Patent ID: 8862271

Claim:
An autonomous robot comprising: a robot body defining a forward drive direction; a drive system supporting the robot body and configured to maneuver the robot over a floor surface; a sensor system disposed on the robot body, the sensor system comprising at least one proximity sensor, wherein the proximity sensor comprises: a sensor body; first, second, and third components housed by the sensor body, the first component being one of an emitter and a receiver and each of the second component and the third component being the remaining one of an emitter and a receiver; wherein the first component has a first field of view, the second component has a second field of view, and the third component has a third field of view, the first field of view intersecting the second field of view and the third field of view; and wherein the intersection of the first and second fields of views defines a first volume and the intersection of the first and third fields of view defines a second volume, the first volume detecting a first surface within a first threshold distance from a sensing reference point and the second volume detecting a second surface within a second threshold distance from the sensing reference point, the second threshold distance being greater than the first threshold distance; and a controller in communication with the drive system and the sensor system and having a computing processor processing data received from the sensor system, the controller issuing a command based on the received data.