Patent ID: 8074320

Claim:
An autonomous blower comprising: a chassis; a plurality of wheels rotatably connected to the chassis; at least one motor configured to rotate the plurality of wheels; a global positioning system (GPS) receiver retained by the chassis and configured to provide GPS signals indicative of the global coordinates of the chassis; an air-exhausting blower retained by the chassis and configured to blow ground debris that is located adjacent to the chassis; a computer storage medium configured to retain GPS coordinates that identify a clearable area and a target area; and a controller retained by the chassis and configured to generate approximately concentric circles of GPS coordinates from a point within the target area, to identify circular arcs of the generated approximately concentric circles that are within the clearable area, to generate at least one serpentine trajectory of GPS coordinates based at least in part on the identified circular arcs, and to store the at least one serpentine trajectory to the computer storage medium; wherein the controller is further configured to receive the GPS signals provided by the GPS receiver, and to provide drive signals to the at least one motor to direct the chassis along the at least one serpentine trajectory of GPS coordinates based on the received GPS signals, thereby directing debris that is blown by the air-exhausting blower to be blown from the clearable area to the target area.