Mobile Home Monitoring Robot With Variable-Height Camera Views
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current autonomous monitoring systems lack the ability to provide a comprehensive, interactive, and immersive representation of home environments, limiting users' ability to remotely monitor conditions and navigate through spaces effectively.
Innovation Solution
An autonomous mobile robot equipped with a variable height camera and controller, capable of navigating and adjusting its camera height to capture imagery from multiple angles and positions, transmitting this data to a remote computing device for an interactive representation, allowing users to remotely monitor and interact with their home environment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a stationary surveillance camera is used to monitor home activity, then a single vantage point is provided, but the ability to capture comprehensive views from multiple locations and angles is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by transitioning from a stationary camera to a mobile robot that can autonomously navigate to multiple locations within the home environment. The robot dynamically changes its position and orientation to capture imagery from various vantage points, thereby providing comprehensive monitoring coverage while maintaining adaptability to different monitoring needs
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements another dimension by introducing vertical movement through a variable height member that extends the camera's elevation. This allows the system to capture images from multiple height levels (floor level, intermediate heights, and elevated positions), adding a vertical dimension to the monitoring coverage and enabling views of areas that would be inaccessible from ground level alone
2Ease of operation
If a stationary thermostat is used for temperature monitoring, then remote monitoring is enabled, but the ability to provide immersive and interactive representation of the environment is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the copying principle by creating a virtual representation of the physical home environment through captured imagery. The system processes and transmits visual data to remote devices, generating a digital copy or replica of the physical space that users can interact with remotely, thereby maintaining ease of operation while significantly improving environmental representation quality
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses dynamics to transition from static temperature readings to dynamic visual representations. The mobile robot continuously captures and transmits imagery, creating a living, changing visual record of the environment that remote users can observe in real-time, enhancing both immersion and interactivity
3Adaptability or versatility
If the variable height member is extended to increase camera height for broader views, then monitoring coverage is improved, but the robot's stability and ease of operation may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The variable height member implements dynamics by allowing the camera to transition between different elevation levels. The system can extend the camera to intermediate heights (e.g., 0.5-1.5 meters) to capture specific perspectives without fully extending to maximum height, thereby obtaining diverse viewing angles while maintaining adequate robot stability through controlled, partial extension
Data Source
AI summary
An autonomous mobile robot includes a chassis, a drive supporting the chassis above a floor surface in a home and configured to move the chassis across the floor surface, a variable height member being coupled to the chassis and being vertically extendible, a camera supported by the variable height member, and a controller. The controller is configured to operate the drive to navigate the robot to locations within the home and to adjust a height of the variable height member upon reaching a first of the locations. The controller is also configured to, while the variable height member is at the adjusted height, operate the camera to capture digital imagery of the home at the first of the locations.