Patent Application
20130009592
An autonomous device, such as a mobile autonomous robot, may utilize one or more batteries as a power supply. In an autonomous device with rechargeable batteries, the autonomous device may be configured to locate, move to, and engage with a battery recharging docking station to allow battery recharging to occur without human intervention.
Various embodiments related to automatically exchanging a discharged battery for a charged battery in an autonomous device are disclosed. For example, one disclosed embodiment provides a method of operating an autonomous device, the method comprising autonomously moving to and operatively engaging with a battery exchange dock such that a discharged battery in the autonomous device is automatically removed from the autonomous device and placed into a charging receptacle on the battery exchange dock, and a charged battery is automatically received from the battery exchange dock by the autonomous device. The method further includes autonomously disengaging from the battery exchange dock after receiving the charged battery.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure.
As mentioned above, an autonomous device may be configured to locate, move to, and engage with a battery recharging docking station to recharge an on-board battery. However, recharging a battery at a docking station may take a significant amount of time, during which the autonomous device may not be useable.
Thus, various embodiments are disclosed herein that relate to automatically exchanging a discharged battery in an automated device for a charged battery. In the disclosed embodiments, a battery exchange docking station is utilized to charge a battery when the battery is outside of and disconnected from a corresponding autonomous device. Further, the battery exchange docking station and/or the autonomous device includes a battery exchanging mechanism configured automatically exchange a charged battery on the docking station with a discharged battery on the autonomous device. Thus, while the autonomous device is away from the docking station and being powered by one or more batteries, one or more other batteries may be charged in the docking station. Then, the autonomous device may occasionally operatively engage with the docking station to undergo an automatic battery exchange process in which the discharged battery on the autonomous device is exchanged with a charged battery from the docketing station. In this manner, the autonomous device may obtain a freshly charged battery with less downtime than if the battery were recharged while in the autonomous device, and without human intervention. It will be understood that the terms “charged battery” and “discharged battery” as used herein refer to whether a battery was most recently charged via a docking station or discharged via autonomous device operation, and is not intended to signify any particular charge state of a battery relative to a fully charged or discharged state.
Upon occurrence of such a trigger, the autonomous device may locate the battery exchange dock in any suitable manner, and then autonomously move into operative engagement the battery exchange dock to participate in a battery exchange process. Next, after operatively engaging with the battery exchange dock, method 100 comprises, at 106, automatically placing a charged battery from the battery exchange dock into the autonomous device, and at 108, automatically removing a discharged battery from the autonomous device and placing it into a charging receptacle on the battery exchange dock. After the discharged battery has been placed in the charging receptacle of the autonomous device and the charged battery has been placed in the autonomous device, method 100 comprises, at 110, autonomously disengaging the autonomous device from the battery exchange dock while the discharged battery is being charged on the battery exchange dock. In this manner, the autonomous device may be provided with a freshly charged battery with potentially substantially less down time than where a battery is charged while remaining within an autonomous device.
In some embodiments, the charged battery may be provided to the autonomous device prior to removal of the discharged battery. In such embodiments, power may be continuously supplied to the autonomous device by the batteries being exchanged during the exchange process. This may allow the autonomous device to maintain an operative state during battery exchange, which may facilitate the participation of the autonomous device in the battery exchange process, for example, by moving to place different battery receptacles into proper alignment for battery exchange.
In other embodiments, the discharged battery may be removed prior to receipt of the charged battery by the autonomous device. In such embodiments, the autonomous device may comprise a secondary power supply, such as a secondary battery, supercapacitor, or other suitable charge storage device, to provide power to the autonomous device during a battery exchange process. Alternatively, in other embodiments, the autonomous device may be powered by the dock during battery exchange, or in yet other embodiments, the autonomous device may power down during battery exchange.
Controller 204 comprises a logic subsystem 209, and a data-holding subsystem 211 configured to hold instructions that are executable by the processor to perform tasks related to exchanging batteries, among other tasks. These subsystems are described in more detail below.
