Secondary robot commands in robot swarms

{
  "publication_number": "US11032166B2",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "B2",
  "title": "Secondary robot commands in robot swarms",
  "abstract": "Systems, methods and articles of manufacture that handle secondary robot commands in robot swarms may operate by receiving, at a receiving device in a swarm of devices, a packet included in a signal broadcast within an environment from a transmitting device in the swarm of devices; parsing the packet for a command associated with a primary effect and a secondary effect; in response to determining that the receiving device is paired with the transmitting device, implementing, by the receiving device, the primary effect; and in response to determining that the receiving device is not paired with the transmitting device, implementing, by the receiving device, the secondary effect.",
  "claims": [
    "1. A method, comprising: receiving, at a plurality of devices in a swarm of devices, wherein the swarm of devices is an ad hoc swarm configured to communicate via a shared protocol, a packet included in a signal broadcast within an environment from a transmitting device in the swarm of devices; wherein each receiving device of the swarm of devices: parses the packet for a command associated with a primary effect and a secondary effect; in response to determining that the receiving device is paired with the transmitting device, implements, by the receiving device, the primary effect; and in response to determining that the receiving device is not paired with the transmitting device, implements, by the receiving device, the secondary effect.",
    "2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: in response to determining that the receiving device is not an intended destination of the packet, ignoring the packet.",
    "3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining that the receiving device is not the intended destination of the packet includes determining at least one of: that the receiving device is the transmitting device; that the transmitting device is not part of the swarm of devices; that a signal carrying the packet fails to satisfy a signal to noise ratio; that an activating signal is not co-received with the signal; that the packet was received at a time later than a time threshold from a time of transmission; that the packet is a re-transmittal of an earlier-received packet; that a checksum included in the packet does not match a payload for the packet; and that the command is not associated with secondary effects for the receiving device.",
    "4. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving device is a robotic device and the transmitting device is a remote controller paired with a different robotic device in the swarm of devices.",
    "5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving device is a first remote controller paired with a first robotic device in the swarm of devices and the transmitting device is a second remote controller paired with a second robotic device in the swarm of devices.",
    "6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the receiving device is paired with the transmitting device identifies that the receiving device is a remote controller and the transmitting device is a robotic device paired with the remote controller.",
    "7. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving device is a first robotic device paired with a first remote controller and the transmitting device is a second robotic device paired with a second remote controller.",
    "8. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving device further transmits a camera feed to an Augmented Reality (AR) device paired with the receiving device to produce AR imagery associated with the command.",
    "9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, after implementing the secondary effect at the receiving device, a second packet included in a second signal broadcast within the environment from a different transmitting device in the swarm of devices; stopping the secondary effect; in response to determining that the receiving device is paired with the different transmitting device: parsing the second packet for a second primary effect; and implementing, by the receiving device, the second primary effect; and in response to determining that the receiving device is not paired with the different transmitting device: parsing the second packet for a second secondary effect; and implementing, by the receiving device, the second secondary effect.",
    "10. A computer program product for handling secondary robot commands in robot swarms, the computer program product comprising: a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code that when executed by a processor, enable the processor to: receive a packet at a receiving device; identifying, based on the packet, whether the receiving device is one of a primary recipient for the packet in an ad hoc swarm of devices communicating via a shared protocol or a secondary recipient for the packet in the ad hoc swarm; and implementing one of a primary effect or a secondary effect on the receiving device respectively based on whether the receiving device is identified as the primary recipient or the secondary recipient.",
    "11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the packet is ignored in response to determining that the receiving device is an unintended recipient for the packet.",
    "12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the packet includes one command that different devices in the ad hoc swarm of devices implement differently based at least in part on whether the receiving device is the primary recipient or the secondary recipient and a relationship to the primary recipient.",
    "13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the relationship to the primary recipient is determined based on an identifier included in the packet and an identity maintained by the receiving device.",
    "14. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the relationship to the primary recipient is determined based on a distance in an environment between the receiving device and the primary recipient.",
    "15. A system, comprising: a radio; a processor; a memory, including instructions that when executed by the processor, enable the system to: receive, via the radio, a packet transmitted according to a protocol used by an ad hoc swarm of devices including the system, wherein the packet includes a command with a primary effect and a secondary effect; identify a transmitting device for the packet; determine a relationship between the transmitting device and the system indicating whether the transmitting device is paired with the system or is paired with a different device in the ad hoc swarm of devices; perform one of the primary effect or the secondary effect of the command included in the packet based on the relationship, wherein the system performs the primary command included in the packet in response to determining that the transmitting device is paired with the system and performs the secondary effect of the command included in the packet in response to determining that the transmitting device is not paired with the system.",
    "16. The system of claim 15, wherein the instructions further enable the system to: in response to determining that the command is not associated with a secondary effect for the system and determining that the transmitting device is not paired with the system, ignore the command.",
    "17. The system of claim 15, further comprising a camera, and wherein the instructions further enable the system to: transmit, via the radio, a camera feed captured by the camera to a paired Augmented Reality (AR) device.",
    "18. The system of claim 15, wherein the secondary effect causes the system to engage a motor or an output device after a predetermined length of time from an indicated time of effect for the primary effect specified in the packet.",
    "19. The system of claim 15, wherein the instructions further enable the system to: in response to receiving a second packet from a second transmitting device that is paired with the system, perform a second primary effect associated with a second command included in the second packet in association with the secondary effect associated with the command.",
    "20. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions further enable the system to: in response to receiving a second packet from a second transmitting device that is paired with the system, interrupt performance of the secondary effect and perform a second primary effect associated with a second command included in the second packet."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "When several remote controlled devices are present within an environment, those devices may belong to an ad hoc swarm. Each device may be associated with a user, who remotely controls that device and can selectively add or remove the device from the swarm. For example, if users Alex, Blake, and Charlie are associated with a respective first, second, and third devices, when the three users issue commands to respective devices within a given area, a swarm consists of three devices. If a user removes a device from the swarm (e.g., Charlie goes home and takes the third device out of the interaction area) or a new user adds a new device to the swarm (e.g., Dakota enters the area with a fourth device), the swarm will grow or shrink in numbers accordingly. Each device in the swarm receives commands from the associated user, and may ignore commands from the other users. For example, a first device may be paired with a remote controller (in Alex's possession) to allow Alex to control that device. The pairing of the controllers with the devices preserves the ability of the swarm to grow or shrink as more devices come into range of one another, but may affect the interaction possibilities between the devices.\n\nFor the users of remote controlled devices in an ad hoc swarm to have those devices interact, the users may have the devices physically interact, or rely on imagination to substitute for actual interaction.",
  "cpc": [
    "H04L 43/028",
    "B25J 13/006",
    "B25J 5/007",
    "B25J 9/0084",
    "H04N 7/18",
    "H04W 84/18"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "B25J 13/00",
    "B25J 9/00",
    "H04L 12/26",
    "H04M 1/72412",
    "H04N 7/18",
    "H04W 84/18"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "Disney Enterprises Inc"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "Nathan D. NOCON",
    "Michael P. GOSLIN",
    "Janice K. ROSENTHAL",
    "Corey D. DRAKE"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2018-07-27",
  "publication_date": "2021-06-08",
  "grant_date": "2021-06-08",
  "priority_date": "2018-07-27",
  "application_number": "US-201816047128-A",
  "family_id": "69178790",
  "cited_by_count": 1,
  "citations": [
    "US8379967B1",
    "US20160037469A1",
    "US20170045884A1",
    "US20170131727A1",
    "US9605926B1",
    "US20180204382A1",
    "US20180217593A1",
    "US20190236963A1"
  ]
}