System for spot cleaning by a mobile robot

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020237176-A1
Application number	US-202016806661-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 2, 2020
Priority date	Jan 5, 2018
Publication date	Jul 30, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system for enabling spot cleaning includes a mobile computing device and a mobile cleaning robot. The mobile computing device includes at least one camera configured to capture images of an environment, and at least one data processor configured to (a) establish, based at least in part on first information provided by the at least one image sensor, a coordinate system in the environment, (b) determine, based at least in part on second information provided by the at least one camera, a first set of coordinates of a region at a first location, (c) determine, based at least in part on third information provided by the at least one camera, a second set of coordinates of a mobile cleaning robot at a second location, (d) send the first set of coordinates and second set of coordinates, or coordinates of the first location relative to the second location, to the mobile cleaning robot, and (e) send an instruction to the mobile cleaning robot to request the mobile cleaning robot to travel to the first location.

First claim

1 . (canceled)

2 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions for causing at least one data processor of a mobile computing device to:
determine a first set of coordinates of a region at a first location, including determining the first set of coordinates based at least in part on one or more first images of the region at the first location, wherein the one or more first images are captured using a camera of the mobile computing device; determine a second set of coordinates of a mobile cleaning robot at a second location, including determining the second set of coordinates based at least in part on one or more second images of the mobile cleaning robot at the second location, wherein the one or more second images are captured using the camera of the mobile computing device; and send, from the mobile computing device to the mobile cleaning robot, (i) information based on the first and second sets of coordinates and (ii) an instruction to request the mobile cleaning robot to travel to the first location.

3 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2 , in which sending an instruction to request the mobile cleaning robot to travel to the first location comprises sending an instruction to request the mobile cleaning robot to perform a cleaning function in the region at the first location.

4 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2 , in which sending information based on the first and second sets of coordinates comprises sending at least one of (i) the first set of coordinates and the second set of coordinates, or (ii) the coordinates of the first location relative to the second location.

5 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2 , in which determining the second set of coordinates of the second location comprises:
using a neural network to process an of the mobile cleaning robot to identify the mobile cleaning robot in the image.

6 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 5 , in which determining the second set of coordinates of the second location comprises:
identifying a feature of the mobile cleaning robot in the image; determine coordinates of the feature; and assign the coordinates of the feature as the second set of coordinates of the second location.

7 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2 , storing instructions for causing the at least one data processor to:
determine, using the at least one data processor, an angle of orientation of the mobile cleaning robot based at least in part on images of the mobile cleaning robot, and sending the angle of orientation of the mobile cleaning robot to the mobile cleaning robot.

8 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2 , storing instructions for causing the at least one data processor to:
use a neural network to process images of the mobile cleaning robot, or images derived from the images of the mobile cleaning robot, to determine an angle of orientation of the mobile cleaning robot.

9 . A method for spot cleaning using a mobile cleaning robot, the method comprising:
determining a first set of coordinates of a region at a first location, including determining the first set of coordinates based at least in part on one or more first images of the region at the first location, wherein the one or more first images are captured using a camera of the mobile computing device; determining a second set of coordinates of a mobile cleaning robot at a second location, including determining the second set of coordinates based at least in part on one or more second images of the mobile cleaning robot at the second location, wherein the one or more second images are captured using the camera of the mobile computing device; and sending, from the mobile computing device to the mobile cleaning robot, (i) information based on the first and second sets of coordinates and (ii) an instruction to request the mobile cleaning robot to travel to the first location.

10 . The method of claim 9 , in which sending an instruction to request the mobile cleaning robot to travel to the first location comprises sending an instruction to request the mobile cleaning robot to perform a cleaning function in the region at the first location.

11 . The method of claim 9 , in which sending information based on the first and second sets of coordinates comprises sending at least one of (i) the first set of coordinates and the second set of coordinates, or (ii) the coordinates of the first location relative to the second location.

12 . The method of claim 9 , in which determining the second set of coordinates of the second location comprises:
using a neural network to process an of the mobile cleaning robot to identify the mobile cleaning robot in the image.

13 . The method of claim 12 , in which determining the second set of coordinates of the second location comprises:
identifying a feature of the mobile cleaning robot in the image; determine coordinates of the feature; and assign the coordinates of the feature as the second set of coordinates of the second location.

14 . The method of claim 9 , comprising:
determining, using the at least one data processor, an angle of orientation of the mobile cleaning robot based at least in part on images of the mobile cleaning robot, and sending the angle of orientation of the mobile cleaning robot to the mobile cleaning robot.

15 . The method of claim 9 , comprising:
using a neural network to process images of the mobile cleaning robot, or images derived from the images of the mobile cleaning robot, to determine an angle of orientation of the mobile cleaning robot.

16 . A system for enabling spot cleaning using a mobile cleaning robot, the system comprising:
a mobile computing device comprising:
at least one camera;
a storage device storing processor-executable instructions; and
at least one data processor communicatively coupled to the storage device, in which upon execution of the processor-executable instructions by the at least one data processor, the at least one data processor is configured to:
determine a first set of coordinates of a region at a first location, including determining the first set of coordinates based at least in part on one or more first images of the region at the first location, wherein the one or more first images are captured using a camera of the mobile computing device;
determine a second set of coordinates of a mobile cleaning robot at a second location, including determining the second set of coordinates based at least in part on one or more second images of the mobile cleaning robot at the second location, wherein the one or more second images are captured using the camera of the mobile computing device; and
send, from the mobile computing device to the mobile cleaning robot, (i) information based on the first and second sets of coordinates and (ii) an instruction to request the mobile cleaning robot to travel to the first location.

17 . The system of claim 16 , in which sending an instruction to request the mobile cleaning robot to travel to the first location comprises sending an instruction to request the mobile cleaning robot to perform a cleaning function in the region at the first location.

18 . The system of claim 16 , in which sending information based on the first and second sets of coordinates comprises sending at least one of (i) the first set of coordinates and the second set of coordinates, or (ii) the coordinates of the first lo

Assignees

• Irobot Corp

Inventors

• Bassa Angela
• Al-Mohssen Husain

Classifications

• A47L11/4038 Primary

  Disk shaped surface treating tools · CPC title

• G06V30/19173

  Classification techniques · CPC title

• G06V10/82 Primary

  using neural networks · CPC title

• G06F18/2414

  Smoothing the distance, e.g. radial basis function networks [RBFN] · CPC title

• G06V30/194

  References adjustable by an adaptive method, e.g. learning · CPC title