Virtual World Navigation for Autonomous Robots in Complex Spaces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current autonomous mobile robots face challenges in navigating complex environments with obstacles and structures like rooms and stairs, often requiring significant human intervention and processor-heavy sensor processing for path determination.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing a virtual world system with spatially defined virtual objects and a navigation engine to compute navigation routes based on three-dimensional coordinates, enabling autonomous navigation by referencing a virtual replica of the physical environment, supplemented by sensor data and real-time updates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If sensors and real-time SLAM maps are used to locate obstacles and compute paths, then navigation safety is improved, but processor load and computational complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a virtual replica (digital twin) of the physical environment that stores pre-computed navigation information, obstacle locations, and path data. Instead of processing raw sensor data in real-time, the system references this pre-generated virtual model, significantly reducing computational load while maintaining navigation safety through accurate environmental representation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-generating the virtual replica of the environment and pre-identifying navigable paths and obstacles before the robot begins navigation. This advance preparation eliminates the need for complex real-time processing during actual navigation, reducing processor load while ensuring safe navigation through pre-validated path information.
2Reliability
If human operators are involved to ensure smooth displacement of robots, then navigation reliability is improved, but operational efficiency and automation level decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The autonomous mobile robot uses the virtual replica system to independently determine its location, identify obstacles, and compute navigation paths without human intervention. The system serves itself by automatically referencing the pre-generated virtual environment model to make navigation decisions, achieving both high reliability and full automation simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The virtual replica acts as an intermediary between the robot and the physical environment, providing pre-processed navigation information that enables autonomous decision-making. This intermediary layer allows the robot to navigate reliably without human operators by translating complex environmental data into actionable navigation instructions.
3Measurement precision
If real-time sensor processing and SLAM map generation are performed, then accurate path determination is achieved, but processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs the computationally intensive tasks of environment mapping and path analysis in advance, creating a virtual replica before navigation begins. This preliminary processing ensures accurate path determination information is available without consuming processing time during actual navigation, as the robot simply references pre-computed data from the virtual model.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, method, autonomous mobile robot, and computer readable media enabling location-based autonomous navigation using a virtual world system. The system comprises at least one server computing device having at least one processor and a memory. The memory stores a virtual world system and computer-readable instructions. The virtual world system comprises at least one virtual object being spatially defined by virtual three-dimensional coordinates that correspond to three-dimensional coordinates of a corresponding physical object in a physical environment. The instructions cause the at least one server computing device to provide a navigation engine configured to compute a navigation route of at least one autonomous mobile robot using at least the virtual three-dimensional coordinates of the at least one virtual object, enabling the at least one autonomous mobile robot to autonomously navigate the physical environment by reference to a virtual replica of the physical environment comprised in the virtual world system.