Loading earth into a vehicle using a cooperative fleet of vehicles

A method for loading earth from a first earth shaping vehicle (ESV) into a second earth shaping vehicle (ESV), the method comprising:

• navigating the first ESV to a dig location containing earth to be excavated, wherein the first ESV comprises an excavation tool for excavating the earth from the dig location;
• identifying the second ESV, wherein identifying the second ESV comprises:
• receiving volumes of hauling tools for a plurality of candidate earth shaping vehicles (ESV);
• comparing the volume of earth at the dig location to a volume of each candidate ESV;
• and
• selecting, as the second ESV, a candidate ESV having a hauling tool with a volume greater than the volume of earth at the dig location
• identifying a loading location for the first ESV to load the earth from the dig location into a hauling tool of the second ESV based on a location of the first ESV relative to a location of the second ESV;
• providing the loading location to the second ESV, the second ESV configured to navigate to the loading location;
• responsive to excavating the earth from the dig location, navigating the first ESV to the loading location;
• and
• transferring the excavated earth from the excavation tool of the first ESV to the hauling tool of the second ESV.

A system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions for loading earth from a first earth shaping vehicle (ESV) comprising an excavation tool for excavating earth into a second earth shaping vehicle (ESV) comprising a hauling tool encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• navigate the first ESV to a dig location containing earth to be excavated;
• identify the second ESV, wherein instructions for identifying the second ESV cause the processor to:
• receive volumes of hauling tools for a plurality of candidate earth shaping vehicles (ESV);
• compare the volume of earth at the dig location to a volume of each candidate ESV;
• and
• select, as the second ESV, a candidate ESV having a hauling tool with a volume greater than the volume of earth at the dig location;
• identify a loading location for the first ESV to load excavated from the dig location into the hauling tool of the second ESV;
• providing the loading location to the second ESV;
• responsive to excavating the earth from the dig location, navigate the first ESV to the loading location;
• and
• transfer the excavated earth from the excavation tool of the first ESV to the hauling tool of the second ESV.