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US 10,377,252 B2Granted
Robots and apparatus, systems and methods for powering robots
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsDavid W. Browning, Yoshifumi Nishi, Mark MacDonald
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Robots and apparatus, systems and methods for powering robots are disclosed. A disclosed conductive floor to power a robot on the floor includes a plurality of stationary conductors positioned in a pattern and a power delivery circuit to cause adjacent ones of the conductors to have different electrical potentials, the adjacent ones of the conductors to form a circuit to deliver power to the robot via contacts formed in a bottom surface of the robot.
Claims20
A conductive floor comprising:
- a power delivery circuit;
- and
- a plurality of stationary conductors positioned in a pattern to form a circuit to deliver power from the power delivery circuit to a robot via contacts disposed in a tread of a tire or a wheel of the robot, at least one of:
- the plurality of stationary conductors being bands and the contacts being point contacts, or the plurality of stationary conductors being point contacts and the contacts being bands.
1 more element
A method comprising:
- causing ones of first stationary conductors in at least a part of a first region of a floor to have a first voltage;
- and
- causing ones of second stationary conductors in at least a part of a second region of the floor to have a second voltage, the first region electrically isolated from the second region;
- delivering power to a robot by forming a first conductive path between the ones of the first stationary conductors via contacts in a bottom surface of a robot;
- activating a first function of the robot when the robot is in the first region by transmitting a first modulated signal via the first stationary conductors in the first region, the first function associated with the first region;
- delivering power to the robot by forming a second conductive path between the ones of the second stationary conductors via the contacts in the bottom surface of the robot;
- and
- activating a second function of the robot when the robot is in the second region by transmitting a second modulated signal via the second stationary conductors in the second region, the second function associated with the second region.
5 more elements
A method of delivering power to a robot, the method comprising:
- causing ones of first stationary conductors in at least a part of a first region of a floor to have a first voltage, the first region being substantially flat;
- causing ones of second stationary conductors in at least a part of a second region of the floor to have a second voltage, the first region electrically isolated from the second region, the second region being inclined, the second voltage being higher than the first voltage to provide increased power to the robot to enable the robot to move upwardly along the inclined region;
- delivering power to the robot by a first conductive path between a subset of the first stationary conductors via contacts in a bottom surface of the robot;
- and
- delivering power to the robot by a second conductive path between a subset of the second stationary conductors via the contacts in the bottom surface of the robot.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.