Robots, teleoperation systems, and methods of operating the same
AssigneeSanctuary Cognitive Systems Corporation
InventorSuzanne Gildert
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure describes robots, tele-operation systems, methods, and computer program products where a robot is selectively operable in a plurality of control modes. Based on identification of a fault condition (when the robot fails to act in a suitable or sufficient manner), a control mode of the robot can be changed to provide a human operator with more explicit control over the robot. In this way, the fault condition can be resolved by human operator input, and the control modes, AI, or control paradigm for the robot can be trained to perform better in the future.
Claims12
A method of operation of a fleet of robots, each robot in the fleet of robots having a respective at least one processor and a respective communication interface that communicatively couples the at least one processor to a teleoperation system, the method comprising:
- respectively operating each robot in the fleet of robots in a full autonomy mode;
- while each robot in the fleet of robots is respectively operating in the full autonomy mode, identifying, by the at least one processor of a first robot in the fleet of robots, a first fault condition of the first robot;
- in response to identifying the first fault condition of the first robot:
- continuing to respectively operate in the full autonomy mode each robot in the fleet of robots other than the first robot;
- and
- changing, by the at least one processor of the first robot, a control mode of the first robot to a graphical user interface (GUI) control mode having less robot autonomy than the full autonomy mode;
- transmitting, by the communication interface of the first robot, a request for GUI-based action instructions;
- receiving, by the communication interface of the first robot, GUI-based action instructions from the teleoperation system;
- executing the GUI-based action instructions by the first robot;
- while the first robot is executing the GUI-based action instructions, identifying a second fault condition of the first robot, the second fault condition indicating that the first fault condition has not been resolved;
- in response to identifying the second fault condition of the first robot:
- continuing to respectively operate in the full autonomy mode each robot in the fleet of robots other than the first robot;
- and
- changing the control mode of the first robot to an analogous teleoperation control mode having no robot autonomy;
- transmitting, by the communication interface of the first robot, a request to the teleoperation system for analogous teleoperation-based action instructions;
- receiving, by the communication interface of the first robot, analogous teleoperation-based action instructions from the teleoperation system;
- executing the analogous teleoperation action instructions by the first robot;
- training the GUI control mode based on the analogous teleoperation action instructions to increase a level of robot autonomy of the GUI control mode;
- and
- training the full autonomy mode based on both the analogous teleoperation instructions and the GUI-based action instructions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.