Inventors:
James McLurkin - Somerville MA, US
Jennifer Smith - Cambridge MA, US
Assignee:
iRobot Corporation - Burlington MA
International Classification:
G06F 19/00
US Classification:
700245, 700248, 700249, 700253, 700257, 700260, 700263, 700264, 701 1, 701 23, 701 24, 701 25, 701 26, 701120, 701200, 901 1, 901 2, 901 3, 901 8, 901 9, 901 10, 901 23, 414 1, 414703, 31856811, 3185682, 703 7, 294 864
Abstract:
Methods for operating robotic devices (i. e. , “robots”) that employ adaptive behavior relative to neighboring robots and external (e. g. , environmental) conditions. Each robot is capable of receiving, processing, and acting on one or more multi-device primitive commands that describe a task the robot will perform in response to other robots and the external conditions. The commands facilitate a distributed command and control structure, relieving a central apparatus or operator from the need to monitor the progress of each robot. This virtually eliminates the corresponding constraint on the maximum number of robots that can be deployed to perform a task (e. g. , data collection, mapping, searching). By increasing the number of robots, the efficiency in completing the task is also increased.