Robotic Touch-Point Mapping for Precision Surface Cleaning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing robotic systems lack the ability to efficiently identify and clean specific surface touch points that have been interacted with by actors, leading to unnecessary cleaning and inefficiencies.
Innovation Solution
A robotic system equipped with sensors and a control system that uses keypoints to represent actor body locations, determining if these keypoints have come within a threshold distance of environmental features, and updating a map to indicate which features need cleaning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If robotic systems perform comprehensive cleaning of all surfaces, then cleaning thoroughness is improved, but cleaning time and resource consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning task is segmented into two phases: (1) monitoring phase where sensors track actor touch points and update the map, and (2) cleaning phase where the robot cleans only the identified touch points. This segmentation allows the system to avoid cleaning entire surfaces and focus only on contaminated areas, reducing time while maintaining thoroughness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary monitoring and mapping of touch points before the actual cleaning operation. The control system continuously updates the map with touch point information during the monitoring phase, so that when cleaning is initiated, the robot already has an accurate map of areas requiring cleaning, eliminating the need for comprehensive cleaning.
2Reliability
If robotic systems clean all environmental features, then sanitation coverage is improved, but cleaning product consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning system applies cleaning products locally only to identified touch points rather than uniformly across all surfaces. The control system uses the updated map to guide the robotic device to specific locations where actors have touched, concentrating cleaning resources only where contamination is likely present, thereby reducing overall product consumption while maintaining sanitation effectiveness.
3Ease of operation
If manual cleaning methods are used, then flexibility in handling complex surfaces is improved, but cleaning efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic system autonomously monitors, identifies, and cleans touch points without continuous human intervention. The control system automatically updates the map based on sensor data and directs the robotic device to clean identified areas, enabling the system to serve itself and perform cleaning tasks efficiently while maintaining the flexibility to adapt to various surface types through programmed navigation and cleaning mechanisms.
Data Source
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AI summary
A system includes a robotic device, a sensor disposed on the robotic device, and circuitry configured to perform operations. The operations include determining a map that represents stationary features of an environment and receiving, from the sensor, sensor data representing the environment. The operations also include determining, based on the sensor data, a representation of an actor within the environment, where the representation includes keypoints representing corresponding body locations of the actor. The operations also include determining that a portion of a particular stationary feature is positioned within a threshold distance of a particular keypoint and, based on thereon, updating the map to indicate that the portion is to be cleaned. The operations further include, based on the map as updated, causing the robotic device to clean the portion of the particular stationary feature.