Autonomous waste collection
AssigneeBattelle Memorial Institute
InventorsJames Prescott, Thomas D. Haubert, Krista I. A. Smith, Andrew V. Sweeney, Lindy Espina Dejarme
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An autonomous toilet may include a waste receptacle having a receptacle opening, a seat extending at least partially around the receptacle opening, the seat being configured to support a user of the autonomous toilet, a plurality of driven wheels configured to urge the autonomous toilet across a surface, one or more sensors configured to sense one or more conditions of a surrounding environment, and a controller communicatively coupled to the one or more sensors and the plurality of driven wheels.
Claims23
An autonomous toilet comprising:
- a waste receptacle having a receptacle opening;
- a lid movable between an open position and a closed position to selectively close the receptacle opening;
- a seat extending at least partially around the receptacle opening, the seat being configured to support a user of the autonomous toilet;
- a plurality of driven wheels configured to urge the autonomous toilet across a surface within an environment;
- one or more sensors configured to sense one or more conditions of the environment;
- and
- a controller communicatively coupled to the one or more sensors and the plurality of driven wheels, the controller being configured to cause the driven wheels to rotate to navigate the autonomous toilet within the environment to a user location, wherein:
- the lid is caused to automatically transition from the closed position to the open position in response to the autonomous toilet reaching the user location;
- and
- the lid is caused to automatically transition from the open position to the closed position before leaving the user location.
An autonomous toilet system comprising:
- a docking station;
- and
- an autonomous toilet configured to engage the docking station, the autonomous toilet including:
- a waste receptacle having a receptacle opening;
- a lid movable between an open position and a closed position to selectively close the receptacle opening;
- a seat extending at least partially around the receptacle opening, the seat being configured to support a user of the autonomous toilet;
- a plurality of driven wheels configured to urge the autonomous toilet across a surface within an environment;
- one or more sensors configured to sense one or more conditions of the environment;
- and
- a controller communicatively coupled to the one or more sensors and the plurality of driven wheels, the controller being configured to cause the driven wheels to rotate to navigate the autonomous toilet within the environment to a user location, wherein:
- the lid is caused to automatically transition from the closed position to the open position in response to the autonomous toilet reaching the user location;
- and
- the lid is caused to automatically transition from the open position to the closed position before leaving the user location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.