Light weight and real time slam for robots

A tangible, non-transitory, machine readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor of a cleaning robot effectuates operations comprising:

• capturing, by a LIDAR of the cleaning robot, LIDAR data as the cleaning robot performs work within an environment of the cleaning robot, wherein the LIDAR data is indicative of distance from a perspective of the LIDAR to obstacles immediately surrounding the cleaning robot and within reach of a maximum range of the LIDAR;
• generating, by the processor, a first iteration of a map of the environment in real time at a first position of the cleaning robot based on the LIDAR data and at least some sensor data captured by sensors of the cleaning robot, wherein the map is a bird's-eye view of the environment;
• capturing, by at least some of the sensors of the cleaning robot, sensor data from different positions within the environment as the cleaning robot performs work in the environment, wherein:
• newly captured sensor data partly overlaps with previously captured sensor data;
• at least a portion of the newly captured sensor data comprises distances to obstacles that were not visible by the sensors from a previous position of the robot from which the previously captured sensor data was obtained;
• and
• the newly captured sensor data is integrated into a previous iteration of the map to generate a larger map of the environment;
• capturing, by at least one of an IMU sensor, a gyroscope, and a wheel encoder of the cleaning robot, movement data indicative of movement of the cleaning robot;
• aligning and integrating, with the processor, newly captured LIDAR data captured from consecutive positions of the cleaning robot with previously captured LIDAR data captured from previous positions of the cleaning robot at overlapping points between the newly captured LIDAR data and the previously captured LIDAR data;
• generating, by the processor, additional iterations of the map based on the newly captured LIDAR data and at least some of the newly captured sensor data captured as the cleaning robot traverses into new and undiscovered areas of the environment, wherein successive iterations of the map are larger in size due to the addition of newly discovered areas;
• identifying, by the processor, a room in the map based on at least a portion of any of the LIDAR data, the sensor data, and the movement data;
• determining, by the processor, all areas of the environment are discovered and included in the map based on at least all the newly captured LIDAR data overlapping with the previously captured LIDAR data;
• localizing, by the processor, the cleaning robot within the map of the environment in real time and simultaneously to generating the map based on the LIDAR data, at least some of the sensor data, and the movement data;
• planning, by the processor, a path of the cleaning robot;
• actuating, by the processor, the cleaning robot to drive along a trajectory that follows along the planned path by providing pulses to one or more electric motors of wheels of the cleaning robot;
• wherein:
• the processor is a processor of a single microcontroller;
• the processor of the robot executes a simultaneous localization and mapping task in concurrence with a path planning task, an obstacle avoidance task, a coverage tracker task, a control task, and a cleaning operation task by time-sharing computational resources of the single microcontroller;
• a scheduler assigns a time slice of the single microcontroller to each of the simultaneous localization and mapping task, the path planning task, the obstacle avoidance task, the coverage tracker task, the control task, and the cleaning operation task according to an importance value assigned to each task;
• the scheduler preempts lower priority tasks with higher priority tasks, preempts all tasks by an interrupt service request when invoked, and runs a routine associated with the interrupt service request;
• a coverage tracker executed by the processor deems an operational session complete and transitions the cleaning robot to a state that actuates the cleaning robot to find a charging station;
• the map is stored in a memory accessible to the processor during a subsequent operational session of the cleaning robot;
• the map is transmitted to an application of a smart phone device previously paired with the processor of the robot using a wireless card coupled with the single microcontroller via the internet or a local network;
• and
• the application is configured to display the map on a screen of the smart phone.

A cleaning robot, comprising:

• a chassis;
• a set of wheels;
• a LIDAR;
• sensors;
• a processor;
• and
• a tangible, non-transitory, machine readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor effectuates operations comprising:
• capturing, by the LIDAR, LIDAR data as the cleaning robot performs work within an environment of the cleaning robot, wherein the LIDAR data is indicative of distance from a perspective of the LIDAR to obstacles immediately surrounding the cleaning robot and within reach of a maximum range of the LIDAR;
• generating, by the processor, a first iteration of a map of the environment in real time at a first position of the cleaning robot based on the LIDAR data and at least some sensor data captured by the sensors, wherein the map is a bird's-eye view of the environment;
• capturing, by at least some of the sensors, sensor data from different positions within the environment as the cleaning robot performs work in the environment, wherein:
• newly captured sensor data partly overlaps with previously captured sensor data;
• at least a portion of the newly captured sensor data comprises distances to obstacles that were not visible by the sensors from a previous position of the robot from which the previously captured sensor data was obtained;
• and
• the newly captured sensor data is integrated into a previous iteration of the map to generate a larger map of the environment;
• capturing, by at least one of an IMU sensor, a gyroscope, and a wheel encoder of the cleaning robot, movement data indicative of movement of the cleaning robot;
• aligning and integrating, with the processor, newly captured LIDAR data captured from consecutive positions of the cleaning robot with previously captured LIDAR data captured from previous positions of the cleaning robot at overlapping points between the newly captured LIDAR data and the previously captured LIDAR data;
• generating, by the processor, additional iterations of the map based on the newly captured LIDAR data and at least some of the newly captured sensor data captured as the cleaning robot traverses into new and undiscovered areas of the environment, wherein successive iterations of the map are larger in size due to the addition of newly discovered areas;
• identifying, by the processor, a room in the map based on at least a portion of any of the LIDAR data, the sensor data, and the movement data;
• determining, by the processor, all areas of the environment are discovered and included in the map based on at least all the newly captured LIDAR data overlapping with the previously captured LIDAR data;
• localizing, by the processor, the cleaning robot within the map of the environment in real time and simultaneously to generating the map based on the LIDAR data, at least some of the sensor data, and the movement data;
• planning, by the processor, a path of the cleaning robot;
• actuating, by the processor, the cleaning robot to drive along a trajectory that follows along the planned path by providing pulses to one or more electric motors of wheels of the cleaning robot;
• wherein:
• the processor is a processor of a single microcontroller;
• the processor of the robot executes a simultaneous localization and mapping task in concurrence with a path planning task, an obstacle avoidance task, a coverage tracker task, a control task, and a cleaning operation task by time-sharing computational resources of the single microcontroller;
• a scheduler assigns a time slice of the single microcontroller to each of the simultaneous localization and mapping task, the path planning task, the obstacle avoidance task, the coverage tracker task, the control task, and the cleaning operation task according to an importance value assigned to each task;
• the scheduler preempts lower priority tasks with higher priority tasks, preempts all tasks by an interrupt service request when invoked, and runs a routine associated with the interrupt service request;
• a coverage tracker executed by the processor deems an operational session complete and transitions the cleaning robot to a state that actuates the cleaning robot to find a charging station;
• the map is stored in a memory accessible to the processor during a subsequent operational session of the cleaning robot;
• the map is transmitted to an application of a smart phone device previously paired with the processor of the robot using a wireless card coupled with the single microcontroller via the internet or a local network;
• and
• the application is configured to display the map on a screen of the smart phone.