US 11,927,457 B2
System and method for real time control of an autonomous device
Dirk A. Van Der Merwe, Canterbury, NH (US); Arunabh Mishra, Manchester, NH (US); Christopher C. Langenfeld, Nashua, NH (US); Michael J. Slate, Merrimack, NH (US); Christopher J. Principe, Nahant, NH (US); Gregory J. Buitkus, Dracut, MA (US); Justin M. Whitney, Goffstown, NH (US); Raajitha Gummadi, Manchester, NH (US); Derek G. Kane, Manchester, NH (US); Emily A. Carrigg, Weare, NH (US); Patrick Steele, Bedford, NH (US); Benjamin V. Hersh, Raymond, NH (US); Fnu G Siva Perumal, Manchester, NH (US); David Carrigg, Manchester, NH (US); Daniel F. Pawlowski, Raymond, NH (US); Yashovardhan Chaturvedi, Manchester, NH (US); and Kartik Khanna, Manchester, NH (US)
Assigned to DEKA Products Limited Partnership, Manchester, NH (US)
Filed by DEKA Products Limited Partnership, Manchester, NH (US)
Filed on Jul. 10, 2020, as Appl. No. 16/926,522.
Application 16/926,522 is a continuation in part of application No. 16/800,497, filed on Feb. 25, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/990,485, filed on Mar. 17, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/872,320, filed on Jul. 10, 2019.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/872,396, filed on Jul. 10, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2021/0278851 A1, Sep. 9, 2021
Int. Cl. G05D 1/02 (2020.01); G01C 21/00 (2006.01); G05D 1/00 (2006.01); G06V 10/764 (2022.01); G06V 20/56 (2022.01); G06V 10/44 (2022.01)
CPC G01C 21/3811 (2020.08) [G05D 1/0044 (2013.01); G05D 1/0088 (2013.01); G05D 1/0214 (2013.01); G05D 1/0242 (2013.01); G05D 1/0246 (2013.01); G05D 1/0276 (2013.01); G06V 10/764 (2022.01); G06V 20/56 (2022.01); G05D 2201/0216 (2013.01); G06V 10/44 (2022.01)] 2 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An autonomous delivery vehicle comprising:
a power base including two powered front wheels, two powered back wheels and an energy storage, the power base configured to move at a commanded velocity and in a commanded direction to perform a transport of at least one object;
a cargo platform including a plurality of short-range sensors, the cargo platform mechanically attached to the power base, the plurality of short-range sensors for configured to collect environmental data;
a cargo container with a volume for receiving the at least one object, the cargo container mounted on top of the cargo platform;
a long-range sensor suite comprising LI DAR and one or more cameras, the long-range sensor suite mounted on top of the cargo container; and
a controller to receive data from the long-range sensor suite and the plurality of short-range sensors, the controller configured to determine the commanded velocity and the commanded direction based at least on the data, the controller configured to provide the commanded velocity and the commanded direction to the power base to complete the transport;
wherein the data from the plurality of short-range sensors comprise at least one characteristic of a surface upon which the power base travels; and
wherein the controller comprises executable code configured for accessing a map, the map formed by a map processor, the map processor comprising:
a first processor configured to access point cloud data from the long-range sensor suite, the point cloud data representing the surface;
a filter configured to filter the point cloud data;
a second processor configured to form processable parts from the filtered point cloud data;
a third processor configured to merge the processable parts into at least one polygon;
a fourth processor configured to locate and label at least one substantially discontinuous surface feature (SDSF) in the at least one polygon, if present, the locating and labeling forming labeled point cloud data;
a fifth processor configured to create graphing polygons having polygon edges from a portion of the labeled point cloud data that is associated with a drivable surface; and
a sixth processor configured to choose a path from a starting point to an ending point based at least on the graphing polygons, the autonomous delivery vehicle traversing the at least one SDSF along the path;
wherein the creating graphing polygons comprises:
smoothing the edges and defining smoothed edges;
forming a driving margin based on the smoothed edges;
generating an SDSF trajectory;
adding the SDSF trajectory to the drivable surface; and
removing the polygon edges from the drivable surface.