Autonomous device 200 further comprises a plurality of battery receptacles each configured to hold one or more batteries to independently provide power to the various components of autonomous device 200. In the embodiment of
Continuing with
As mentioned above, in some embodiments, an automated device may be configured to undergo a battery exchange operation by removal of a discharged battery before insertion of a charged battery. Thus, autonomous device 200 may comprise an optional secondary power source 215, such as a secondary battery, supercapacitor, or other suitable device, to provide power during a battery exchange process. Further, as mentioned above, the autonomous device may receive power from the battery exchange dock during battery exchange.
Battery exchange dock 300 comprises a controller 304 including a logic subsystem 306 and a data-holding subsystem 308 comprising instructions stored thereon that are executable by the logic subsystem to perform tasks related to exchanging batteries in an autonomous device, charging batteries, etc. These subsystems are described in more detail below. It will be understood that control logic and data also may be provided to battery exchange dock 300 by autonomous device 200 during docking, and therefore may be omitted from battery exchange dock 300 in some embodiments.
Additionally, battery exchange dock 300 further comprises a battery charging receptacle 310, and a power supply 312, such as an unlimited power source (e.g. a power cord configured to plug into a wall jack), or a power source of greater capacity than the battery or batteries being charged. It will be understood that autonomous device 200 and/or battery exchange dock 300 may include any other suitable components not shown herein, including but not limited to communications subsystems to allow the autonomous device and battery exchange dock to communicate with each other and with other device (e.g. via a network), display subsystems, etc.
Any suitable battery exchanging mechanism may be used to effect the exchange of a discharged battery for a charged battery in autonomous device 200. For example, an exchange mechanism may be located on battery exchange dock 300, as indicated at 314, on autonomous device 200, as indicated at 216, or distributed between autonomous device 200 and battery exchange dock 300. Specific example embodiments of battery exchange mechanisms are described in more detail below.
Battery receptacles 210, 212 may have any suitable configuration for retaining a battery and electrically connecting the battery to circuitry in autonomous device 200.
Ribs 402, 404, 406 may comprise electrical contacts configured to form a conductive path with complementary contacts contained within rececesses 502, 504, 506 of battery 500. This is illustrated in
Referring briefly back to
Referring to
After receiving freshly charged battery 500, autonomous device 200 may close door 408 and rotate around a central axis, or otherwise move, to bring battery receptacle 212 into proper alignment with arms 706, 708 of battery exchange dock 300. Then, door 720 of battery receptacle 212 may be opened to allow arms 706, 708 to remove battery 722 for recharging. After battery 722 is removed, autonomous device 200 may autonomously disengage from battery exchange dock 300, thereby leaving battery 722 to charge on battery exchange dock 300.
After receiving freshly charged battery 1108, autonomous device 1100 moves to locate discharged battery 1102 over battery charger 1110, as shown in
It will be understood that any suitable mechanism may be used to move charged and discharged batteries respectively into and out of the autonomous device, and that such mechanism may reside fully on either of the autonomous device or battery exchange dock, or be distributed between the two devices.
Next referring to
While the batteries are depicted as being inserted into and removed from the autonomous device via vertical motion in the embodiments of
In yet other embodiments, more than two batteries may be exchanged between autonomous device 1500 and battery exchange dock 1504 in such a manner that only a subset of batteries currently being used to power autonomous device 1500 are exchanged during each battery exchange process. As a more specific example of such an embodiment, three batteries may be exchanged between an autonomous device and battery exchange dock, such that two batteries are contained on the autonomous device during operation while a third battery is being charged. Then, during an exchange process, the freshly charged battery may be exchanged for a most-discharged battery on the autonomous device without powering down the autonomous device. Thus, in such embodiments, the battery exchange dock may be configured to charge multiple batteries and the autonomous device could be capable of holding multiple batteries. In this configuration, the autonomous device and battery exchange dock may negotiate a wide range of charging time, power storage, and power consumption scenarios for different situations. For example, if continuous availability with short breaks was desired, then the device and dock may exchange fewer batteries frequently. Likewise, if a long burst of uninterrupted activity was desired, then the device and dock may exchange and use a larger supply of batteries.
