Tilt and distance profiling vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11035669-B2
Application number	US-201816122427-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 5, 2018
Priority date	Feb 6, 2018
Publication date	Jun 15, 2021
Grant date	Jun 15, 2021

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for profiling a surface. In some embodiments, the systems and methods perform profiling using a robotic vehicle. The vehicle can include a drive system, one or more wheel encoders, and one or more distance sensors and/or inertial measurement units for capturing measurement data, such as the slope of the surface or the angle of the robotic vehicle relative to the surface or the gravity vector. A control computing system is included having one or more processors that execute instructions stored in software modules to process movement data. In some embodiments, the processed movement data determines a plurality of snapshots of the surface at different times and positions as the robotic vehicle traverses the surface. These snapshots are combined to generate a profile of the surface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A robotic vehicle for autonomously calibrating a storage tank without remote input or processing, comprising:
a body having a length;
a drive system in the body and configured to move the robotic vehicle about a surface of the storage tank in the lengthwise direction;
at least two wheels coupled to the body and including magnets, the at least two wheels being configured to contact and magnetically adhere to the surface of the storage tank using the magnets, and turn the robotic vehicle during the movement of the robotic vehicle;
two or more wheel encoders housed within the at least two wheels for measuring the movement and generating movement data of the robotic vehicle when driven by the drive system about the surface of the storage tank;
three or more distance sensors coupled to the body in a linear lengthwise arrangement to measure respective distances from the three or more distance sensors to the surface of the storage tank;
an accelerometer coupled to the body and configured to generate data to capture an orientation of the body relative to the gravity vector; and
a control computing system coupled to the body and comprising
a non-transitory computer readable storage medium,
one or more processors in electronic communication with the accelerometer, the three or more distance sensors, the two or more wheel encoders, the drive system, and the computer readable storage medium, and
software modules comprising executable instructions stored in the storage medium, wherein the software modules are executable by the one or more processors and include
a movement module that configures the one or more processors to receive the generated movement data from the two or more wheel encoders and the generated accelerometer data in order to determine the position and orientation of the robotic vehicle with respect to the surface of the storage tank and the gravity vector,
a sensor control module that configures the one or more processors to instruct the three or more distance sensors to transmit a corresponding three or more signals toward the surface of the storage tank at respective impulse times and to detect respective travel times for the corresponding three or more signals to reflect off the surface of the storage tank, and
a profile analysis module that configures the one or more processors to process the received movement data and orientation from the movement module, and to determine a snapshot of the surface of the storage tank by calculating the respective distances from the three of more distance sensors to the surface of the storage tank using the detected respective travel times for the corresponding three or more signals to reflect, the determined orientation, and the processed movement data, and to store the determined snapshot in the non-transitory computer readable storage medium,

wherein the drive system is further configured to autonomously drive the robotic vehicle to traverse the surface of the storage tank while the control computing system continuously determines a plurality of snapshots of the surface of the storage tank as the position of the robotic vehicle with respect to the surface of the storage tank changes to autonomously generate a profile of the surface of the storage tank without remote input or processing and to autonomously calibrate the storage tank using the generated surface profile.

2. The robotic vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein a first sensor of the three or more distance sensors is mounted on a front portion of the robotic vehicle, and a second sensor of the three or more distance sensors is mounted on a rear portion of the robotic vehicle.

3. The robotic vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the three or more distance sensors are arranged linearly along a longitudinal axis of the robotic vehicle.

4. The robotic vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the three or more distance sensors are arranged linearly along a longitudinal axis of the robotic vehicle, with adjacent such distance sensors being substantially equidistant from one another.

5. The robotic vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the three or more distance sensors are arranged on an outer surface of the robotic vehicle.

6. The robotic vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the three or more distance sensors are arranged within the robotic vehicle.

7. The robotic vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the processed movement data includes a speed of the robotic vehicle or a distance traveled of the robotic vehicle.

8. The robotic vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the profile analysis module further configures the one or more processors to calculate respective times of flight (TOFs) for the corresponding three or more signals traveling between the three or more distance sensors and the surface of the storage tank, to determine the respective distances from the three or more distance sensors to the surface of the storage tank at given points based on the respective TOFs, and to store the respective distances from the three or more distance sensors to the surface of the storage tank at the given points in the non-transitory computer readable storage medium.

9. The robotic vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the control computing system generates the profile of the surface of the storage tank by solving equations based on the detected respective travel times and the processed movement data to determine how the surface of the storage tank looks.

10. The robotic vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the three or more distance sensors comprise 12 or more distance sensors.

11. A robotic vehicle for autonomously calibrating a storage tank without remote input or processing, comprising:
a body having a length and a width;
a drive system in the body and configured to move the robotic vehicle about a surface of the storage tank in the lengthwise direction;
at least two wheels coupled to the body and including magnets, the at least two wheels being configured to contact and magnetically adhere to the surface of the storage tank using the magnets, and turn the robotic vehicle during the movement of the robotic vehicle;
two or more wheel encoders housed within the at least two wheels for measuring the movement and generating movement data of the robotic vehicle when driven by the drive system about the surface of the storage tank;
three or more distance sensors coupled to the body in a linear widthwise arrangement to measure respective distances from the three or more distance sensors to the surface of the storage tank;
an inertial measurement unit coupled to the body for measuring an angle of the robotic vehicle relative to the direction of gravity; and
a control computing system coupled to the body and comprising
a non-transitory computer readable storage medium,
one or more processors in electronic communication with the inertial measurement unit, the three or more distance sensors, the two or more wheel encoders, the drive system, and the computer readable storage medium, and
software modules comprising executable instructions stored in the storage medium, wherein the software modules are executable by the one or more processors and include
a movement module that configures the one or more processors to receive the generated movement data from the two or more wheel encoders and the measured angle of the robotic vehicle in order to determine the position of the robotic vehicle with respect to the surface of the storage tank and the direction of gravity,
a sensor control module that configures the one or more processors to instruct the inertial measurement unit to determine a first angle at a first position on the surface of the storage tank relative to gravity, and to determine

Assignees

• Saudi Arabian Oil Co

Inventors

• Patel Sahejad
• Abdellatif Fadl
• Parrott Brian

Classifications

• G05B2219/45066

  Inspection robot · CPC title

• G05D2111/54

  for measuring the travel distances, e.g. by counting the revolutions of wheels · CPC title

• G05D2111/52

  generated by inertial navigation means, e.g. gyroscopes or accelerometers · CPC title

• G05D2111/10

  Optical signals · CPC title

• B62D57/024

  specially adapted for moving on inclined or vertical surfaces (endless-track vehicles for ascending or descending stairs B62D55/075; hand-carts with provision for travelling up or down stairs B62B5/02) · CPC title