Patent Application
20230061077
The disclosure relates generally to robotics, and, more particularly, to an apparatus, system, and method of a phased array antenna for an autonomous robot.
Indoor and outdoor autonomous vehicles are a category of robotics that is quickly advancing. In particular, indoor robotic vehicles are now available for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to cleaning, patrolling and inspecting, security, inventory management, patient movement, wheel chairs, personal assistants, item transport, research, hazardous materials handling, hazardous condition assessment, and so on.
However, an autonomous mobile robot that operates in an indoor environment and which is of any significant height, such as a robot that is a meter or more in height, presents particular difficulties in navigation. This is due to the number of obstacles that may be encountered at various different altitudes, and due to what may be a significant distance between obstacle sensors on the vehicle and the floor, and/or between the sensors on the mast of the robot and any beacons that “highlight” and sense for the robot along its travel path.
These difficulties are yet further exacerbated when the robot must operate around untrained or inattentive personnel, or around the general public, as refined obstacle handling becomes a greater necessity for safety reasons in such environments. When using a robot to perform situational awareness functions within such a defined space (such as a retail store), the robot often must use the aforementioned remote beacon sensors, as well as monitoring safety sensors.
Thus, to simplify processing for the robot, the beacon sensors may be polled as the robot travels around the confined space, such as in order to enable safe navigation. Such remote sensors may also provide various additional information relevant to the confined space, such as including stock levels within, temperature of, or humidity of a controlled environment.
A communication gateway may then be used to update the numericals on a display, such as may be tagged to an item, or the information inside the memory locations of or associated with products, i.e., prices on the shelves. However, in many cases, the RF signal propagating between the robot and the sensor, and/or between the sensor and the communications gateway, experiences too much loss to properly convey the sensed information. This signal loss can be for a number of reasons, but typically it is because of the distance between the robot and the sensor, or the location of the sensor in an environment that inhibits RF propagation, such as a metal enclosure (i.e., in refrigeration unit), or on a package on the top or bottom shelf or otherwise at the most remote locations, such as in a deep corner, inside a warehouse, in a hospital, in a pharmacy, in an aisle, or in a cubby, by way of non-limiting example.
In the case of signal loss, the use of a high gain antenna can be employed to improve the RF reception from a beacon style sensor. This improves the successfully received data percentage for sensors located at either long distances or in various inhibiting enclosures.
However, high gain antennas (or large antenna array structures) made with traditional methods is typically complex and expensive. This cost prohibitive-ness is the reason that the use of such antennas is very limited today.
Cost-prohibitiveness and ineffectiveness is also a drawback to various other known antenna methods. Such other known methods may include wires, copper PCB antennas, metal domes or cones, wands, or the like.
The disclosure is and includes at least an apparatus, system and method of operating an autonomous mobile robot having a height of at least one meter. The apparatus, system and method may include a mobile robot body; at least two phased array antennas associated with the mobile body, wherein the phased array antennas enable wireless communication between on-board features of the mobile robot, including at least mobility hardware proximate to a base of the mobile robot body, and off-board sensors related to at least navigation of the mobility hardware; and a processing system communicative with the on-board features and the off-board sensors via intercommunication with the phased antennas, and comprising non-transitory computing code which, when executed by at least one processor associated with the processing system.
The processing system causes to be executed the steps of: navigating the mobile robot along a predetermined pathway, subject to obstacle avoidance; and executing communication protocols between the on-board features and the off-board sensors over the phased array antennas to allow for the navigating.
The disclosure is illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicate similar elements, and in which:
The figures and descriptions provided herein may have been simplified to illustrate aspects that are relevant for a clear understanding of the herein described devices, systems, and methods, while eliminating, for the purpose of clarity, other aspects that may be found in typical similar devices, systems, and methods. Those of ordinary skill may recognize that other elements and/or operations may be desirable and/or necessary to implement the devices, systems, and methods described herein. But because such elements and operations are well known in the art, and because they do not facilitate a better understanding of the present disclosure, a discussion of such elements and operations may not be provided herein. However, the present disclosure is deemed to inherently include all such elements, variations, and modifications to the described aspects that would be known to those of ordinary skill in the art.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. For example, as used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” may be intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “including,” and “having,” are inclusive and therefore specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. The method steps, processes, and operations described herein are not to be construed as necessarily requiring their performance in the particular order discussed or illustrated, unless specifically identified as an order of performance. It is also to be understood that additional or alternative steps may be employed.