First referring to
Autonomous device 1900 moves onto battery exchange dock 1906 until discharged battery 1904 is engaged with rotational battery exchange mechanism 1908. Then, referring to
The rotational battery exchange mechanism may hold the batteries during exchange in any suitable manner. For example, as described above, the batteries may include interface features configured to couple with complementary interface features on the battery exchange mechanism. Likewise, in other embodiments, the batteries may be contained within holders, wherein the holders include interface features complementary to interface features on the battery exchange mechanism.
In this manner, an autonomous device may obtain a freshly-charged battery without having to wait for an on-board battery to charge at a battery charging station. While the embodiments herein are each shown as exchanging two batteries between a battery exchange dock and an autonomous device, it will be understood that any suitable number of batteries may be utilized.
As mentioned above, an autonomous device and battery exchange dock each may comprise a controller having a logic subsystem configured to execute instructions, and a data-holding subsystem configured to hold instructions executable by such logic subsystem to perform tasks related to exchanging batteries, charging batteries, etc. It is to be understood that such controllers may have any computer architecture without departing from the scope of this disclosure.
The above-described logic subsystems may include one or more physical devices configured to execute one or more instructions. For example, a logic subsystem may be configured to execute one or more instructions that are part of one or more applications, services, programs, routines, libraries, objects, components, data structures, or other logical constructs. Such instructions may be implemented to perform a task, implement a data type, transform the state of one or more devices, or otherwise arrive at a desired result.
A logic subsystem may include one or more processors that are configured to execute software instructions. Additionally or alternatively, a logic subsystem may include one or more hardware or firmware logic machines configured to execute hardware or firmware instructions. Processors of a logic subsystem may be single core or multicore, and the programs executed thereon may be configured for parallel or distributed processing. A logic subsystem may optionally include individual components that are distributed throughout two or more devices, which may be remotely located and/or configured for coordinated processing. One or more aspects of a logic subsystem may be virtualized and executed by remotely accessible networked computing devices configured in a cloud computing configuration.
A data-holding subsystem may include one or more physical, non-transitory, devices configured to hold data and/or instructions executable by the logic subsystem to implement the herein described methods and processes. When such methods and processes are implemented, the state of a data-holding subsystem may be transformed (e.g., to hold different data).
In some embodiments, a data-holding subsystem may include removable computer-readable storage media and/or built-in devices. Such a data-holding subsystem may include optical memory devices (e.g., CD, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray Disc, etc.), semiconductor memory devices (e.g., RAM, EPROM, EEPROM, etc.) and/or magnetic memory devices (e.g., hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, tape drive, MRAM, etc.), among others. A data-holding subsystem further may include devices with one or more of the following characteristics: volatile, nonvolatile, dynamic, static, read/write, read-only, random access, sequential access, location addressable, file addressable, and content addressable. In some embodiments, a logic subsystem and data-holding subsystem may be integrated into one or more common devices, such as an application specific integrated circuit or a system on a chip.
Removable computer-readable storage media may be used to store and/or transfer data and/or instructions executable to implement the herein described methods and processes. Removable computer-readable storage media may take the form of CDs, DVDs, HD-DVDs, Blu-Ray Discs, EEPROMs, magnetic, and/or floppy disks, among others.
It is to be appreciated that a data-holding subsystem may include one or more physical, non-transitory devices. In contrast, in some embodiments aspects of the instructions described herein may be propagated in a transitory fashion by a pure signal (e.g., an electromagnetic signal, an optical signal, etc.) that is not held by a physical device for at least a finite duration. Furthermore, data and/or other forms of information pertaining to the present disclosure may be propagated by a pure signal.
It is to be understood that the configurations and/or approaches described herein are exemplary in nature, and that these specific embodiments or examples are not to be considered in a limiting sense, because numerous variations are possible. The specific routines or methods described herein may represent one or more of any number of processing strategies. As such, various acts illustrated may be performed in the sequence illustrated, in other sequences, in parallel, or in some cases omitted. Likewise, the order of the above-described processes may be changed.
The subject matter of the present disclosure includes all novel and nonobvious combinations and subcombinations of the various processes, systems and configurations, and other features, functions, acts, and/or properties disclosed herein, as well as any and all equivalents thereof.
