Method of lightweight simultaneous localization and mapping performed on a real-time computing and battery operated wheeled device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12399501-B2
Application number	US-202117494251-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 5, 2021
Priority date	Dec 10, 2020
Publication date	Aug 26, 2025
Grant date	Aug 26, 2025

Abstract

Some aspects include a method for operating a wheeled device, including: capturing, by a primary sensor coupled to the wheeled device, primary sensor data indicative of a plurality of radial distances to objects; transforming, by a processor of the wheeled device, the plurality of radial distances from a perspective of the primary sensor to a perspective of the wheeled device; generating, by the processor, a partial map of visible areas in real-time at a first position of the wheeled device based on the primary sensor data and some secondary sensor data, wherein: the partial map is a bird's eye view; and the processor iteratively completes a full map of the environment based on new sensor data captured by sensors as the wheeled device performs work within the environment and new areas become visible to the sensors; and executing, by the wheeled device, a movement path to a second position.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A battery operated wheeled device, comprising:
a chassis;
a set of wheels;
a plurality of sensors;
a microcontroller; and
a tangible, non-transitory, machine readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the microcontroller effectuates operations comprising:
capturing, by a primary sensor coupled to the wheeled device, primary sensor data indicative of a plurality of radial distances from the primary sensor to walls and objects, wherein:
the primary sensor comprises a 360-degrees spinning LIDAR; and
the spinning LIDAR is disposed above a top surface of the wheeled device;
the spinning LIDAR is encased in a housing comprising pillars, wherein the casing moves with respect to the top surface of the wheeled device, wherein movement of the casing activates a tactile or IR sensor; and
the radial distances are measured in a plane parallel to a floor surface on which the wheeled device drives at a height of the primary sensor relative to the floor surface;

autonomously generating, by the microcontroller, a partial map of visible areas of the environment in real-time at a first position of the wheeled device based on at least some of the primary sensor data, wherein:
the partial map is a bird's eye view of the environment;
the microcontroller drives the wheeled device to all areas required to iteratively completes a full map of the environment based on new sensor data captured by sensors; and
driving the wheeled device to all the areas comprises moving the wheeled device to different positions such that new areas become visible to the sensors;

wherein the wheeled device is paired with an application of a communication device.

2. The wheeled device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
storing, in at least one of a memory accessible to the microcontroller during a subsequent operational session and the cloud, the partial map or the full map;
pairing, by a wireless card coupled with the single microcontroller of the wheeled device, an application of a smart phone device with the microcontroller of the wheeled device via the internet or a local network, wherein pairing the application with the microcontroller comprises a one-time exchange of information; and
transmitting, by the microcontroller, iterations of the partial map to the application of the smart phone device configured to display the iterations of the partial map on a screen of the smart phone device.

3. The wheeled device of claim 1 , wherein the microcontroller operates below 1 GHz.

4. The wheeled device of claim 1 , wherein the wheeled device further comprises a camera for capturing video of the environment as the wheeled device drives within the environment.

5. The wheeled device of claim 4 , wherein the application is configured to display the video captured of the environment as the wheeled device drives within the environment.

6. The wheeled device of claim 5 , wherein:
the application is further configured to receive at least one input designating at least one instruction to drive or rotate the wheeled device in a particular direction or an instruction to drive the wheeled device to capture videos from a particular desired location within the environment;
the operations further comprise:
actuating, by the microcontroller, the wheeled device to drive or rotate according to the at least one instruction to drive or rotate the wheeled device in the particular direction; and
actuating, by the microcontroller, the wheeled device to drive to the particular location according to the instruction to drive the wheeled device to the particular location displaying videos from the particular desired location.

7. The wheeled device of claim 6 , wherein:
the wheeled device further comprises a speaker; and
the application is further configured to receive audio input; and
the wheeled device is configured to output the audio input via the speaker,
wherein the audio input is a verbal command.

8. The wheeled device of claim 1 , wherein:
the wheeled device further comprises a camera positioned such that a field of view of the camera captures a blind spot of the primary sensor; and
the camera captures the environment as the wheeled device drives within the environment.

9. The wheeled device of claim 8 , wherein:
the wheeled device further comprises a first laser emitting illuminator positioned to a left of the camera and a second laser emitting illuminator positioned to a right of the camera; and
at a certain distance in front of the wheeled device a laser line emitted from the first laser emitting illuminator and a laser line emitted from the second laser emitting illuminator intersect.

10. The wheeled device of claim 9 , wherein an image captured by the camera comprises bright pixels caused by incidence of the laser lines off an object.

11. The wheeled device of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining, by the microcontroller, determine a distance of the object from the camera based on the bright pixels.

12. The wheeled device of claim 8 , images captured by the camera are fed into a network of logical computational nodes running on a microcontroller.

13. The wheeled device of claim 8 , wherein a subset of pixels of a subset of images captured by the camera are identified and classified as localized with respect to the partial or full map.

14. The wheeled device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining, by the microcontroller, a division of the full map of the environment into rooms.

15. The wheeled device of claim 14 , wherein:
the application is configured to display the full map of the environment; and
each room is displayed in a different color.

16. The wheeled device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
labelling, by the microcontroller, a room within the full map of the environment based on at least some data captured by the plurality of sensors.

17. The wheeled device of claim 16 , wherein the application is configured to receive at least one input designating a new label for a room previously labelled by the microcontroller.

18. The wheeled device of claim 1 , wherein:
the wheeled device further comprises:
a camera;
a first light source positioned to a left of the camera and a second light source positioned to a right of the camera;

each light source emits a light plane, each light plane being at an angle in relation to a floor surface on which the wheeled device drives;
at a certain distance in front of the wheeled device the light plane emitted from the first light source and the light plane emitted from the second light source intersect.

19. The wheeled device of claim 18 , wherein an image captured by the camera comprises lines of bright pixels caused by incidence of the light planes off an object.

20. The wheeled device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
generating, by the microcontroller, a movement path of the wheeled device; and
actuating, by the microcontroller, the wheeled device to drive along the movement path, wherein actuating the wheeled device to drive along the movement path comprises a repetitive iteration of:
actuating, by the microcontroller, the wheeled device to traverse a first linear segment;
actuating, by the microcontroller, the wheeled device to rotate 180 degrees in a first rotation comprising traversing a first distance in a direction perpendicular to the first linear segment after starting the first rotation and before finishing

Assignees

• Ebrahimi Afrouzi Ali
• Fath Lukas
• Fitzgerald Andrew
• Ebrahimi Afrouzi Amin
• Highfill Brian
• Ebrahimi Afrouzi Masih
• Link Nema
• Ai Inc

Inventors

• Ebrahimi Afrouzi Ali
• Fath Lukas
• Fitzgerald Andrew
• Ebrahimi Afrouzi Amin
• Highfill Brian
• Ebrahimi Afrouzi Masih
• Link Nema

Classifications

• G05D1/43

  Control of position or course in two dimensions [2D] · CPC title

• G05D2111/14

  Non-visible signals, e.g. IR or UV signals · CPC title

• G05D1/246

  using environment maps, e.g. simultaneous localisation and mapping [SLAM] · CPC title

• G01C21/12

  executed aboard the object being navigated; Dead reckoning · CPC title

• G05D1/0274 Primary

  using mapping information stored in a memory device (navigation using map-matching G01C21/30) · CPC title