When an element or layer is referred to as being “on”, “engaged to”, “connected to” or “coupled to” another element or layer, it may be directly on, engaged, connected or coupled to the other element or layer, or intervening elements or layers may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly on,” “directly engaged to”, “directly connected to” or “directly coupled to” another element or layer, there may be no intervening elements or layers present. Other words used to describe the relationship between elements should be interpreted in a like fashion (e.g., “between” versus “directly between,” “adjacent” versus “directly adjacent,” etc.). As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
Although the terms first, second, third, etc., may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms may be only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another element, component, region, layer or section. That is, terms such as “first,” “second,” and other numerical terms, when used herein, do not imply a sequence or order unless clearly indicated by the context. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of the exemplary embodiments.
Processor-implemented modules, systems and methods of use are disclosed herein that may provide access to and transformation of a plurality of types of digital content, including but not limited to video, image, text, audio, metadata, algorithms, interactive and document content, and which track, deliver, manipulate, transform and report the accessed content. Described embodiments of these modules, systems and methods are intended to be exemplary and not limiting. As such, it is contemplated that the herein described systems and methods may be adapted and may be extended to provide enhancements and/or additions to the exemplary modules, systems and methods described. The disclosure is thus intended to include all such extensions.
Furthermore, it will be understood that the terms “engine”, “application”, or “module”, as used herein, do not limit the functionality to particular physical modules, but may include any number of tangibly-embodied software and/or hardware components having a transformative effect on at least a portion of a system. In general, a computer program product in accordance with one embodiment comprises a tangible computer usable medium (e.g., standard RAM, an optical disc, a USB drive, or the like) having computer-readable program code embodied therein, wherein the computer-readable program code is adapted to be executed by a processor (which may work in connection with an operating system) to implement one or more functions and methods as described below. In this regard, the program code may be implemented in any desired language, and may be implemented as machine code, assembly code, byte code, interpretable source code or the like (e.g., via C, C++, C#, Java, Actionscript, Objective-C, Javascript, CSS, XML, etc.).
The embodiments may provide a mobile robot having a substantially 360 degree field of view (FoV) for obstacle assessment and which senses and follows a predetermined travel path. The embodiments provide high gain phased array antennas for improving RF communications between such a robot and a sensor, such as a beacons sensor for the predetermined travel path, particularly, for example, in a retail space environment. The communications protocol for the sensor system may vary, such as using Bluetooth or wireless Ethernet; and the type of off-board sensor may also vary, such as including navigational, environmental, safety, light, or depth sensors, by way of example.
The phased array antenna may be of any of various sizes and frequencies. The size and/or frequency choice may depend on how much contribution to the link budget is required of the antenna, such as in a circumstance of extreme distance or RF enclosure loss.
Regarding construction, the phased array antenna may be, for example, a rigid or flexible printed circuit board with plated-up copper. The antenna may also be realized on a rigid or flexible substrate (polyamide, PET, paper, etc., or directly on the plastic enclosure), such as with conductive ink (silver, copper or other blends of materials). For example, the phased array section may be interconnected to each other and to the main processor board using conductive traces printed on the shared substrate in between the phase array.
The requisite traces on the substrate may be, for example, printed or deposited via known methodologies. Likewise, the phased array antennas may be manufactured by a subtractive processes, such as by plating on rigid fr4 or flexible polyamide. Yet further, the phase array antenna and its associated circuits may be made on flexible substrates by additive processes such as printing (screen, gravure, inkjet, flexo, etc.), dispensing or coating (jetting, slot die, spray, etc.), by way of non-limiting example.
As detailed, the printed phased array antenna may be a planar structure. This planar/flexible planar structure may be mounted on a metal mast, or behind a piece of plastic packaging, by way of non-limiting example, such as to conceal its implementation.
Alternatively, the disclosed antenna may be conformed to the shape of the robot's enclosure. Whether planar or conformed, the electronics components, such as for the power, sensors, communications, and/or driver circuits may be distinct from or integrated to the substrates on which the phase array antennas reside. For example, antennas of various designs, such as 5G, LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth/BLE, LORA, and/or the like may be integrated on the same substrate.
As discussed throughout, one disclosed robotic, namely a retail robot, may travel a pathway within a retail space. While travelling, the robot may poll beacon sensors for various data, collecting the cumulative data from the maximum number of sensors on the predetermined travel pathway.
