Amazon.com, Inc.
Dynamic allocation of power from multiple sources in an autonomous mobile device

Abstract:

A robot operates using electrical power. An application subsystem provides application functionality such as processing speech, performing video calls, retrieving information responsive to a user request, presenting audio or video content, and so forth. A mobility subsystem includes sensors, software, and hardware that allows the robot to move about an environment. The application subsystem operates using electrical power from a first battery while the mobility subsystem operates using electrical power from a second battery. An electrical interconnect allows for the transfer of electrical power between the subsystems. A power management module uses information about previous tasks performed by the robot that involved the application subsystem and the mobility subsystem to develop power training data. This power training data is then used to estimate power consumption for future task requests. Based on available charge of the respective batteries, power may be transferred from the second battery to operate the application subsystem.