Patents by Inventor Fabrizio Santini

Fabrizio Santini has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20230302646
    Abstract: A surgical robotic system and a method of controlling a location of one or more robotic arms in a constrained space are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the robotic system includes a robotic unit having robotic arms. The system further includes a camera assembly to generate a view an anatomical structure of a patient. The system further includes a controller configured to or programmed to define a constriction area defining safe movement of the robotic arms. The method includes defining safe movement of the robotic arms with respect to the constriction area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2023
    Publication date: September 28, 2023
    Inventors: Adam Sachs, Sammy Khalifa, Fabrizio Santini, Spencer K. Howe, Daniel Allis, Maeve Devlin, Brian Talbot
  • Publication number: 20230064687
    Abstract: 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 body to an area by preventing movement of the body beyond a barrier that is based on the orientation of the body and the initial location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 3, 2022
    Publication date: March 2, 2023
    Inventors: Marcus Williams, Ping-Hong Lu, Joseph M. Johnson, Fabrizio Santini
  • Publication number: 20220383531
    Abstract: A system and method for generating a depth map from image data in a surgical robotic system that employs a robotic subsystem having a camera assembly with first and second cameras for generating image data. The system and method generates based on the image data a plurality of depth maps, and then converts the plurality of depth maps into a single combined depth map having distance data associated therewith. The system and method can then control the camera assembly based on the distance data in the single combined depth map.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 5, 2022
    Publication date: December 1, 2022
    Inventors: Fabrizio Santini, Sammy Khalifa
  • Publication number: 20220365493
    Abstract: Systems and methods are used to adapt the coefficients of a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller through reinforcement learning. The approach for adapting PID coefficients can include an outer loop of reinforcement learning where the PID coefficients are tuned to changes in the environment and an inner loop of PID control for quickly reacting to changing errors. The outer loop can learn and adapt as the environment changes and be configured to only run at a predetermined frequency, after a given number of steps. The outer loop can use summary statistics about the error terms and any other information sensed about the environment to calculate an observation. This observation can be used to evaluate the next action, for example, by feeding it into a neural network representing the policy. The resulting action is the coefficients of the PID controller and the tunable parameters of things such as the filters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 7, 2021
    Publication date: November 17, 2022
    Inventors: Samuel Barrett, James MacGlashan, Varun Kompella, Peter Wurman, Goker Erdogan, Fabrizio Santini
  • Patent number: 11465284
    Abstract: 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 body to an area by preventing movement of the body beyond a barrier that is based on the orientation of the body and the initial location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Marcus Williams, Ping-Hong Lu, Joseph M. Johnson, Fabrizio Santini
  • Patent number: 11382478
    Abstract: Cleaning robots may use floor-type-detection techniques as a trigger for autonomously altering various floor-cleaning characteristics. In some examples, a controller circuit of the robot is configured to determine a flooring type as a function of a signal from a motion sensor indicative of a change in pitch caused by the robot crossing a flooring discontinuity. In some examples, the controller circuit is configured to determine a flooring type based on a power draw signal corresponding to the cleaning head assembly of the robot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventor: Fabrizio Santini
  • Publication number: 20210312258
    Abstract: A real-time temporal convolution network (RT-TCN) algorithm reuses the output of prior convolution operations in all layers of the network to minimize the computational requirements and memory footprint of a TCN during real-time evaluation. Further, a TCN trained via the fixed-window view, where the TCN is trained using fixed time splices of the input time series, can be executed in real-time continually using RT-TCN.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 20, 2020
    Publication date: October 7, 2021
    Inventors: Piyush Khandelwal, James MacGlashan, Peter Wurman, Fabrizio Santini
  • Publication number: 20210052126
    Abstract: Cleaning robots may use floor-type-detection techniques as a trigger for autonomously altering various floor-cleaning characteristics. In some examples, a controller circuit of the robot is configured to determine a flooring type as a function of a signal from a motion sensor indicative of a change in pitch caused by the robot crossing a flooring discontinuity. In some examples, the controller circuit is configured to determine a flooring type based on a power draw signal corresponding to the cleaning head assembly of the robot.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2020
    Publication date: February 25, 2021
    Inventor: Fabrizio Santini
  • Publication number: 20210022579
    Abstract: Cleaning robots may use floor-type-detection techniques as a trigger for autonomously altering various floor-cleaning characteristics. In some examples, a controller circuit of the robot is configured to determine a flooring type as a function of a signal from a motion sensor indicative of a change in pitch caused by the robot crossing a flooring discontinuity. In some examples, the controller circuit is configured to determine a flooring type based on a power draw signal corresponding to the cleaning head assembly of the robot.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2020
    Publication date: January 28, 2021
    Inventor: Fabrizio Santini
  • Patent number: 10893788
    Abstract: Cleaning robots may use floor-type-detection techniques as a trigger for autonomously altering various floor-cleaning characteristics. In some examples, a controller circuit of the robot is configured to determine a flooring type as a function of a signal from a motion sensor indicative of a change in pitch caused by the robot crossing a flooring discontinuity. In some examples, the controller circuit is configured to determine a flooring type based on a power draw signal corresponding to the cleaning head assembly of the robot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventor: Fabrizio Santini
