US 12,437,650 B1
Managing and tracking scouting tasks using autonomous vehicles
Katharine Patterson, Palo Alto, CA (US); Laurens Andreas Feenstra, San Francisco, CA (US); Peter Colijn, San Francisco, CA (US); and Austin Daniel Abrams, Los Altos, CA (US)
Assigned to WAYMO LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by WAYMO LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Sep. 26, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/474,415.
Application 18/474,415 is a continuation of application No. 17/236,346, filed on Apr. 21, 2021, granted, now 11,804,136.
Application 17/236,346 is a continuation of application No. 16/160,137, filed on Oct. 15, 2018, granted, now 11,017,674, issued on May 25, 2021.
Int. Cl. G08G 1/00 (2006.01); G01C 21/32 (2006.01); G05D 1/00 (2024.01); G05D 1/242 (2024.01); G05D 1/246 (2024.01); G05D 1/648 (2024.01); G05D 1/69 (2024.01); G05D 105/80 (2024.01)
CPC G08G 1/202 (2013.01) [G01C 21/32 (2013.01); G05D 1/0088 (2013.01); G05D 1/0291 (2013.01); G05D 1/2424 (2024.01); G05D 1/246 (2024.01); G05D 1/648 (2024.01); G05D 1/6482 (2024.01); G05D 1/69 (2024.01); G05D 2105/80 (2024.01); G05D 2105/87 (2024.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of managing and tracking scouting tasks to obtain map information using a fleet of autonomous vehicles, the method comprising:
defining, by one or more computing devices, a scouting quest to obtain the map information, the scouting quest including a plurality of scouting objectives, each of the plurality of scouting objectives being associated with a geographic location at which sensor data is to be captured;
receiving, by the one or more computing devices, a first update message from an autonomous vehicle of the fleet, the first update message identifying a current location of the autonomous vehicle;
assigning, by the one or more computing devices, at least one of the plurality of scouting objectives to the autonomous vehicle based on staleness of the at least one of the plurality of scouting objectives and the current location of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the staleness of the at least one of the plurality of scouting objectives is determined based on whether an assignment of the at least one of the plurality of scouting objectives has been completed or not completed by a vehicle;
sending, by the one or more computing devices, instructions to the autonomous vehicle in order to cause the autonomous vehicle to autonomously complete the at least one of the plurality of scouting objectives; and
after sending the instructions, tracking, by the one or more computing devices, a status of the scouting quest.