Industrial vehicle with feature-based localization and navigation

A system comprising a vehicle camera, and a navigation module comprising memory and a processor, wherein:

• the vehicle camera is communicatively coupled to the navigation module and is configured to capture input images;
• the navigation module is configured to distinguish between object types in the input images by executing machine readable instructions to
• run a cascading series of image smoothing and subsampling operations upon the input images to generate a collection of smoothed images,
• build a first set of images from the collection of smoothed images, wherein the first set of images has a same size and structure as the smoothed images,
• build a second set of images from the collection of smoothed images, wherein the second set of images has the same size and structure as the smoothed images,
• utilize the first set of images to identify circular candidate object types in the input images,
• utilize the second set of images to identify elongated candidate object types in the input images,
• subject the identified circular and elongated candidate object types to candidate feature processing to identify valid object types in the input images, wherein the valid object types include circular object types which are ceiling lights and elongated object types which are skylights, and
• generate navigational data based upon the identified valid object types.