Irobot Corporation

Other

Irobot Defense Holdings, Inc.

Robert Todd Pack

James Raymond Allard

Selma Svendsen

David S Barrett

Misha Filippov

Orjeta Taka

Chikyung Won

Justin H Kearns

Mike Etienne Ciholas

Pavlo E Rudakevych

Tyson David Sawyer

Grinnell More

Mark Joseph Chiappetta

Michael J Halloran

Timothy Sturtevant Farlow

Michael T Rosenstein

Steven V Shamlian

Daniel Allis

Marshall J Vale

Edison Thurman Hudson

Eben Christopher Rauhut

Mark Chiappetta

Scott Raymond Lenser

Jasper Fourways Vicenti

Timothy S Farlow

Thomas Allen

Cheuk Wah Wong

Mikhail Filippov

Michael Halloran

Aaron J Powers

Peter Lydon

Brian C Benson

System and method for behavior based control of an autonomous vehicle. Actuators (e.g., linkages) manipulate input devices (e.g., articulation controls and drive controls, such as a throttle lever, steering gear, tie rods, throttle, brake, accelerator, or transmission shifter) to direct the operation of the vehicle. Behaviors that characterize the operational mode of the vehicle are associated with the actuators. The behaviors include action sets ranked by priority, and the action sets include alternative actions that the vehicle can take to accomplish its task. The alternative actions are ranked by preference, and an arbiter selects the action to be performed and, optionally, modified.

System and method for behavior based control of an autonomous vehicle

A system includes an operator control unit having a point-and-click interface configured to allow the operator to control the remote vehicle by inputting one or more commands via the point-and-click interface. The operator control unit displays a 3D local perceptual space comprising an egocentric coordinate system encompassing a predetermined distance centered on the remote vehicle, a remote vehicle representation having selectable portions, and an icon at a point selected in the 3D local perceptual space and at a corresponding location in an alternative view of a map having an identified current location of the remote vehicle. The system also includes a payload attached to the remote vehicle. The payload includes a computational module and an integrated sensor suite including a global positioning system, an inertial measurement unit, and a stereo vision camera.

Remote vehicle control system and method

A method of object detection for a mobile robot includes emitting a speckle pattern of light onto a scene about the robot while maneuvering the robot across a work surface, receiving reflections of the emitted speckle pattern off surfaces of a target object in the scene, determining a distance of each reflecting surface of the target object, constructing a three-dimensional depth map of the target object, and classifying the target object.

Mobile human interface robot

A method of commanding a remote vehicle includes executing a command on a controller of the remote vehicle based on a kinodynamic fixed depth motion planning algorithm to use incremental feedback from evaluators to select a best feasible action. The method also includes determining servo commands corresponding to the best feasible action for one or more actuators of a drive system or a manipulation system of the remote vehicle and commanding the one or more actuators of the remote vehicle based on the servo commands. The best feasible action includes actions within a fixed time horizon of several seconds from a current time each time a feasible action is selected.

Advanced behavior engine

A method of localizing a mobile robot includes receiving sensor data of a scene about the robot and executing a particle filter having a set of particles. Each particle has associated maps representing a robot location hypothesis. The method further includes updating the maps associated with each particle based on the received sensor data, assessing a weight for each particle based on the received sensor data, selecting a particle based on its weight, and determining a location of the robot based on the selected particle.

Simultaneous localization and mapping for a mobile robot

Systems and methods for multi-modal control of a vehicle

An operator control unit having a user interface that allows a user to control a remote vehicle, the operator control unit comprising: a transmission unit configured to transmit data to the remote vehicle; a receiver unit configured to receive data from the remote vehicle, the data received from the remote vehicle comprising image data captured by the remote vehicle; and a display unit configured to display a user interface comprising the image data received from the remote vehicle and icons representing a plurality of controllable elements of the remote vehicle, and configured to allow the user to input a control command to control at least one of the plurality of controllable elements. Inputting a control command to control the at least one controllable element comprises selecting the icon representing the at least one controllable element, inputting an action for the at least one controllable element, and requesting that the at least one controllable element performs the action.

Remote vehicle missions and systems for supporting remote vehicle missions

An operator control unit has a user interface that allows a user to identify a mode of display and interaction that narrows the user's options for his next interaction with the user interface. The user interface utilizes portals to transition between environments such as indoors to outdoors, outdoors to indoors, different rooms of a building, and different floors of a building, the portals representing one or more of stairways and doors, and being used in remote vehicle path planning as waypoints that may require execution of predetermined behaviors.

Navigation portals for a remote vehicle control user interface

A mobile robot including a robot body, a drive system supporting the robot body, and a controller in communication with the drive system. The robot also includes an actuator moving a portion of the robot body through a volume of space adjacent the mobile robot and a sensor pod in communication with the controller. The sensor pod includes a collar rotatably supported and having a curved wall formed at least partially as a surface of revolution about a vertical axis. The sensor pod also includes a volumetric point cloud sensor housed by the collar and observing the volume of space adjacent the robot from within the collar along an observation axis extending through the curved wall. A collar actuator rotates the collar and the volumetric point cloud sensor together about the collar axis.

Mobile robot

A system increases an operator's situational awareness while the operator controls a remote vehicle. The system comprises an operator control unit having a point-and-click interface configured to allow the operator to view an environment surrounding the remote vehicle and control the remote vehicle, and a payload attached to the remote vehicle and in communication with at least one of the remote vehicle and the operator control unit. The payload comprises an integrated sensor suite including GPS, an inertial measurement unit, a stereo vision camera, and a range sensor, and a computational module receiving data from the GPS, the inertial measurement unit, the stereo vision camera, and the range sensor and providing data to a CPU including at least one of an autonomous behavior and a semi-autonomous behavior that utilize data from the integrated sensor suite.

A mobile human interface robot that includes a drive system, a controller in communication with the dive system, and an electronic display supported above the drive system and in communication with the controller. The controller includes a central processing unit, a general purpose graphics processing unit, and memory in electrical communication with the central processing unit and the general purpose graphics processing unit. Moreover, the controller has a display operating state and a driving operating state. The controller executes graphics computations on the general purpose graphics processing unit for displaying graphics on the electronic display during the display operating state; and the controller executes mobility computations on the general purpose graphics processing unit for issuing commands to the drive system during the driving operating state.

A method for mapping an environment proximal to a vehicle includes obtaining a current location of the vehicle according to a map of the environment, detecting at least one characteristic of the environment at the current location, and storing the at least one characteristic in a characteristic digest. The characteristic digest respectively associates one or more locations in the environment to one or more sets of previously detected characteristics in the environment. The method also includes associating the at least one characteristic with the current location in the characteristic digest.

Digest for localization or fingerprinted overlay

A method of generating a command for a remote vehicle controller by taking in goals and constraints compiled from behavior inputs and action models, and controlling resources by producing low-level actuator commands that realize goals expressed by the behaviors. The method comprises: executing a command based on a kinodynamic fixed depth motion planning (KFDMP) algorithm to plan paths with longer time horizons and to use incremental feedback from evaluators to select a best feasible course of action; and feeding the selected best feasible course of action as servo commands to a drive system or a manipulation system of the remote vehicle controller. The selected best feasible course of action comprises goal-achieving actions within a fixed time horizon of several seconds from the current time each time a course of action is selected.

Growing community of inventors

Nashua, NH, United States of America

Robert Todd Pack