  • Patent number: 10813518
    Abstract: Cleaning robots may use floor-type-detection techniques as a trigger for autonomously altering various floor-cleaning characteristics. In some examples, a controller circuit of the robot is configured to determine a flooring type as a function of a signal from a motion sensor indicative of a change in pitch caused by the robot crossing a flooring discontinuity. In some examples, the controller circuit is configured to determine a flooring type based on a power draw signal corresponding to the cleaning head assembly of the robot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2020
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventor: Fabrizio Santini
  • Publication number: 20200238520
    Abstract: 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 body to an area by preventing movement of the body beyond a barrier that is based on the orientation of the body and the initial location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2020
    Publication date: July 30, 2020
    Inventors: Marcus Williams, Ping-Hong Lu, Joseph M. Johnson, Fabrizio Santini
  • Patent number: 10639793
    Abstract: 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 body to an area by preventing movement of the body beyond a barrier that is based on the orientation of the body and the initial location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2020
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Marcus Williams, Ping-Hong Lu, Joseph M. Johnson, Fabrizio Santini
  • Publication number: 20180289231
    Abstract: Cleaning robots may use floor-type-detection techniques as a trigger for autonomously altering various floor-cleaning characteristics. In some examples, a controller circuit of the robot is configured to determine a flooring type as a function of a signal from a motion sensor indicative of a change in pitch caused by the robot crossing a flooring discontinuity. In some examples, the controller circuit is configured to determine a flooring type based on a power draw signal corresponding to the cleaning head assembly of the robot.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2018
    Publication date: October 11, 2018
    Inventor: Fabrizio Santini
  • Patent number: 9993129
    Abstract: Cleaning robots may use floor-type-detection techniques as a trigger for autonomously altering various floor-cleaning characteristics. In some examples, a controller circuit of the robot is configured to determine a flooring type as a function of a signal from a motion sensor indicative of a change in pitch caused by the robot crossing a flooring discontinuity. In some examples, the controller circuit is configured to determine a flooring type based on a power draw signal corresponding to the cleaning head assembly of the robot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2018
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventor: Fabrizio Santini
  • Publication number: 20180065253
    Abstract: 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 body to an area by preventing movement of the body beyond a barrier that is based on the orientation of the body and the initial location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 30, 2017
    Publication date: March 8, 2018
    Inventors: Marcus Williams, Ping-Hong Lu, Joseph M. Johnson, Fabrizio Santini
  • Patent number: 9868211
    Abstract: 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 body to an area by preventing movement of the body beyond a barrier that is based on the orientation of the body and the initial location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2018
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Marcus Williams, Ping-Hong Lu, Joseph M. Johnson, Fabrizio Santini
  • Publication number: 20160297072
    Abstract: 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 body to an area by preventing movement of the body beyond a barrier that is based on the orientation of the body and the initial location.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 9, 2015
    Publication date: October 13, 2016
    Inventors: Marcus Williams, Ping-Hong Lu, Joseph M. Johnson, Fabrizio Santini
  • Patent number: RE48438
    Abstract: An accelerator system is implemented on an expansion card comprising a printed circuit board having (a) one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), (b) two or more associated memory banks (logically or physically partitioned), (c) a specialized controller, and (d) a local bus providing signal coupling compatible with the PCI industry standards. The controller handles most of the primitive operations to set up and control GPU computation. Thus, the computer's central processing unit (CPU) can be dedicated to other tasks. In this case a few controls (simulation start and stop signals from the CPU and the simulation completion signal back to CPU), GPU programs and input/output data are exchanged between CPU and the expansion card. Moreover, since on every time step of the simulation the results from the previous time step are used but not changed, the results are preferably transferred back to CPU in parallel with the computation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2021
    Assignee: Neurala, Inc.
    Inventors: Anatoli Gorchetchnikov, Heather Marie Ames, Massimiliano Versace, Fabrizio Santini
  • Patent number: RE49461
    Abstract: An accelerator system is implemented on an expansion card comprising a printed circuit board having (a) one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), (b) two or more associated memory banks (logically or physically partitioned), (c) a specialized controller, and (d) a local bus providing signal coupling compatible with the PCI industry standards. The controller handles most of the primitive operations to set up and control GPU computation. Thus, the computer's central processing unit (CPU) can be dedicated to other tasks. In this case a few controls (simulation start and stop signals from the CPU and the simulation completion signal back to CPU), GPU programs and input/output data are exchanged between CPU and the expansion card. Moreover, since on every time step of the simulation the results from the previous time step are used but not changed, the results are preferably transferred back to CPU in parallel with the computation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2023
    Assignee: Neurala, Inc.
    Inventors: Anatoli Gorchetchnikov, Heather Marie Ames, Massimiliano Versace, Fabrizio Santini