Patent ID: 9026302
Filing Date: 2015-05-05
Classification: B25J,G05D,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A mobile device configured to navigate a surface, the mobile device comprising: a movement mechanism configured to move the mobile device among poses on the surface, each pose comprising a device location and a device orientation; a mapping module configured to update a map representing data about the surface, the map associating map locations with one or more properties sufficient to indicate unexplored, explored, and occupied locations, wherein a frontier indicates a boundary between an explored location and an unexplored location, and an edge indicates a boundary between an explored location and an occupied location; an initialization module configured to establish an initial pose; a first region-covering module configured to cause the movement mechanism to move the mobile device relative to one or more first frontiers discovered in a first direction of region discovery so as to cover a region of the surface and to cause the mapping module to update the map; a second region-covering module configured to cause the movement mechanism to move the mobile device relative to one or more second frontiers discovered in a second direction of region discovery so as to cover at least one additional region of the surface and to cause the mapping module to update the map; an edge-following module configured to cause the movement mechanism to move the mobile device along edges, and to cause the mapping module to extend edges and add frontiers discovered as the mobile device moves along edges, and a third region-covering module configured to cause the movement mechanism to move the mobile device relative to third frontiers discovered in the course of moving the mobile device along edges, wherein the edge-following module initiates after at least one of the first, second, or third region-covering modules completes discovering respective first, second, or third frontiers, and wherein when no further frontiers are discovered by any of the first, second and third region-covering modules, the edge-following module causes the movement mechanism to again move the mobile device along at least some edges previously followed.