ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR-BASED SURFACE MAINTENANCE SYSTEM

Number: 20240116187
Published: 2024-04-11
Filed: 2022-10-11
Assignee: Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Inventors: Moy; Eric J.
CPC: B25J9/1697; G05D1/249; G05D1/6987; G06V10/70; G06V20/40; G06V20/52; G06V20/54; H04N7/183
Verdict: High Hardware
Source: Google Patents · FreePatentsOnline

The keeper's note

Autonomous robotic surface-maintenance system hardware.

Abstract

A system for performing surface maintenance based on one or more detected environmental factors for a surface monitored for maintenance. The system includes a surface monitoring assembly that monitors a surface for one or more environmental factors, such as a traffic pattern in a cleaning application, and the assembly may utilize one or more video cameras focused on a monitored surface along with video analytics software to process captured video to identify an environmental factor, such as heavy traffic, a spill, or the like. When an environmental factor is detected, the assembly passes this data to a maintenance control routine that processes the data to determine whether to vary the operations of an automated robot maintenance system provided in the system. The data can be used to define or modify a location, a time, and/or a parameter of a maintenance task or function (e.g., vacuuming versus wet mopping).

Background

BACKGROUND 1. Field of the Description

The present description relates, in general, to automated robot maintenance systems such as cleaning systems and their varied uses to maintain surfaces such as floors, and, more particularly, to a system (and associated methods) for maintaining surfaces based on detected and/or monitored environmental factors affecting the surfaces. 2. Relevant Background

In recent years, it has become more and more common for maintenance to be performed in an automated or non-manual manner using robots (i.e., a machine operated based on a set of instructions to perform a function or task). For example, automated robot cleaning systems have become widely used in residential as well as industrial settings. The cleaning systems often include a cleaning robot such as an autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner that combines a vacuum floor cleaning system with sensors and robotic drives with programmable controllers and cleaning routines. While some are operated manually via a remote control, many cleaning robots are configured to have a self-drive mode that allows the machine to clean autonomously without human control.

Cleaning robots are now designed to provide a wide variety of cleaning functions, and an automated robot cleaning system may include one or more robots to perform the same or differing cleaning functions. Beyond mere vacuuming, cleaning robots may use spinning brushes to reach tight corners, and some include a number of cleanin

Claims

1. A system for performing surface maintenance based on environmental factors, comprising: a robot maintenance system comprising at least one maintenance robot configured to perform a maintenance task; a monitoring assembly comprising a sensor for monitoring a surface for presence of an environmental factor and further comprising an analytics module for processing output of the sensor to detect the presence of the environmental factor in a subset of the monitored surface; and a maintenance controller configured to receive from the analytics module data associated with the environmental factor including a definition of the subset of the monitored surface, wherein the maintenance controller generates a control request for the robot maintenance system to modify or define performance of the maintenance task with a location based on the definition of the subset of the monitored surface. || 9. A method of maintaining a surface based on detection of environmental factors affecting the surface, comprising: operating a sensor to monitor a surface and, in response, generate a set of sensor output; processing the set of sensor output to detect an environmental factor affecting the surface; determining a subset of the surface affected by the environmental factor; and modifying operations of one or more maintenance robots to perform a maintenance task on the subset of the surface. || 17. A robot cleaning system, comprising: a cleaning robot; a sensor capturing data associated with a monitored surface; an analytics module configured to process the data captured by the sensor to detect a traffic pattern for traffic on the monitored surface or to detect a spill on the monitored surface; and a controller configured to control performance of a cleaning task on the monitored surface by the cleaning robot based on the traffic pattern or the spill by modifying at least one of timing of the performance of the cleaning task, location of the performance of the cleaning task to include a subset of the monitored surface associated with the traffic pattern or the spill, and parameters defining operations of the cleaning robot while completing the performance of the cleaning task.