Patent ID: 9371622
Filing Date: 2016-06-21
CPC Classification: A62C,E02B

Claim Text:
1. An environmental hazard containment module, comprising: a module body extending along an axis from a first end to a second end opposite the first end: a communication device to exchange location information with a plurality of remote containment modules having similar structures: a first motion portion located at the first end of the module body and adapted to move the containment module; a second motion portion located at the second end of the module body and adapted to move the containment module: a first electro-magnetic attaching portion located at the first end of the module body: a second electro-magnetic attaching portion located at the second end of the module body: a computer storage unit for receiving, storing, and providing said data indicative of the location information; and a processor in communication with the storage unit, first motion portion, second motion portion, first electro-magnetic attaching portion, and second magnetic attaching portion, wherein the processor is configured for: detecting hazard location information associated with an environmental hazard, automatically determining a containment configuration comprising a contiguous arrangement of the containment module and the plurality of remote containment modules such that the hazard location is within an area defined by an irregular polygon having: (i) polygon segments, each segment comprising a module body, and (ii) polygon vertexes, each vertex comprising an electro-magnetic attaching portion coupled to an electro-magnetic attaching portion of a neighboring module, communicating with at least one of the motion portions to move the containment module in accordance with the determined irregular polygon, and transmitting information associated with the irregular polygon to the plurality of remote containment modules, wherein said determination of the containment configuration includes optimizing the area of the irregular polygon with respect to the hazard location information, the optimizing including: establishing an X-Y coordinate framework for the irregular polygon having N segments such that vertexes of the irregular polygon are mapped to coordinates X wherein i proceeds through each vertex as it appears in the irregular polygon in a clockwise fashion, and the area below each segment is between the segment and the X-axis and is: (i) added to A when X