Navigation of mobile robots based on passenger following

A system comprising:

• a mobile robot including one or more actuators that cause the mobile robot to move in a crowded pedestrian environment;
• one or more sensor systems disposed on the mobile robot that generate a first set of signals indicative of a presence of a plurality of pedestrians nearby the mobile robot;
• and
• a non-transitory, computer-readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by a computing system cause the computing system to:
• estimate a position and velocity of each of the plurality of pedestrians relative to the crowded pedestrian environment based on the first set of signals;
• select a first pedestrian from the plurality of pedestrians to follow based on a location of the mobile robot within the crowded pedestrian environment, the position and velocity of each of the plurality of pedestrians, and a desired endpoint location of the mobile robot within the crowded pedestrian environment;
• and
• communicate control commands to the one or more actuators of the mobile robot that cause the mobile robot to move along a first motion trajectory that intercepts a motion trajectory of the first pedestrian at a distance behind the first pedestrian and to subsequently move along a second motion trajectory aligned with the trajectory of the first pedestrian.

A method comprising:

• generating a set of signals indicative of a presence of a plurality of pedestrians nearby a mobile robot in a crowded pedestrian environment;
• estimating a position and velocity of each of the plurality of pedestrians relative to the crowded pedestrian environment based on the set of signals;
• selecting a first pedestrian from the plurality of pedestrians to follow based on a location of the mobile robot within the crowded pedestrian environment, the position and velocity of each of the plurality of pedestrians, and a desired endpoint location of the mobile robot within the crowded pedestrian environment;
• communicating control commands to one or more actuators of a mobile robot that cause the mobile robot to move along a first motion trajectory that intercepts a motion trajectory of the first pedestrian at a distance behind the first pedestrian and to subsequently move along a second motion trajectory aligned with the trajectory of the first pedestrian.