The disclosed high gain antenna may avoid increased operational time for the robot, such as wherein the robot must spend more time slowed or stalled in a location listening for a beacon sensor. The disclosed antenna may also improve the travel of the robot by allowing it to move into a closer proximity of known sensor locations to reduce path loss from the link budget.
Of course, while the embodiments are provided by way of illustration using a retail robot, the disclosed antennas may be employed in a variety of use contexts. Such use contexts may include, by way of non-limiting example, machine-to-machine communications, such as in an industrial setting; conflict or threat detection; connected healthcare, such as in hospitals or homes; home automation; and theme parks, such as to provide an improved guest experience.
The embodiments provide increased wireless coverage without increasing weight via distributed PCB antennas or a large metal inserts or wands. The embodiments also provide lower cost; low power; multiple distributed radios; and longer battery life, among other advantages over the known art.
The embodiments enable radio communications to reach every item on every shelf without the need for fixed large metal cone antenna, without need of powerful radios, and without the need for multiple PCB antennas on the robot's tower. The need for antennas and connective wiring harnesses is also reduced. Accordingly, the assembly steps, the bill of parts, and the weight of the robot is consequently reduced.
Moreover and as referenced above, the embodiments also allow the distributed integration of SMT components, such as contextual sensors, on the same structures. This improves signal performance by localized tuning without line loss and signal degradation.
The sensors 102, 104 may be aimed, such as prior to active use, substantially vertically, or at an angle such as in a range of 10 degrees to 45 degrees from vertical, toward the operating space for the robot. The sensing 112 may provide information necessary to the software, firmware, and/or hardware which is executed by the computer processing system 120 (such as upon execution of code stored in the non-transitory computing memory), such as obstacles 160 in the path guided by beacons 1103 according to processing system(s) 120, 1107, to carry out the function of the robotic system 100.
The robotic system 100 may additionally include off-board sensors 1103, such as pathway beacons, to provide information to the robot. This information may include, for example, literal distance from an individual beacon, or a triangulated distance from multiple beacons, such as may allow for navigation of the robot. Sensor 1103 may also include or provide other information, such as inventory information.
The information from off-board sensors 1103 (and/or “pings” or alarms provided therefrom) may be received by the robot using one or more on-board antennas 1105a, b. These antennas may also be used to send information outwardly from the robot, such as to off-board sensors 1103 and/or to off board processing system 1107.
Accordingly, the mobile robot 106 may include one or more processing systems 120 onboard the robot 106, and/or one or more off-board processing systems/communication hubs 1107, and these processing systems 120, 1107 may have associated therewith one or more computing memories having associated therewith non-transitory computing code which, when executed by the one or more processing systems, causes to be provided the algorithms, calculations, comparisons and relations discussed throughout. The processing system 120/1107 onboard the robot may additionally include communication capabilities for the transceiving of communications to and from offboard the robot, such as using the disclosed antennas. By way of example, such communication capabilities may include near field communications (NFC), Bluetooth, local area network (such as WiFi), wide area network, cellular network, infrared, or other communication methodologies. It will be appreciated that the onboard processing system 120/1107 of the robot 106, to the extent the aforementioned communication capabilities are provided, may handle all principal processing, such as application of the algorithms, calculations, comparisons and relations discussed throughout, or may share principal processing at least partially or fully offboard the robot 106, without departing from the disclosure.
In the illustration of
As shown, these antennas may be housed on or within the base region 106b of the mast of the robot shown. Of course, the skilled artisan will appreciate that other housing locations may be used without departing from the disclosure. The antennas may be formed to the housing of the robot mast base, or may be flat, as discussed above. In the known art, these antennas would typically comprise low-gain OEM antennas, which typically have a gain of around unity.
The illustration of
As referenced above, the antenna 1105 and/or its electronics substrate may be mounted or formed on or within the robot and/or its housing, and may be printed, deposited, and/or formed by other additive or subtractive processes. For example,
It will be appreciated, for each of the foregoing instances, that the assessment by the processing system, and the correspondent reaction from the robot, may vary based on the robot's capabilities. By way of non-limiting example, a robot capable of climbing or descending steps may react or be reacted to proceed to continue moving.
