Three-dimensional environmental coverage oriented motion system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11822331-B2
Application number	US-202016993334-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 14, 2020
Priority date	Jun 1, 2020
Publication date	Nov 21, 2023
Grant date	Nov 21, 2023

Abstract

The present invention relates to an environmental coverage oriented motion system. The system includes a rangefinder module configured to measure a distance in real time; an odometry module configured to measure a velocity or a position in real time; a powered vehicle carrying the rangefinder module and the odometry module; and a controller module carried by the powered vehicle, configured to receive one of the distance, the velocity and the position, performing an environmental coverage oriented motion scheme based on one of the distance, the velocity and the position to select a plurality of positions, and commanding the powered vehicle to move among the plurality of positions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An environmental coverage oriented motion system, comprising:
a rangefinder module configured to measure a distance in real time;
an odometry module configured to measure a velocity or a position in real time;
a powered vehicle carrying the rangefinder module and the odometry module; and
a controller module carried by the powered vehicle, configured to store a space coverage function which is pre-derived according to a known information of a three-dimensional target space and comprises a relationship of a spatial coverage ratio with respect to each of a plurality of points in the three-dimensional target space, receive one of the distance, the velocity and the position, set a point within the three-dimensional target space as a first disinfection point, compute each of spatial coverage ratios between the first disinfection point and the each of the plurality of points based on the spatial coverage function, select a point having a maximum spatial coverage ratio out of from the plurality of points as a second disinfection point, and command the powered vehicle to move toward the second disinfection point to cover as much three-dimensional space as possible within the three-dimensional target space.

2. The environmental coverage oriented motion system as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising one of components as follows:
a disinfection module configured to electrically connect with the controller module and receive an instruction sent from the controller module to perform a disinfection to a surrounding environment;
a communication transmission module being one selected from a wireless radio frequency module, a physical data transmission interface and a data connector, and being configured to perform a data uploading or a data downloading when a connection for data transmission with an external device is established;
a memory module configured to electrically connect with the controller module and store an information based on the distance, the velocity or the position, a space coverage function or an environmental map for access;
the controller module configured to compute a disinfection coverage for a three-dimensional target space based on the information, and commanding the disinfection module to perform accordingly to fully disinfect a space within the disinfection coverage; and
a battery module storing and providing an electrical power required by the rangefinder module, the odometry module, the powered vehicle, the controller module, the disinfection module, the communication transmission module and the memory module to operate.

3. The environmental coverage oriented motion system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the disinfection module comprises one selected from a group consisting of an electromagnetic disinfection equipment, an ultraviolet disinfection equipment, a mechanical wave disinfection equipment, a chemical spraying disinfection equipment, a high-temperature fluidic disinfection equipment, a gas-based sterilization equipment, a high-pressure steam disinfection equipment and a combination thereof.

4. The environmental coverage oriented motion system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the rangefinder module comprises one selected from a group consisting of a laser rangefinder, a radar rangefinder, an array-based infrared ray rangefinder, an array-based ultrasonic rangefinder, an image-based rangefinder, a RGB-deep camera rangefinder, and a combination thereof and the odometry module comprises one selected from a group consisting of a motion sensor, a motion transducer, a gyroscope sensor, an accelerometer sensor, a tachometer sensor, a displacement sensor, an optical encoder, and a combination thereof.

5. The environmental coverage oriented motion system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the powered vehicle is a wheel type vehicle, a track type vehicle, an omni-wheel type vehicle, an electric vehicle, a vehicle, a motorcycle, a bicycle, a mobile robot chassis, or a controlled movable device.

6. The environmental coverage oriented motion system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the environmental coverage oriented motion scheme is performed based on a space coverage function.

7. An environmental coverage oriented motion method, comprising:
establishing a space coverage function which is pre-derived according to a known information of a three-dimensional target space and comprises a relationship of a spatial coverage ratio with respect to each of a plurality of points in the three-dimensional target space;
measuring a distance in real time by a rangefinder module in real time;
measuring a velocity or a position by an odometry module in real time;
receiving one of the distance, the velocity and the position by a controller module;
setting a point within the three-dimensional target space as a first disinfection point, computing each of spatial coverage ratios between the first disinfection point and the each of the plurality of points based on the spatial coverage function, selecting a point having a maximum spatial coverage ratio out of from the plurality of points as a second disinfection point; and
commanding a powered vehicle to move toward the second disinfection point by the controller module to cover as much three-dimensional space as possible within the three-dimensional target space.

8. The environmental coverage oriented motion method as claimed in claim 7 , further comprising one of steps as follows:
performing the environmental coverage oriented motion scheme based on the space coverage function by the controller module;
performing a computation to ratio of coverage according to the space coverage function to compute a plurality of surrounding coverage ratios for a plurality of possible positions by the controller module;
selecting one having a maximum value among the plurality of surrounding coverage ratios out of the plurality of possible positions every time after the computation is performed and adding it into a goal set in sequence; and
determining the plurality of the positions from the plurality of possible positions by the controller module based on the computed plurality of surrounding coverage ratios.

9. The environmental coverage oriented motion method as claimed in claim 7 , further comprising one of steps as follows:
establishing one of a space coverage function for a three-dimensional target space; and
establishing an environmental map for the three-dimensional target space.

Assignees

• Univ Nat Central

Inventors

• Tseng Kuo-Shih
• Chou Chih-Yuan

Classifications

• G05D1/0212 Primary

  with means for defining a desired trajectory (involving a plurality of land vehicles G05D1/0287) · CPC title

• A61L2/025

  Ultrasonic waves · CPC title

• A61L2/07

  Steam · CPC title

• A61L2/10

  Ultraviolet [UV] radiation · CPC title

• A61L2/20

  Gaseous substances, e.g. vapours · CPC title