Patent ID: 7984529

Claim:
An apparatus for autonomous or semi-autonomous detection, treatment or collection of a quantity of solid or semi-solid animal excrement from a surface, said apparatus comprising: a robotic vehicle including: a chassis; selectively operable navigation assembly for navigating said vehicle over a selected area of the surface; a removable container mounted on said chassis and adapted to receive said quantity of animal excrement therein for subsequent disposal thereof; sensors for detecting one or more properties of a perceived quantity of animal excrement, and outputting to said central controller unit one or more signals representative of the location of said perceived quantity of animal excrement; and a central controller unit mounted on the chassis for analyzing said one or more signals received therein and developing one or more output signals to said navigation assembly for navigating said robotic vehicle to a position contiguous to said perceived quantity of animal excrement and further one or more output signals to effectuate the treatment or collection of said quantity of animal excrement from said surface.