Granted Patent B2

US 12,337,613 · App. 17/975,917 · Granted Jun 24, 2025

Inventors: Bradley Vargo (White Lake, MI); Keegan Elliott (Marshall, MI); Nathan Butler (Westland, MI); William Mapes (Grosse Ille Township, MI); Victor Darolfi (Canton, MI); Scott Coburn (Howell, MI); Riyadir Alalami (Novi, MI)

Assignee: THE REINALT-THOMAS CORPORATION

B60B29/001B21D39/00B23P6/00B23P19/04B23P19/06B25J9/1656B25J9/1679B25J9/1697B25J11/005B25J11/008B60B29/00B60C25/0515B23P19/069B23P21/002B23P2700/50B25J9/1661B25J9/1674B60B2320/00B60B2320/10B60B2340/18B60B2340/34B60B2340/50B60B2340/52B60S5/00B66F7/26

Abstract

Claims (68)

1. A computer-implemented method comprising the operations of:

obtaining vehicle dimension data describing dimensions of a vehicle;

causing, based at least in part on the vehicle dimension data, a robotic apparatus to move to a first position about the vehicle to collect data regarding a selected wheel of the vehicle;

determining a first reference point of the vehicle based at least in part on the collected data regarding the selected wheel; and

causing the robotic apparatus to move to a second position about the vehicle based on the determined first reference point.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined first reference point is a center point of a first wheel of the vehicle.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising the operations of:

aligning a coordinate system of the robotic apparatus to the determined first reference point of the first wheel of the vehicle; and

based on the aligned coordinate system of the robotic apparatus, removing, via the robotic apparatus, lug nuts from a first wheel hub of the vehicle.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the second position is about a second wheel of the vehicle, the method further comprising the operations of:

determining a second reference point of the second wheel of the vehicle; and

causing the robotic apparatus to move to positions about the second wheel of the vehicle based on the determined second reference point.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the determined second reference point is a center point of the second wheel of the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising the operations of:

aligning a coordinate system of the robotic apparatus to the determined second reference point of the second wheel; and

based on the aligned coordinate system of the robotic apparatus, removing, via the robotic apparatus, lug nuts from a second wheel hub of the vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the vehicle dimension information comprises:

obtaining a vehicle identification number associated with the vehicle;

accessing a database that comprises information related to a plurality of vehicles; and

obtaining the vehicle dimension data from the database based on the vehicle identification number.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the vehicle dimension information includes at least one of dimensions of a wheel base of the vehicle and dimensions of a track width of the vehicle.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a first reference point of the vehicle comprises:

aligning a plane of a digital camera with a plane of a first wheel of the vehicle having a center point; and

moving the digital camera to a position where a center point of the camera is aligned with a center point of the first wheel.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a first reference point of the first wheel of the vehicle comprises:

obtaining, via one or more cameras, digital imagery of a first wheel of the vehicle, the first wheel having a plurality of lug nuts and a wheel center;

determining, using the digital imagery, a movement offset of a then current position of the robotic apparatus;

moving the robotic apparatus from the then current position to a new position based on the determined movement offset; and

determining whether the one or more cameras is aligned to the wheel center.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the robotic apparatus has a digital camera, and wherein determining a first reference point of the first wheel of the vehicle comprises:

determining one or more movement offset values and moving the robotic apparatus based on the one or more movement offset values until an alignment point of the robotic apparatus is aligned to a center point of the first wheel, the alignment point being a center point of the digital camera.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the movement offset comprises coordinate values for an x, y, z, rX, and rY offset, wherein x is an x axis value, wherein y is a y axis value, wherein z is a z axis value, wherein rY is a rotation value about the y axis value, and rX is a rotation value about the x axis value.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the digital imagery comprises 2D imagery and a 3D point cloud of the first wheel, and wherein determining, using the digital imagery, the movement offset comprises the operations of

inputting into a machine learning model the 2D imagery and generating a plurality of bounding boxes associated with the lug nuts of the first wheel and determining a number of the lug nuts of the first wheel;

using the generated plurality of bounding boxes with the 3D point cloud to define x, y, z coordinate information for each of the plurality of lug nuts; and

calculating an average Z distance of the lug nuts.

14. A system comprising:

a robotic apparatus adapted to perform a maintenance task on a vehicle;

a processing device communicatively coupled to the robotic apparatus, the processing device comprising:

a memory storing computer program instructions; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the processor configured to execute the computer program instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

obtaining vehicle dimension data describing dimensions of a vehicle;

causing, based at least in part on the vehicle dimension data, the robotic apparatus to move to a first position about the vehicle to collect data regarding a selected wheel of the vehicle;

determining a first reference point of the vehicle based at least in part on the collected data regarding the selected wheel; and

causing the robotic apparatus to move to a second position about the vehicle based on the determined first reference point.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the determined first reference point is a center point of a first wheel of the vehicle.

16. The system of claim 15 , the operations further comprising:

aligning a coordinate system of the robotic apparatus to the determined first reference point of the first wheel of the vehicle; and

based on the aligned coordinate system of the robotic apparatus, causing the robotic apparatus to remove lug nuts from a first wheel hub of the vehicle.

17. The system of claim 14 , the operations further comprising:

causing the robotic apparatus to move to a second position about a second wheel of the vehicle;

determining a second reference point of the second wheel of the vehicle; and

causing the robotic apparatus to move to positions about the second wheel of the vehicle based on the determined second reference point.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the determined second reference point is a center point of the second wheel of the vehicle.

19. The system of claim 18 , the operations further comprising:

aligning a coordinate system of the robotic apparatus to the determined second reference point of the second wheel; and

based on the aligned coordinate system of the robotic apparatus, causing the robotic apparatus to remove lug nuts from a second wheel hub of the vehicle.

20. A computer-implemented method comprising the operations of:

obtaining vehicle dimension data describing dimensions of a vehicle;

causing a robotic apparatus to move to a first position about the vehicle;

determining a first reference point of the vehicle; and

causing the robotic apparatus to move to a second position about the vehicle based on the determined first reference point;

wherein determining the first reference point of the first wheel of the vehicle comprises:

obtaining, via one or more cameras, digital imagery of a first wheel of the vehicle, the first wheel having a plurality of lug nuts and a wheel center;

determining, using the digital imagery, a movement offset of a then current position of the robotic apparatus;

moving the robotic apparatus from the then current position to a new position based on the determined movement offset; and

determining whether the one or more cameras is aligned to the wheel center, wherein the robotic apparatus is moved from the then current position to the new position until an alignment point of the robotic apparatus is aligned to a center point of the first wheel, wherein the alignment point is a center point of the digital camera;

wherein the movement offset comprises coordinate values for an x, y, z, rX, and rY offset, wherein x is an x axis value, wherein y is a y axis value, wherein z is a z axis value, wherein rY is a rotation value about the y axis value, and rX is a rotation value about the x axis value.

Assignments (3)

Continuity (7)

References Cited (14)