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US 10,378,906 B2Granted
Systems and methods for autonomous drone navigation
AssigneeWalmart Apollo, LLC
InventorsJohn Jeremiah O'Brien, Donald High, Chandrashekar Natarajan, Nathan Glenn Jones
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Abstract
Exemplary embodiments relate to an indoor drone system including an autonomous drone configured for autonomous navigation, and a computing system in communication with the autonomous drone. The autonomous drone includes an optical code reader and at least one navigational sensor. The computing system includes a verification module.
Claims16
A drone system comprising:
- an autonomous drone configured for autonomous navigation through an indoor facility having a plurality of storage units, each storage unit including an optically readable identifier, the autonomous drone including:
- an optical code reader, and
- at least one navigational sensor;
- and
- a computing system in communication with the autonomous drone, the computing system including a verification module,
- wherein the autonomous drone is configured to operate the optical code reader to scan a first optical machine-readable label containing an identifier that is affixed to a selected storage unit of the plurality of storage units in the indoor facility and to scan a second optical machine readable label affixed to a selected storage case on the selected storage unit, the second optical machine readable label including an identifier for the storage case, the autonomous drone further configured to sense data via the at least one navigational sensor and determine its current location within the indoor facility based on the sensed navigational data;
- and
- wherein the computing system is configured to communicate with a database holding a set of records of assigned storage unit-storage case combinations, and the verification module is configured to:
- receive the identifier for the selected storage unit and the identifier for the selected storage case from the autonomous drone,
- verify whether the received identifier for the selected storage unit and identifier for the selected storage case is absent as an assigned storage unit-storage case combination in the set of records, and
- generate a notification indicative of the absence in the event the storage unit-storage case combination is absent in the set of records, wherein a location of the storage unit-storage case combination scanned by the autonomous drone is also recorded.
8 more elements
A method for autonomous drone navigation:
- navigating an autonomous drone through an indoor facility having a plurality of storage units, each storage unit including an optical readable identifier, the autonomous drone including an optical code reader and at least one navigational sensor;
- operating the optical code reader to scan a first optical machine-readable label containing an identifier affixed to a selected storage unit of the plurality of storage units in the indoor facility, and to scan a second optical machine readable label affixed to a selected storage case on the selected storage unit, the second optical machine readable label including an identifier for the storage case,
- sensing data via the at least one navigational sensor;
- determining the drone's current location within the indoor facility based on the sensed navigational data;
- receiving the identifier for the selected storage unit and the identifier for the selected storage case from the autonomous drone at a verification module included in a computing system in communication with the autonomous drone;
- verifying at the verification module whether the received identifier for the selected storage unit and identifier for the selected storage case is absent as an assigned storage unit-storage case combination in a set of records of a database in communication with the computing system;
- and
- generating a notification indicative of the absence in the event the storage unit-storage case combination is absent in the set of records, wherein a location of the storage unit-storage case combination scanned by the autonomous drone is also recorded.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.