Autonomous hospital bed

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11628112-B1
Application number	US-202117237905-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Apr 22, 2021
Priority date	Apr 30, 2018
Publication date	Apr 18, 2023
Grant date	Apr 18, 2023

Abstract

Provided is an autonomous hospital bed including: a frame; wheels; motors to drive the wheels; a controller in communication with the motors; sensors; a processor; a tangible, non-transitory, machine readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor effectuate operations including: capturing, with the sensors, depth data indicating distances to objects within an environment of the hospital bed and directions of the distances; capturing, with the sensors, movement data indicating movement distance and direction of the hospital bed; generating, with the processor, a map of the environment using the depth and movement data; generating, with the processor, a movement path to a first location; instructing, with the processor, motor drivers of the wheels to move the hospital bed along the movement path; and, inferring, with the processor, a location of the hospital bed within the environment as the hospital bed navigates along the movement path.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An autonomous hospital bed, comprising:
a frame;
a set of wheels;
one or more motors to drive the set of wheels;
a controller in communication with the one or more motors;
one or more sensors;
a processor;
a tangible, non-transitory, machine readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor effectuate operations comprising:
capturing, with the one or more sensors, depth data, the depth data indicating distances to objects within an environment of the hospital bed and directions of the distances;
capturing, with the one or more sensors, movement data, the movement data indicating movement distance and direction of the hospital bed as the hospital bed moves within the environment;
generating, with the processor, at least a portion of a map of the environment using at least the depth data and movement data;
generating, with the processor, at least a portion of a movement path to a first location;
instructing, with the processor, one or more motor drivers of the set of wheels to move the hospital bed along the at least the portion of the movement path;
inferring, with the processor, a location of the hospital bed within the environment as the hospital bed navigates along the at least the portion of the movement path;
transmitting, with the processor, first information to an application of a communication device paired with the hospital bed, wherein the information comprises at least one of: a location of the hospital bed, a movement path of the hospital bed, a map of an environment, and one or more settings of the hospital bed;
displaying, with the application, at least one of: the location of the hospital bed, the movement path of the hospital bed, the map of the environment, and the one or more settings of the hospital bed; and
receiving, with the processor, second information from the application of the communication device, wherein:
the information comprises at least one of: an instruction to execute a particular action, an instruction to execute or modify a particular movement path, an instruction to modify the map of the environment, a schedule for executing one or more tasks, and an instruction to implement a particular hospital bed setting; and
the information is provided to the application as input from a user of the communication device.

2. The hospital bed of claim 1 , wherein generating that at least the portion of the map comprises:
obtaining, with the processor, a first set of depth data comprising a first set of distances and a first set of directions in a frame of reference of the hospital bed when in a first position;
translating, with the processor, the first set of depth data into a translated first set of depth data that is in the frame of reference of the environment;
storing, with the processor, the translated first set of depth data in the medium;
obtaining, with the processor, a second set of depth data comprising a second set of distances and a second set of directions in a frame of reference of the hospital bed when in a second position;
translating, with the processor, the second set of depth data into a translated second set of depth data that is in the frame of reference of the environment;
storing, with the processor, the translated second set of depth data in the medium; and,
generating, with the processor, the at least the portion of the map based on the translated first set of depth data and the translated second set of depth data, and storing a result in the medium.

3. The hospital bed of claim 2 , wherein:
the first depth data includes one depth vector among a first set of a first plurality of vectors in a first depth image measured at the first position; and
the second depth data includes one depth vector among a second set of a second plurality of vectors in a second depth image measured at the second position; or
the first depth data includes at least part of a first set of pixel data in a first depth image based on output of an image sensor mounted on the hospital bed; and
the second depth data includes at least part of a second set of pixel data in a second depth image based on output of the image sensor.

4. The hospital bed of claim 2 , wherein the operations further comprise:
updating the map to indicate a surface is at a location based on the first depth data; and
verifying the location by causing the hospital bed to move to the location and determine whether a contact sensor of the hospital bed indicates contact with the surface.

5. The hospital bed of claim 1 , wherein generating that at least the portion of the movement path comprises:
determining directions and lengths of segments, the segments forming the at least the portion of the movement path and having a linear motion trajectory.

6. The hospital bed of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
segmenting, with the processor, the map of the environment into a plurality of rooms.

7. The hospital bed of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
identifying, with the processor, a first area based on a current map of the environment comprising currently discovered areas;
determining, with the processor, a first path within the first area;
actuating, with the processor, the hospital bed to navigate along the first path;
identifying, with the processor, a second area based on an updated map of the environment comprising newly discovered areas; and
determining, with the processor, a second path within the second area; and
actuating, with the processor, the hospital bed to navigate along the second path.

8. The hospital bed of claim 7 , wherein at least one of the current map and the updated map comprise a portion of the environment that is mapped.

9. The hospital bed of claim 7 , wherein the first path and second path comprise a boustrophedon pattern aligned parallel to a longest dimension of the first area and the second area, respectively.

10. The hospital bed of claim 1 , wherein the map is generated incrementally as the processor discovers new areas and the hospital bed covers discovered areas.

11. The hospital bed of claim 1 , wherein inferring the location of the hospital bed comprises:
generating, with the processor, a probability distribution over all possible states of the hospital bed within a space representative of the environment;
evolving, with the processor, the probability distribution over time;
obtaining, with the processor, sensory data captured by the one or more sensors;
updating, with the processor, the probability distribution based on the sensory data; and,
inferring, with the processor, the likelihood of the state of the hospital bed being located within at least one region of the space based on the probability distribution over all possible states.

12. The hospital bed of claim 11 , wherein the sensory data comprises at least one of obstacle data, floor type data, Wi-Fi signal strength data, and sensor data captured by an external device.

13. The hospital bed of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
establishing, with the processor, a relationship with a processor of another autonomous device;
transmitting, with the processor, first information to the processor of the autonomous device;
receiving, with the processor, second information from the processor of the autonomous device; and
actuating, with the processor, the hospital bed to execute an action based on at least a portion of the second information.

14. The hospital bed of claim 13 , wherein the processor strengthens, weakens, or ends the relationship with the processor of the autonomous device based on an ou

Assignees

• Ebrahimi Afrouzi Ali
• Fath Lukas
• Zhang Chen
• Ai Inc

Inventors

• Ebrahimi Afrouzi Ali
• Fath Lukas
• Zhang Chen

Classifications

• A61G2203/22

  for automatically guiding movable devices, e.g. stretchers or wheelchairs in a hospital · CPC title

• A61G7/08 Primary

  Apparatus for transporting beds · CPC title

• A61G7/1046 Primary

  Mobile bases, e.g. having wheels · CPC title

• A61G7/018

  Control or drive mechanisms · CPC title