Autonomous Robot Navigation With Dynamic Safety Zones Around Obstacles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern inventory systems face inefficiencies and safety concerns due to unmanned vehicles ceasing operations upon detecting obstacles, leading to lower throughput, increased response times, and potential safety hazards in facilities where they operate alongside humans.
Innovation Solution
An autonomous mobile robot equipped with a navigation system that dynamically re-routes around obstacles and a safety verification system to ensure safe operation, using sensors to generate and maintain a safety zone that adjusts based on speed and obstacle proximity, allowing the robot to continue tasks while avoiding collisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If unmanned vehicles stop upon detecting obstacles, then safety is improved, but productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic navigation by enabling unmanned vehicles to adapt their paths in real-time based on obstacle detection. Instead of static stop-and-wait behavior, the system dynamically recalculates routes around obstacles while maintaining motion, thereby preserving productivity while ensuring safety through continuous environmental awareness and adaptive path planning.
2Productivity
If unmanned vehicles continue operating around obstacles, then productivity is maintained, but safety risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs continuous feedback mechanisms through sensors that monitor the environment around unmanned vehicles. This feedback loop enables real-time detection of obstacles and dynamic adjustment of navigation paths, allowing vehicles to maintain productivity while ensuring safety through ongoing environmental assessment and adaptive response.
3Reliability
If safety zones are expanded to ensure safety, then collision risk is reduced, but navigation efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic safety zones that adjust their size and shape based on the unmanned vehicle's speed, operational context, and detected environmental conditions. This dynamic approach allows the system to maintain adequate safety margins while minimizing the restrictive impact on navigation efficiency, as the safety zone expands when needed and contracts when safe to do so.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed autonomous mobile robot systems can be used to safely and efficiently navigate through a facility while avoiding objects in the path of the autonomous mobile robot during completion of a task. Specifically, a first bounded area based on first sensor data may be generated around an autonomous mobile robot where the first sensor data is used to identify objects in a travel path for the autonomous mobile robot and determine a speed for navigating the facility. A second bounded area of a size less than the first bounded area may be generated around the autonomous mobile robot based on speed information from propulsion components of the autonomous mobile robot. A new travel path and new speed information may be generated based on identifying an object in the travel path, dimensional measurements of a space around the object, and a current size of the second bounded area.