Robot base position planning

A robotic device comprising:

• a base;
• a manipulator connected to the base;
• a sensor;
• and
• a control system configured to:
• receive, from the sensor, sensor data that represents surfaces in a physical environment that contains an interaction point for the manipulator;
• determine, based on the sensor data, a height map of the surfaces in the physical environment;
• determine, based on the height map and the interaction point and using a pre-trained model, an output map representing the physical environment and comprising a plurality of candidate positions for the base within a region of the physical environment represented by the height map, wherein the output map comprises, for each respective candidate position of the plurality of candidate positions, a corresponding confidence value generated by the pre-trained model and indicative of a likelihood that the respective candidate position will allow the manipulator to follow at least one collision-free trajectory relative to the base of the robotic device to reach the interaction point when the base of the robotic device is positioned at the respective candidate position;
• select a candidate position from the plurality of candidate positions based on the corresponding confidence value of the selected candidate position;
• determine a collision-free trajectory to be followed by the manipulator relative to the base to reach the interaction point when the base is positioned at the selected candidate position of the plurality of candidate positions;
• and
• based on determining the collision-free trajectory, provide instructions to cause the base to move to the selected candidate position within the physical environment.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

• receiving sensor data that represents surfaces in a physical environment that contains an interaction point for a manipulator of a robotic device;
• determining, based on the sensor data, a height map of the surfaces in the physical environment;
• determining, based on the height map and the interaction point and using a pre-trained model, an output map representing the physical environment and comprising a plurality of candidate positions for a base of the robotic device within a region of the physical environment represented by the height map, wherein the output map comprises, for each respective candidate position of the plurality of candidate positions, a corresponding confidence value generated by the pre-trained model and indicative of a likelihood that the respective candidate position will allow the manipulator of the robotic device to follow at least one collision-free trajectory relative to the base of the robotic device to reach the interaction point when the base of the robotic device is positioned at the respective candidate position;
• selecting a candidate position from the plurality of candidate positions based on the corresponding confidence value of the selected candidate position;
• determining a collision-free trajectory to be followed by the manipulator relative to the base of the robotic device to reach the interaction point when the base of the robotic device is positioned at the selected candidate position of the plurality of candidate positions;
• and
• based on determining the collision-free trajectory, providing instructions to cause the base of the robotic device to move to the selected candidate position within the physical environment.