Video-Guided Pool Cleaning Robot Navigation Without Onboard Sensors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Pool cleaning robots often rely on expensive and complex sensors like lasers, ultrasonic, and infrared systems for navigation, increasing their cost and hardware complexity.
Innovation Solution
A pool cleaning system that uses a separate video capture device to determine and track the position of the pool cleaning robot, eliminating the need for these sensors by employing a computing device to generate moving instructions based on video feed, thereby reducing costs and complexity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If laser, ultrasonic, infrared or underwater vision sensors are used for navigation and position tracking, then the pool cleaning robot can accurately monitor its environment and generate cleaning paths, but the costs and hardware complexity of the pool cleaning robot increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a video capture device as an intermediary component that captures video of the pool and robot, which is then processed by a computing device to determine robot position. This mediator approach replaces complex onboard sensors with a simpler external video-based tracking system, reducing hardware complexity while maintaining position tracking accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a virtual copy of the physical environment by capturing video footage and generating a coordinate system representation. Instead of using complex physical sensors on the robot, the system creates a digital model of the pool and robot position from video frames, enabling accurate tracking through computational processing rather than hardware complexity
2Measurement precision
If laser, ultrasonic, infrared or underwater vision sensors are used for navigation, then the pool cleaning robot can monitor its environment and generate cleaning paths, but the cost of the pool cleaning robot increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive, complex sensors with a more economical video capture device and computing-based tracking system. The use of standard video cameras and software-based coordinate system generation provides a cost-effective alternative to specialized sensors, reducing manufacturing costs while maintaining environmental monitoring capability
Solution Approach 2:
The system substitutes mechanical and optical sensors with a software-based solution that processes video footage. Instead of relying on physical sensors mounted on the robot, the invention uses computational image processing to track position and monitor the environment, replacing hardware complexity with software intelligence
Data Source
AI summary
A pool cleaning system is provided. The system comprises a video capture device, a pool cleaning robot separated from the video capture device, and a computing device. The video capture device can transmit one or more videos of a pool to the computing device. The computing device can determine a position of the pool cleaning robot relative to the pool using the one or more videos. The computing device can generate a moving instruction for the pool cleaning robot, based on the position of the pool cleaning robot.