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US 12,611,782 B2Granted
Robotic grouter
AssigneeFabrica Robotics Pte. Ltd.
InventorsJakub Suchanek, Ronald Luc, Keefe Wayne Teo Zhi Yuan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An autonomous grouting robotic apparatus comprising a sponge belt, a front sponge guide assembly, a grout extruder with a nozzle, cameras, and a LIDAR is configured to map a room and identify grouting lines each corresponding to a gap between tiles and to drive the robot and control extrusion of the grout from the nozzle and to clean excess grout off tiles. The front sponge guide assembly and grout extruder are mounted to the robotic apparatus using a pivoting mounting arrangement to control a tilt angle to allow extruding into grouting gaps located along the edges of the room.
Claims20
An autonomous grouting robotic apparatus comprising:
- a frame;
- a grout cleaning arrangement comprising:
- a sponge belt forming a loop;
- a tank;
- a sponge belt cleaning and tensioning assembly comprising a plurality of rollers;
- a front sponge guide assembly configured to guide the sponge belt over a forward tip;
- and
- a front support assembly mounted to the frame and which is configured to support the front sponge guide assembly and to control a height of the front sponge guide assembly and a tilt angle of the front sponge guide assembly with respect to a vertical axis of the autonomous grouting robotic apparatus;
- a grout extruder comprising a grout extruder mounting assembly which either supports a grout storage container or is configured to receive and support a removable grout storage container, and a motorised plunger, wherein the grout storage container (13) or the removable grout storage container (13) ends in a nozzle with a slot and is configured to receive the motorised plunger, and the grout extruder mounting assembly is configured to control a location and a height of the nozzle and to control a tilt angle of the nozzle with respect to the vertical axis of the autonomous grouting robotic apparatus;
- a power system configured to provide power to the autonomous grouting robotic apparatus;
- a drive system configured to drive the autonomous grouting robotic apparatus;
- a control system comprising at least one processor, at least one memory, at least one LIDAR, at least one imaging sensor, and at least one motion sensor, wherein the at least one imaging sensor is mounted to the frame to observe a composite field of view in front of the autonomous grouting robotic apparatus, and the at least one motion sensor is configured to detect motion of the autonomous grouting robotic apparatus, and the control system is configured to process at least a plurality of images and a plurality of LIDAR scans to map a room and identify a plurality of grouting lines where each grouting line corresponds to a gap between tiles, and to control the drive system, the grout extruder and the grout cleaning arrangement to control extrusion of grout from the nozzle and to clean excess grout off tiles, such that when extruding grout the slot is aligned along the grouting line.
9 more elements
A method of controlling an autonomous grouting robotic apparatus comprising:
- mapping a room and identifying a plurality of grout lines within the room by driving an autonomous grouting robotic apparatus around the room and collecting a plurality of images from at least one imaging sensor mounted on the autonomous grouting robotic apparatus, a plurality of LIDAR scans from at least one LIDAR mounted on the autonomous grouting robotic apparatus, and motion data from at least one motion sensor configured to detect motion of the autonomous grouting robotic apparatus, and using a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm to process the plurality of images, plurality of LIDAR scans and motion data to generate a map of the room, and processing the plurality of images to identify a plurality of grouting lines corresponding to gaps between tiles in the room;
- grouting a room by progressively selecting each grouting line in the map until all grouting lines are selected and grouted and for each selected grouting line:
- driving the autonomous grouting robotic apparatus to a starting location;
- dispensing grout into the grouting line from a grout extruder mounted on the autonomous grouting robotic apparatus by controlling a location of a nozzle of the grout extruder and driving the autonomous grouting robotic apparatus to follow the grouting line wherein a precise location and rotation angle are continuously updated using motion data from the at least one motion sensors and a plurality of images from the at least one imaging sensors captured as the autonomous grouting robotic apparatus moves;
- retracing the grouting line and cleaning excess grout from the grouting line using a sponge belt guided by a front sponge guide assembly mounted on the autonomous grouting robotic apparatus,
- wherein if a grout line is an edge grout line, the grout extruder and the front sponge guide assembly are tilted by a tilt angle to direct the nozzle and belt over the edge grout line.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.