Keywords
Citation
Hollingum, J. (2001), "Autonomous robot", Industrial Robot, Vol. 28 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2001.04928dad.012
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited
Autonomous robot
Autonomous robotKeywords: Robots, Navigation
Applicants: Friendly Machines Ltd (IL), Shai Abramson (IL), Ehud Peless(IL), Ronen Friedman (IL), Ilan Peleg (IL)Patent number: WO9959042Publication date: 18 November 1999Title: Area coverage with autonomous robot
An autonomous robot operates within an area marked with boundary markers. If there are fixed obstacles in the area, such as flower beds, trees, columns, walls, etc., these obstacles are rimmed with further boundary markers. The boundary markers can be of any suitable type, such as an electrified wire, bar coded posts, radioactive posts, etc. The term "marker" will be used herein for both posts and wires. The robot includes a navigation system which receives data from an edge sensor that senses when the robot approaches a boundary marker. The navigation system also receives data from an odometer which measures the distance the robot has moved and a compass which measures the current location of the robot. Initially, the robot is placed within the area to be covered. It moves toward the boundary (if it did not begin near it) and then moves along the boundary, following the boundary markers. During this process, the robot uses the location information from the compass to produce a map of the area to be covered. Once the map is complete, the robot moves about the area to be covered. Whenever it approaches a boundary marker, as sensed by the edge sensor, it changes direction and continues until it reaches another boundary marker. Moreover, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, at least one boundary marker is an electrified wire receiving a first signal and at least one obstacle marker is an electrified wire receiving a second signal. Alternatively, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, at least one boundary marker is a post having a first bar code and the at least one obstacle marker is a post having a second bar code.