Method and system for switching between local and remote guidance instructions for autonomous vehicles

An autonomous robotic system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory that stores programming instructions that are configured to cause the processor to guide the autonomous robotic system by:
• monitoring one or more actions of one or more objects detected in a scene in which the autonomous robotic system is moving to predict trajectories of the one or more objects;
• in response to a trajectory of at least one detected object predicted to cause the autonomous robotic system to slow or cease movement at a future point in time, transmitting a remote guidance request to a remote server;
• after transmitting the remote guidance request, receiving remote guidance instructions from the remote server;
• and
• causing the autonomous robotic system to begin operating according to the remote guidance instructions, wherein operating according to the remote guidance instructions comprises:
• reducing a minimum allowable buffer size within which the autonomous robotic system may approach one or more of the objects,
• reducing a maximum allowable speed of the autonomous robotic system,
• causing the autonomous robotic system to move in the scene according to the minimum allowable buffer size and the maximum allowable speed while receiving a plurality of keepalive messages from the remote server, and
• in response to not receiving an expected keepalive message, reverting the minimum allowable buffer size and the maximum allowable speed to previous values.

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

• monitoring one or more actions of one or more objects detected in a scene in which an autonomous robotic system is moving, to predict trajectories of the one or more objects;
• in response to a trajectory of at least one detected object predicted to cause the autonomous robotic system to slow or cease movement at a future point in time, transmitting a remote guidance request to a remote server;
• after transmitting the remote guidance request, receiving remote guidance instructions from the remote server;
• and
• causing the autonomous robotic system to begin operating according to the remote guidance instructions, wherein operating according to the remote guidance instructions comprises:
• reducing a minimum allowable buffer size within which the autonomous robotic system may approach one or more of the objects,
• reducing a maximum allowable speed of the autonomous robotic system,
• causing the autonomous robotic system to move in the scene according to the minimum allowable buffer size and the maximum allowable speed while receiving a plurality of keepalive messages from the remote server, and
• in response to not receiving an expected keepalive message, reverting the minimum allowable buffer size and the maximum allowable speed to previous values.