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US 11,052,535 B2Granted
Floor-to-height object retrieval robot
AssigneeinVia Robotics, Inc.
InventorsDaniel Frank Parks, II, Randolph Charles Voorhies, Lior Elazary
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Provided is a robot for retrieving objects with different sizes, shapes, weights, placements, configurations, and/or other characteristics from a floor or raised height. The robot may include a motorized base, a lift that raises to a plurality of heights from the base, an upper platform attached over the lift, a vertical extension extending downwards from a frontside of the upper platform and in front of the lift, a lower platform with a proximal end coupled to the vertical extension and a distal end extending in front of the robot and directly over a ground surface on which the motorized base moves when the lift is in a lowered position, and a retriever for retrieving an object onto the lower platform.
Claims18
A robot comprising:
- a motorized base;
- a lift raising to a plurality of heights from the base;
- an upper platform attached atop the lift, the upper platform comprising a tilt sensor and a set of movable counter-weights that move from at least a center of the upper platform to a first side of the upper platform in response to the tilt sensor detecting the robot becoming off-balanced due to a center of gravity of the robot changing, and wherein the set of movable counter-weights move from the center until the tilt sensor detects that balance and the center of gravity of the robot are restored;
- a vertical extension extending downwards from a second side of the upper platform this is opposite to the first side;
- a lower platform with a proximal end coupled to the vertical extension and a distal end extending laterally from the second side of the robot and directly over a ground surface on which the motorized base moves when the lift is in a lowered position;
- a retriever for retrieving an object onto the lower platform;
- a second sensor that is located on the lower platform, the second sensor providing sensory input that is used to align the lower platform with a bottom of the object;
- and
- a third sensor that is located on the upper platform, the third sensor providing sensory input that detects a topmost object in a stack prior to the lower platform raising over the topmost object.
6 more elements
A robot comprising:
- a motorized base;
- a lift raising to a plurality of heights from the base;
- a platform coupled to the lift and extending in front of the lift directly over a ground surface on which the motorized base moves when the lift is in a lowered position;
- a rotating actuator coupled to one end of the platform;
- a retriever;
- one or more sensors;
- a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of processor-executable instructions;
- and
- one or more processors configured to execute the set of processor-executable instructions, wherein executing the set of processor-executable instructions causes the one or more processors to:
- rotate the platform from a horizontal position to a vertical position using the rotating actuator;
- operate the motorized base in moving the robot to a storage location with the platform in the vertical position;
- rotate the platform from the vertical position to the horizontal position in response to the robot arriving before the storage location;
- align a center of the platform with a center of the storage location via movement of the motorized base in response to detecting an identifier for the storage location using the one or more sensors;
- raise the lift to align a vertical height of the platform with a bottom of an object at the storage location;
- extend the retriever until contact with the object is detected via the one or more sensors;
- and
- retrieve the object by engaging the object with the retriever and retracting the retriever with the object towards a proximal end of the platform.
14 more elements
A robot comprising:
- a motorized base;
- a lift raising to a plurality of heights from the base;
- an upper platform attached atop the lift, the upper platform comprising a tilt sensor and a set of movable counter-weights that move from at least a center of the upper platform to a first side of the upper platform in response to the tilt sensor detecting the robot becoming off-balanced due to a center of gravity of the robot changing, and wherein the set of movable counter-weights move from the center until the tilt sensor detects that balance and the center of gravity of the robot are restored;
- a vertical extension extending downwards from a second side of the upper platform this is opposite to the first side;
- a lower platform with a proximal end coupled to the vertical extension and a distal end extending laterally from the second side of the robot and directly over a ground surface on which the motorized base moves when the lift is in a lowered position;
- a retriever for retrieving an object onto the lower platform, wherein the retriever comprises a first telescoping arm at a right side of the robot, and a second telescoping arm at a left side, each of the first telescoping arm and the second telescoping arm comprising an engaging element at a distal end, and each of the first telescoping arm and the second telescoping arm collapsing towards a proximal end of the lower platform and extending to a distal end of the lower platform.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.