Discovery and monitoring of an environment using a plurality of robots

Abstract

Techniques are provided for discovery and monitoring of an environment using a plurality of robots. A plurality of robots navigate an environment by determining a navigation buffer for each of the robots; and allowing each of the robots to navigate within the environment while maintaining a substantially minimum distance from other robots, wherein the substantially minimum distance corresponds to the navigation buffer, and wherein a size of each of the navigation buffers is reduced over time based on a percentage of the environment that remains to be navigated. The robots can also navigate an environment by obtaining a discretization of the environment to a plurality of discrete regions; and determining a next unvisited discrete region for one of the plurality of robots to explore in the exemplary environment using a breadth-first search. The plurality of discrete regions can be, for example, a plurality of real or virtual tiles.

1 . A system for establishing boundaries in an environment, the system comprising:
 a remote mobile electro-mechanical device comprising:
 a rechargeable battery configured to provide electrical power to the remote mobile electro-mechanical device; 
 a camera mounted on or within the remote mobile electro-mechanical device; 
 a memory configured to store data; and 
 at least one hardware device coupled to the memory; and 
   a controller positioned remote from the remote mobile electro-mechanical device and wirelessly connected to the remote mobile electro-mechanical device through the at least one hardware device of the remote mobile electro-mechanical device;   wherein the remote mobile electro-mechanical device operates in accordance with a navigation buffer.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the navigation buffer is a multi-dimensional zone defining a perimeter of the environment. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the controller is configured to keep the remote mobile electro-mechanical device at least a minimum distance from the perimeter of the environment. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the multi-dimensional zone is a sphere, ellipsoid, cube, rectangle, or other shape defining the perimeter of the environment. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the perimeter of the environment is a location in which the remote mobile electro-mechanical device avoids and does not cross. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the remote mobile electro-mechanical device navigates the environment by receiving data from the controller indicating the navigation buffer. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the remote mobile electro-mechanical device navigates the environment by avoiding and not crossing the navigation buffer. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the remote mobile electro-mechanical device is controlled by electronic or computer programming. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the remote mobile electro-mechanical device includes one or more sensors configured to perform one or more measurements of the surrounding environment. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the remote mobile electro-mechanical device collects and stores speed, travel direction, time, and positioning data establishing the location or position of the remote mobile electro-mechanical device at a specific time. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the system uses location-awareness technology to update the location or position of the remote mobile electro-mechanical device within the environment. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the location-awareness technology uses one or more of a sonar, laser, or video on-board the remote mobile electro-mechanical device to update the position of the remote mobile electro-mechanical device within the environment. 
     
     
         13 . A method of controlling a position of a remote mobile electro-mechanical device, the method comprising:
 transmitting, by a controller, data to the remote mobile electro-mechanical device;   receiving, by the remote mobile electro-mechanical device, the data from the controller;   collecting, by the remote mobile electro-mechanical device, data representative of one or more of a speed, travel direction, and positioning of the remote mobile electro-mechanical device at a specific time;   transmitting, by the remote mobile electro-mechanical device, the collected data to the controller; and   storing and processing, by the controller, the collected data from the remote mobile electro-mechanical device;   wherein the remote mobile electro-mechanical device operates in accordance with a navigation buffer.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the remote mobile electro-mechanical device stores the collected data in a memory within the remote mobile electro-mechanical device, and wherein a hardware device within the remote mobile electro-mechanical device is coupled to the memory of the remote mobile electro-mechanical device and is configured to transmit the collected data to the controller. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the remote mobile electro-mechanical device maintains at least a minimum distance from the navigation buffer. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the navigation buffer is a multi-dimensional zone defining a perimeter of an environment. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the multi-dimensional zone is a sphere, ellipsoid, cube, rectangle, or other shape defining the perimeter of the environment. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16  and further comprising instructing, by the controller, the remote mobile electro-mechanical device to maintain at least a minimum distance from the perimeter of the environment. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16  and further comprising navigating, by the remote mobile electro-mechanical device, the environment based on data received from the controller indicating the navigation buffer. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the controller is configured to wirelessly communicate with a plurality of remote mobile electro-mechanical devices, and wherein the controller is configured to separately identify each remote mobile electro-mechanical device and store data from each one of the plurality of remote mobile electro-mechanical devices.