robot body, and capable of detecting a hazardous condition in an operational environment; and at least one processing system at least partially physically associated with the robot body and communicatively connected to the plurality of sensors. The at least one processing system may include non-transitory computing code which, when executed by a processor of the at least one processing system, causes to occur the steps of: mapping a navigation path for the robot to traverse; detecting the hazardous condition along the navigation path based on output from the plurality of sensors; and instructing at least one action by the robot other than following the navigation path, wherein the at least one action at least partially addresses the hazardous condition.