Autonomous lawn mower blade sharpening and task robot
AssigneeOrbiSharp Robotics, Inc.
InventorBrian F. Smith
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A lawn mower blade sharpening and task robot that autonomously drives under a lawn mower including a body, at least one motor, and a microprocessor. The robot also includes at least one a camera for object recognition and visualization of at least one of the lawn mower, a lawn mower deck, a lawn mower blade, and a lawn mower blade cutting edge, and at least one a sensor to sense the lawn mower, the lawn mower deck, the lawn mower blade, and lawn mower cutting edge. The robot may also include at least one of a task tool, a task arm, a task tip, and a task element in order to complete tasks such as sharping lawn mower blades and cleaning lawn mower blades.
Claims20
A lawn mower maintenance robot, comprising:
- a robot body having a form factor suitable for accessing an area underneath a deck of a lawn mower while the lawn mower is resting on the ground;
- a set of wheels on an underside of the robot body;
- a motor in the robot body to drive the set of wheels;
- at least one task arm coupled to an upper surface of the robot body, wherein the at least one task arm includes a sharpening tip suitable for performing sharpening of one or more blades of the lawn mower underneath the deck;
- one or more positioning sensors to generate sensing data indicative of position of the robot body relative to the lawn mower and indicative of position of the sharpening tip relative to the one or more blades of the lawn mower;
- and
- a controller configured to obtain the sensing data from the one or more positioning sensors, to autonomously control the motor based on the sensing data to navigate the lawn mower maintenance robot from a starting position outside the deck of the lawn mower to the area underneath the deck of the lawn mower, and the controller configured to control an action of the task arm based at least in part on the sensing data to perform a sharpening task on the one or more blades while underneath the deck of the lawn mower.
A method for operating a lawn mower maintenance robot, wherein the lawn mower maintenance robot includes a robot body having a form factor suitable for accessing an area underneath a deck of a lawn mower while the lawn mower is resting on the ground, a set of wheels on an underside of the robot body, a motor in the robot body to drive the set of wheels, and at least one task arm coupled to an upper surface of the robot body, wherein the at least one task arm includes a sharpening tip suitable for performing sharpening of one or more blades of the lawn mower underneath the deck, the method comprising:
- generating, by one or more positioning sensors, sensing data indicative of position of the robot body relative to the lawn mower and indicative of position of the sharpening tip relative to the one or more blades of the lawn mower;
- obtaining, by a controller, the sensing data from the one or more positioning sensors;
- autonomously controlling, by the controller, the motor based on the sensing data to navigate the lawn mower maintenance robot from a starting position outside the deck of the lawn mower to the area underneath the deck of the lawn mower;
- and
- controlling, by the controller, an action of the task arm based at least in part on the sensing data to perform a sharpening task on the one or more blades while underneath the deck of the lawn mower.
A lawn mower maintenance system, comprising:
- a lawn mower maintenance robot comprising:
- a robot body having a form factor suitable for accessing an area underneath a deck of a lawn mower while the lawn mower is resting on the ground;
- a set of wheels on an underside of the robot body;
- a motor in the robot body to drive the set of wheels;
- at least one task arm coupled to an upper surface of the robot body, wherein the at least one task arm includes a sharpening tip suitable for performing sharpening of one or more blades of the lawn mower underneath the deck;
- one or more positioning sensors to generate sensing data indicative of position of the robot body relative to the lawn mower and indicative of position of the sharpening tip relative to the one or more blades of the lawn mower;
- and
- a controller configured to obtain the sensing data from the one or more positioning sensors, to autonomously control the motor based on the sensing data to navigate the lawn mower maintenance robot from a starting position outside the deck of the lawn mower to the area underneath the deck of the lawn mower, and the controller configured to control an action of the task arm based at least in part on the sensing data to perform a sharpening task on the one or more blades while underneath the deck of the lawn mower;
- and
- a remote control device to send a control signal to the lawn mower maintenance robot to initiate the sharpening task and to receive sensor data from the controller indicative of a status of the sharpening task.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.