ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,558,786, issued on Feb. 24, was assigned to iRobot Corp. (Bedford, Mass.).
"Restricting movement of a mobile robot" was invented by Marcus Williams (Watertown, Mass.), Ping-Hong Lu (Auburndale, Mass.), Joseph M. Johnson (Norwood, Mass.) and Fabrizio Santini (Arlington, Mass.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A robot includes a body that is movable relative to a surface one or more measurement devices within the body to output information based on an orientation of the body at an initial location on the surface, and a controller within the body to determine an orientation of the body based on the information and to restrict movement of the b...