Abstract
The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background informa tion supplied by the inventors: “Autonomous robots are becoming increasingly pre valent due to their ability to automatically perform a variety of tasks that are typically performed manually by humans, or that have been performed with direct human control of a robot. A simple example of an autonomous robot is a robotic floor cleaner such as a robotic vacuum or a robotic mop. These robots are often programmable, allowing users to configure operation times, frequency of operatio n, and various other settings for the robots. Once programmed, the robots may pe rform a task, move, and interact with the surrounding environment without requir ing further human input. While such robots are becoming more prevalent, the robo ts are often designed to perform only a single function, such as to clean a surf ace. As a result, performing a variety of tasks may be difficult and/or prohibit ively expensive due to the need to acquire a dedicated autonomous robot for each task that the user wishes to complete. Further, most robots are not designed to be automatically serviced once completing their task, which requires human inte raction at various stages of use.
NETL
NSTL