Sense is the learned part of Inztinct. It works out what the surroundings allow, such as whether the space under a table is open or covered, and it lowers the robot's limits to match. It can only make the robot more careful.
Throw a ball behind a table. If the table is open underneath, the dog goes through. If it is covered, the dog goes around. Most robots do not tell the two apart. Sense is built to label the space ahead as passable, unknown or blocked. The planner chooses the route. Core still holds the hard limits.
Illustration of the intended behaviour. Not a measured result.
Core sets a fixed ceiling. Sense adds limits for the place the robot is in. The active limit is the lowest of them all. Tick the conditions to see it move. Then ask Sense for more speed than Core allows.
Example values for illustration. Not final limits.
Open or covered, clearance height, glass, hanging cloth, doors.
Distance, direction of movement, how crowded the space is.
Ramps, steps, wet floor, carpet, loose ground.
A ward, an aisle, a lobby or a plant room, each with its own profile.
Design targets. None of this is built yet.
Sense can lower a limit. It has no way to raise one above Core.
When Sense is not sure, the robot slows down or treats the space as blocked.
The loop runs on board, target 10 to 50 ms. There is no cloud round trip.
We will build the scenes in a simulator before any hardware. We plan to evaluate NVIDIA Isaac Sim and Cosmos for building and varying them. We will publish the results, including where Sense gets it wrong.
| Scene | What correct looks like |
|---|---|
| Open table, ball behind | Passes under at low speed when height and width are confirmed |
| Covered table, ball behind | Goes around. Does not enter the unknown space |
| Hanging cloth or curtain | Slows and treats it as unknown until it can see past it |
| Glass door | Does not rely on the camera alone. Own sensors decide |
| Low shelf edge | Refuses a gap lower than the robot, even if the planner asks |
| Person behind an obstacle | Tightens the limit before the person appears |
Where Sense runs, on the Jetson-class compute or on a separate module, is a design decision we have not made yet.
Learn is how it gets better without getting looser.