Determining the orientation of flat reflectors during robot mapping

A robotic device comprising a control system configured to:

• determine a map of markers fixed in an environment, wherein the map of markers includes a location and an orientation of each marker;
• determine locations of a set of detected markers relative to the map based on a location of a robotic device relative to the map and based on sensor data from the robotic device;
• associate a detected marker from the set of detected markers with a mapped marker based on the determined location of the detected marker relative to the map and based on a visibility constraint related to the orientation of the mapped marker;
• adjust, in the map, the orientation of the mapped marker based on the determined location of the detected marker relative to the map;
• and
• control the robotic device based on the adjusted orientation of the mapped marker in the map of markers.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions executable by at least one processor to cause the at least one processor to perform functions comprising:

• determining a map of markers fixed in an environment, wherein the map of markers includes a location and an orientation of each marker;
• determining locations of a set of detected markers relative to the map based on a location of a robotic device relative to the map and based on sensor data from the robotic device;
• associating a detected marker from the set of detected markers with a mapped marker based on the determined location of the detected marker relative to the map and based on a visibility constraint related to the orientation of the mapped marker;
• adjusting, in the map, the orientation of the mapped marker based on the determined location of the detected marker relative to the map;
• and
• controlling the robotic device based on the adjusted orientation of the mapped marker in the map of markers.