Robot with tennis ball gathering capabilities

A robotic system comprising:

• a robot including:
• a scoop;
• pusher pad arms with pusher pads;
• at least one wheel or one track for mobility of the robot;
• a processor;
• and
• a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, allow operation and control of the robot;
• a base station;
• a plurality of ball baskets for at least one of storing balls and launching the balls;
• a robotic control system in at least one of the robot and a cloud server;
• and
• logic, to:
• execute an initialization mode, including:
• map, by the robot, an environment with a court, including:
• identify the court, court boundary lines, at least one player on the court, and ball baskets;
• and
• localize itself within the environment;
• receive an operating state from at least one of a user and a timing setting;
• on condition the operating state is a pick up ball mode:
• determine if a pickup threshold has been reached;
• on condition the pickup threshold has not been reached:
• determine a pickup strategy for picking up the balls;
• execute the pickup strategy until the pickup threshold has been reached, the pickup strategy including:
• navigate the environment while following ball pickup area rules;
• extend the pusher pads out and forward with respect to the pusher pad arms and raise the pusher pads to a grabbing height;
• approach a target ball, coming to a stop when the target ball is positioned between the pusher pads;
• push the target ball with the pusher pads onto the scoop to hold the target ball in the scoop;
• and
• raise at least one of the scoop and the pusher pads, holding the target ball, to a carrying position;
• determine if the pickup threshold has been reached;
• on condition the pickup threshold has been reached:
• execute a post pickup mode, including:
• navigate to a post pickup location to at least one of:
• transfer the balls into the ball baskets;
• and
• bring the balls to the at least one player.