Environmental Management Systems Including Mobile Robots and Methods Using Same

A mobile robot, comprising:

• a microprocessor connected to a memory and a wireless network circuit, for executing routines stored in the memory and commands generated by the routines and received via the wireless network circuit;
• driven wheels commandable by the microprocessor to reach a multiplicity of accessible two dimensional locations within a household;
• an environmental sensor readable by the microprocessor, the microprocessor executing a plurality of routines including:
• a first routine which commands the driven wheels to move the robot about the household,
• a second routine which takes [environmental] sensor readings at a plurality of the accessible two dimensional locations within the household,
• a third routine which, based on the sensor readings throughout the household, sends data to a network entity having a dedicated environmental sensor resulting in the activation of a motorized actuator on the network entity to perform mechanical work in the household, despite the dedicated environmental sensor reading alone determining otherwise.

A mobile robot, comprising:

• a microprocessor connected to a memory and a wireless network circuit, for executing routines stored in the memory and commands generated by the routines and received via the wireless network circuit;
• driven wheels commandable by the microprocessor to reach a multiplicity of accessible two dimensional locations within a household;
• a localizing circuit, with at least one localizing sensor that observes sensor readings from objects within the household, for determining a current pose of the mobile robot with reference to the observed objects, the microprocessor executing a plurality of routines including:
• a navigation routine which commands the driven wheels to move the robot about the household,
• a surface mapping routine that accumulates observations from the localizing circuit to record a two dimensional array representing possible locations of the mobile robot;
• a mission time estimate routine that accumulates timed readings from the localizing circuit and determines at least one estimated completion time span for the mobile robot to substantially cover a surface area corresponding to a contiguous set of possible locations within the two dimensional array,
• and a mission pre-planning routine that compares a target completion time to the at least one estimate completion time span, and commands the driven wheels to begin covering a the surface area sufficiently in advance of the target completion time for the at least one estimated completion time to pass, so that the surface area is substantially covered before the target completion time.

A mobile robot, comprising:

• a microprocessor connected to a memory and a wireless network circuit, for executing routines stored in the memory and commands generated by the routines and received via the wireless network circuit;
• driven wheels commandable by the microprocessor to reach a multiplicity of accessible two dimensional locations within a household;
• an environmental sensor readable by the microprocessor to take current readings of an environmental quality;
• a localizing circuit, with at least one localizing sensor that observes sensor readings from objects within the household, for determining a current pose of the mobile robot with reference to the observed objects, the microprocessor executing a plurality of routines including:
• a navigation routine which commands the driven wheels to move the robot about the household,
• a surface mapping routine that accumulates observations from the localizing circuit to record a two dimensional array representing possible locations of the mobile robot;
• an environmental mapping routine that takes and accumulates readings from the environmental sensor at a plurality of the accessible two dimensional locations within the household and causes the memory to store a three dimensional array based on the readings and on the two dimensional array representing possible locations of the mobile robot;
• and
• a location-responsive environmental control routine which correlates the three dimensional array to locations of a plurality of home environmental control nodes, each home environmental control node having a dedicated environmental sensor and a control channel to actuate a motorized actuator to perform mechanical work within the household, and based on a proximity of at least one control node to an environmental mapping location represented in the three dimensional array, sends data to cause the at least one environmental control node to perform mechanical work in the household.