Robot-based material removal in unstable static equilibrium system

A method of characterizing a pile of debris comprising:

• visually segregating the pile of debris into each of a plurality of blocks;
• visually capturing a size, shape of color of each of the plurality of blocks;
• identifying an angular displacement of each of the plurality of blocks;
• visually identifying materials that comprise each of the plurality of blocks from the color of each of the plurality of blocks;
• identifying a density of each of the plurality of blocks from the materials that comprise each of the plurality of blocks;
• identifying a coefficient of friction of each of the plurality of blocks from the materials that comprise each of the plurality of blocks;
• determining a weight of each of the plurality of blocks from the materials, size and shape of each of the plurality of blocks;
• visually identifying touch points of each of the plurality of blocks and determining at least one applied force at each of the touch points;
• determining external forces applied to the pile of debris;
• and
• creating a static equilibrium diagram for the pile of debris;
• wherein characterizing the pile of debris is performed on one or more computing devices.

A computer program product for removing material from a pile of debris comprising a plurality of blocks of material, the computer program product comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:
• (a) computer readable program code configured to characterize the pile of debris to create a static equilibrium diagram illustrating one or more forces acting on each of the plurality of blocks of material;
• (b) computer readable program code configured to rank the plurality of blocks of material according to a number of touch points that each block of material touches another block of material;
• (c) computer readable program code configured to identify at least one block having a least number of touch points;
• (d) computer readable program code configured to remove the at least one block from the static equilibrium diagram;
• (e) computer readable program code configured to determine if the at least one block is removable by a robot;
• (f) computer readable program code configured to determine if the pile of debris would be in static equilibrium after removal of the at least one block;
• and
• (g) computer readable program code configured to direct the robot to remove the at least one block.

A computer program product for characterizing a pile of debris, the computer program product comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:
• computer readable program code configured to visually segregate the pile of debris into each of the plurality of blocks;
• computer readable program code configured to visually capture a size, shape of color of each of the plurality of blocks;
• computer readable program code configured to visually identify an angular displacement of each of the plurality of blocks;
• computer readable program code configured to visually identify materials that comprise each of the plurality of blocks from the color of each of the plurality of blocks;
• computer readable program code configured to identify a density of each of the plurality of blocks from the materials that comprise each of the plurality of blocks;
• computer readable program code configured to identify coefficient of friction of each of the plurality of blocks from the materials that comprise each of the plurality of blocks;
• computer readable program code configured to determine a weight of each of the plurality of blocks from the materials, size and shape of each of the plurality of blocks;
• computer readable program code configured to visually identify touch points of each of the plurality of blocks and determine at least one applied force at each of the touch points;
• computer readable program code configured to determine external forces applied to the pile of debris;
• and
• computer readable program code configured to create a static equilibrium diagram for the pile of debris.

A system of removing material from a pile of debris comprising a plurality of blocks of material comprising:

• a plurality of video devices surrounding a pile of debris;
• at least one computer processor in cooperation with the plurality of video devices to characterize the pile of debris to create a static equilibrium diagram illustrating one or more forces acting on each of the plurality of blocks of material;
• a module in the at least one computer processor to rank the plurality of blocks of material according to a number of touch points that each block of material touches another block of material;
• a module in the at least one computer processor to identify at least one block having a least number of touch points;
• a module in the at least one computer processor to remove the at least one block from the static equilibrium diagram;
• a module in the at least one computer processor to determine if the at least one block is removable by a robot;
• a module in the at least one computer processor to determine if the pile of debris would be in static equilibrium after removal of the at least one block;
• and
• a module in the at least one computer processor to direct the robot to remove the at least one block from the pile of debris.