Collaborative determination of a load footprint of a robotic vehicle

A method comprising:

• moving a first robotic vehicle along a commanded trajectory around a second robotic vehicle loaded with a payload;
• measuring a sequence of distances to the second robotic vehicle from the first robotic vehicle as the first robotic vehicle traverses the commanded trajectory;
• collecting a sequence of images of the second robotic vehicle from the first robotic vehicle as the second robotic vehicle traverses the commanded trajectory;
• spatially locating the second robotic vehicle with respect to the first robotic vehicle based on the collected images;
• identifying a position of each of a plurality of geometric feature points of the second robotic vehicle loaded with the payload with respect to a coordinate frame fixed to the second robotic vehicle based on the collected images and the measured distances;
• meshing the plurality of geometric feature points to generate a geometric model of the second robotic vehicle loaded with the payload;
• and
• communicating the geometric model to the second robotic vehicle.

A system comprising:

• a first robotic vehicle including one or more actuators that cause the first robotic vehicle to move along a commanded trajectory around a second robotic vehicle loaded with a payload;
• one or more distance sensors coupled to the first robotic vehicle, the one or more distance sensors configured to measure a distance to the second robotic vehicle as the first robotic vehicle traverses the commanded trajectory;
• one or more image capture devices coupled to the first robotic vehicle, the one or more image capture devices configured to image the second robotic vehicle as the first robotic vehicle traverses the commanded trajectory;
• and
• a non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a computing system cause the computing system to:
• spatially locate the second robotic vehicle with respect to the first robotic vehicle based on images collected by the one or more image capture devices as the first robotic vehicle traverses the commanded trajectory;
• identify a position of each of a plurality of geometric feature points of the second robotic vehicle loaded with the payload with respect to a coordinate frame fixed to the second robotic vehicle based on images collected by the one or more image capture devices and the distances collected by the one or more distance sensors as the first robotic vehicle traverses the commanded trajectory;
• mesh the plurality of geometric feature points to generate a geometric model of the second robotic vehicle loaded with the payload;
• and
• communicate the geometric model to the second robotic vehicle.