In an additional example and as discussed above, a floor slope may appear as an obstacle. However, because of the disclosed travel template filtering, governing path planning software may be aware of the slope of the plane proximate to a particular beacon, and of the slope triangulated to a different travel path between various beacons. Thereby, if it is determined that the slope in one area exceeds the safety limits for the capabilities of that particular robot, the robot may be re-routed. Of course, the skilled artisan will appreciate that a deviation from a typical path among beacons may occur for any of a variety of reasons, such as a safety alert from another sensor of the robot, such as an indication from an on-board camera that an obstacle is in the typical pathway.
In addition to navigation, emergency stops, and the like, the detailed observations of all obstacles near the robot, as referenced above, may enable high-precision maneuvers that would generally be infeasible using prior state of the art localization methods and on-board sensors or typical off-board sensors engaged in low-gain/impeded communications with the robot via traditional antennas. Similarly, the disclosed antenna embodiments may allow the mobile robot to highly precisely engage a parking place or a docking station, by way of example, due, in part, to the high volume data made available by the disclosed high gain phased array antenna.
It is appreciated that, although exemplary processing system 120/1107 is shown to comprise a single CPU 410, such description is merely illustrative, as processing system 120/1107 may comprise a plurality of CPUs 410. Additionally, system 120/1107 may exploit the resources of remote CPUs (not shown) through communications network 470 or some other data communications means 480, as discussed above.
In operation, CPU 410 fetches, decodes, and executes instructions from a computer readable storage medium such as HDD 415. Such instructions may be included in software such as an operating system (OS), executable programs/applications 490, and the like. Information, such as computer instructions and other computer readable data, is transferred between components of system 120/1107 via the system's main data-transfer path. The main data-transfer path may use a system bus architecture 405, although other computer architectures (not shown) can be used, such as architectures using serializers and deserializers and crossbar switches to communicate data between devices over serial communication paths. System bus 405 may include data lines for sending data, address lines for sending addresses, and control lines for sending interrupts and for operating the system bus. Some busses provide bus arbitration that regulates access to the bus by extension cards, controllers, and CPU 410.
Memory devices coupled to system bus 405 may include random access memory (RAM) 425 and/or read only memory (ROM) 430, by way of example. Such memories include circuitry that allows information to be stored and retrieved. ROMs 430 generally contain stored data that cannot be modified. Data stored in RAM 425 can be read or changed by CPU 410 or other hardware devices. Access to RAM 425 and/or ROM 430 may be controlled by memory controller 420. Memory controller 420 may provide an address translation function that translates virtual addresses into physical addresses as instructions are executed.
In addition, processing system 120 may contain peripheral communications controller and bus 435, which is responsible for communicating instructions from CPU 410 to, and/or receiving data from, peripherals, such as peripherals 440, 445, and 450, which may include printers, keyboards, and/or the elements discussed herein throughout. An example of a peripheral bus is the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus that is well known in the pertinent art.
Display 460, which is controlled by display controller 455, may be used to display visual output and/or presentation data generated by or at the request of processing system 120/1107, responsive to operation of the aforementioned computing programs/applications 490. Such visual output may include text, graphics, animated graphics, and/or video, for example. Display 460 may be implemented with a CRT-based video display, an LCD or LED-based display, a gas plasma-based flat-panel display, a touch-panel display, or the like. Display controller 455 includes electronic components required to generate a video signal that is sent to display 460.
Further, processing system 120/1107 may contain network adapter 465 which may be used to couple system 120/1107 to external communication network 470, which may include or provide access to the Internet, an intranet, an extranet, or the like. Communications network 470 may provide access for processing system 120/1107 with means of communicating and transferring software and information electronically. Additionally, communications network 470 may provide for distributed processing, which involves several computers and the sharing of workloads or cooperative efforts in performing a task, as discussed above. Network adaptor 465 may communicate to and from network 470 using any available wired or wireless technologies. Such technologies may include, by way of non-limiting example, cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, infrared, or the like.
In the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of clarity and brevity of the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the embodiments require more features than are expressly recited herein. Rather, the disclosure is to encompass all variations and modifications to the disclosed embodiments that would be understood to the skilled artisan in light of the disclosure.
This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/976,044, filed Feb. 13, 2020, entitled APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR A PHASED ARRAY ANTENNA FOR AN AUTONOMOUS ROBOT, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference as if set forth in its entirety.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US2021/018125 | 2/15/2021 | WO |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62976044 | Feb 2020 | US |
