Mapping, controlling, and displaying networked devices with a mobile cleaning robot
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Solution Overview
Problem
Integrating the autonomous functionality of household mobile robots with IoT devices to determine spatial locations and operating states of other electronic devices in a home environment, while enabling control based on these locations and conditions, presents challenges due to the unpredictable nature of the robots' navigation and variable sensor inputs.
Innovation Solution
A method where a mobile robot navigates an environment, collects occupancy data, and uses ranging devices to determine the spatial locations and operating states of connected devices, allowing for the creation of a visual representation and control of these devices based on their spatial context, enabling predictive and adaptive control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a mobile robot navigates autonomously through a home environment to collect occupancy data and determine device locations, then the system provides comprehensive spatial awareness and enables predictive control, but the unpredictable navigation and variable sensor inputs create challenges in reliably integrating with IoT devices
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously receives occupancy data from the mobile robot and updates the visual representation of the operating environment in real-time. This feedback mechanism allows the system to adapt to the robot's unpredictable navigation patterns and variable sensor inputs, maintaining reliable integration by constantly adjusting to new spatial information
Solution Approach 2:
A computing device serves as an intermediary between the mobile robot and IoT devices. The computing device processes occupancy data, determines spatial locations of electronic devices, and translates this information into control signals for IoT devices, bridging the gap between the robot's autonomous navigation and reliable IoT integration
2Loss of information
If the system collects and processes occupancy data from mobile robot navigation to create a visual representation of the operating environment, then comprehensive device location information is obtained, but this requires significant computational resources and data processing
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential spatial information from the mobile robot's occupancy data - specifically the locations of electronic devices and their operating states. By extracting only this critical information rather than processing all raw sensor data, the system maintains complete spatial information while reducing computational complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The visual representation of the operating environment is segmented into discrete electronic devices with their respective spatial locations and operating states. This segmentation allows the system to process and display information in manageable units, reducing overall computational complexity while maintaining complete spatial awareness
Data Source
AI summary
A mobile cleaning robot that includes a drive system configured to navigate around an operational environment, a ranging device configured to communicate with other ranging devices of respective electronic devices that are in the operational environment, and processors in communication with the ranging device that are configured to receive a distance measurement from the respective electronic devices present in the operational environment, each distance measurement representing a distance between the mobile cleaning robot and a respective electronic device, tag each of the distance measurements with location data indicative of a spatial location of the mobile cleaning robot in the operational environment, determine spatial locations of each of the electronic devices in the operational environment, and populate a visual representation of the operating environment with visual indications of the electronic devices in the operating environment.