Patent ID: 8874265
Filing Date: 2014-10-28
Classification: B25J,G05B

Abstract:
1. A method of removing material from a pile of debris comprising a plurality of blocks of material, the method comprising: (a) characterizing the pile of debris to create a static equilibrium diagram illustrating one or more forces acting on each of the plurality of blocks of material; (b) ranking the plurality of blocks of material according to a number of touch points that each block of material touches another block of material; (c) identifying at least one block having a least number of touch points; (d) removing the at least one block from the static equilibrium diagram; (e) determining if the at least one block is removable by a robot; (f) determining if the pile of debris would be in static equilibrium after removal of the at least one block; and (g) directing the robot to remove the at least one block, (h) wherein the method is performed on one or more computing devices.