US 9,908,239 B1Granted

Mobile robot system

AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.

InventorsKevin Patrick O'Brien, Jignesh Gandhi

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A mobile robot for responding to computer system issues travels to and interacts with a specific computer system in a data center based on a command from a central control system. The mobile robot can collect environmental data from a location proximate to a specific computer system, communicatively couple to a specific computer system via engaging a communication connector with an interface of the specific computer system, collect data from a specific computer system via the coupling to the specific computer system, establish a remote communication link between the specific computer system and a remote computer system, and send the collected data to a remote computer system or process the collected data. The mobile robot can manipulate one or more manipulable arms to remove a component part from a specific computer system and install a replacement component part in a specific computer system.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A system, comprising:

a mobile robot comprising one or more manipulable arms and one or more communication connectors coupled to the one or more manipulable arms, wherein the mobile robot is configured to:
travel within a data center to a location proximate to a specific computer system of a plurality of computer systems in the data center,
identify a specific communication port on the specific computer system, and
communicatively couple the mobile robot with the specific computer system via the identified specific communication port to establish a local communication link between the mobile robot and the specific computer system, wherein, to establish a local communication link between the mobile robot and the specific computer system, the mobile robot is configured to:
manipulate at least one of the one or more manipulable arms to engage the one or more communication connectors coupled to the one or more manipulable arms with the identified specific communication port on the specific computer system;
and
a central control system comprising one or more computers communicatively coupled with the mobile robot, wherein the central control system is configured to:
command the mobile robot to travel to the specific computer system and establish the local communication link to establish a remote communication link between the central control system and the specific computer system via the mobile robot, and
receive data from the specific computer system via the established remote communication link between the central control system and the specific computer system, based at least in part on the establishing of the local communication link between the mobile robot and the specific computer system.

6 more elements

An apparatus, comprising:

a mobile robot comprising one or more manipulable arms and one or more connectors coupled to the one or more manipulable arms, wherein the mobile robot is configured to:
identify a specific port associated with a specific computer system in a data center, based at least in part upon observation of a local space proximate to the specific computer system, wherein the specific port comprises a communication port or a power port associated with the specific computer system;
and
establish a local communication link or power link between the mobile robot and the specific computer system via the identified specific port, based at least in part upon the identifying;
wherein, to establish the local link, the mobile robot is configured to:
manipulate the one or more manipulable arms to engage the one or more connectors coupled to the one or more manipulable arms with the identified specific port.

3 more elements

A method, comprising:

performing by one or more computing devices:
determining an occurrence of an anomaly associated with a specific computer system of a plurality of computer systems based at least in part on one or more received sensor signals indicating that computing performance associated with the specific computer system at least meets a threshold level;
and
commanding one or more mobile robots, based at least in part upon determining the occurrence of the anomaly, to:
travel to a location proximate to the specific computer system;
identify a specific port associated with the specific computer system based on observation of a local space proximate to the specific computer system;
establish a local communication link between the one or more mobile robots and the specific computer system via the identified specific port;
and
collect data associated with the specific computer system via one or more interfaces of the one or more mobile robots,
wherein the one or more computing devices performing said determining and said commanding are remote from the one or more mobile robots.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/303,545Filed 12 Jun 2014
Granted: 6 Mar 2018
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification14 codes

B25J 9/02
Program-controlled manipulators: characterised by movement of the arms, e.g. cartesian coordinate type
B25J 5/007
Manipulators mounted on wheels or on carriages: mounted on wheels
B25J 9/0084
Program-controlled manipulators: comprising a plurality of manipulators
G05D 1/0274
Using internal positioning means: using mapping information stored in a memory device

Family

No related US applications are recorded in the indexed filing history.

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