Mobile robot

US8958911B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• iRobot Corporation · US

Inventors

• Cheuk Wah Wong · Bedford, US
• Eben Christopher Rauhut · Watertown, US
• Brian Cleve Benson, JR. · Winchendon, US
• Peter J. Lydon · Peabody, US
• Michael Rosenstein · Sunnyvale, US
• Michael J. Halloran · Bedford, US
• Steven V. Shamlian · Watertown, US
• Chikyung Won · Tewksbury, US
• Mark Chiappetta · Chelmsford, US
• Justin H. Kearns · Somerville, US
• Orjeta Taka · Peabody, US
• Robert Todd Pack · Hollis, US
• Timothy S. Farlow · Needham, US
• Jasper Vicenti · Boston, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 23, 2012
• Grant date: Feb 17, 2015
• Expiry date: Jan 10, 2033

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S901/47
• WIPO field: Control
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A mobile robot including a robot body, a drive system supporting the robot body, and a controller in communication with the drive system. The robot also includes an actuator moving a portion of the robot body through a volume of space adjacent the mobile robot and a sensor pod in communication with the controller. The sensor pod includes a collar rotatably supported and having a curved wall formed at least partially as a surface of revolution about a vertical axis. The sensor pod also includes a volumetric point cloud sensor housed by the collar and observing the volume of space adjacent the robot from within the collar along an observation axis extending through the curved wall. A collar actuator rotates the collar and the volumetric point cloud sensor together about the collar axis.