iRobot is developing on security guard robots

iRobot is famous for developing robots for homes and offices. They have robots that are capable of vacuuming, mopping, pool clearning or gutter cleaning. They are working on a robot for mowing lawns.

Now, a patent has revealed that they plan to provide security solutions. They have patented a mobile robot that can patrol an environment under surveillance.

The robot includes a robot body, a drive system, at least one imaging sensor disposed on the robot body and a controller in communication with the drive system and the at least one imaging sensor. The drive system has a forward driving direction, supports the robot body and is configured to maneuver the robot over a floor surface of a patrolling environment. The controller receives a layout map corresponding to a patrolled environment, issues drive commands to the drive system to maneuver the robot in the patrolling environment based on the received layout map and receives imaging data from the at least one imaging sensor of a scene about the robot when the robot maneuvers in the patrolling environment. The controller further identifies a moving target in the scene based on the received imaging data, aims a field of view of the at least one imaging sensor to continuously perceive the identified target in the field of view and captures a human recognizable image of the identified target using the at least one imaging sensor. The controller may further segment the received imaging data into objects, filter the objects to remove objects greater than a first threshold size and smaller than a second threshold size and identify a person in the scene as the identified target corresponding to at least a portion of the filtered objects. Additionally or alternatively, the first threshold size may include a first height of about 8 feet and the second threshold size may include a second height of about 3 feet.

US20160188977