Patent ID: 9400503
Filing Date: 2016-07-26
CPC Classification: B25J,G02B,G05D,G06K,G06T,H04N,Y10S

Claim Text:
1. A method of object detection for a mobile robot, the method comprising: emitting a speckle pattern of light onto a scene about the robot while maneuvering the robot across a work surface of a working area; receiving odometry measurements from a drive system of the robot while maneuvering the robot across the work surface; determining a first motion of the robot based on the odometry measurements; determining a current location of the robot in the working area based on the first robot motion and a previously determined location of the robot; receiving reflections of the emitted speckle pattern off surfaces of a target object in the scene; determining a second motion of the robot using visual odometry of the robot based on an optical flow of the received reflections; determining a robot motion error between the first robot motion based on the drive system odometry and the second robot motion based on the visual odometry; adjusting the current location of the robot based on the robot motion error; determining a distance of each reflecting surface of the target object; constructing a three-dimensional depth map of the target object using the received reflections, the determined distance of each reflecting surface of the target object, and the adjusted current location of the robot; and classifying the target object using the three-dimensional depth map, the classifying comprising: when the living object needs assistance, determining a type of assistance needed based on the state, the pose, or the gesture.