Autonomous vehicles performing inventory management

An autonomous vehicle configured to move within a storage area and provide updated counts of inventory items within the storage area, the autonomous vehicle comprising:

• a beacon configured to facilitate detection of a current position of the autonomous vehicle based on signal triangulation,
• at least one sensor configured to detect information indicative of a number of inventory items at the current position of the autonomous vehicle, and
• a wireless data link configured to transmit a signal indicative of the number of inventory items to a computing device communicatively coupled to the autonomous vehicle configured to update an inventory of the storage area based on the signal indicative of the number of inventory items,
• wherein the at least one sensor of comprises:
• a range finding sensor configured to measure a height of a stack of inventory items;
• and
• an altitude finding sensor configured to measure an altitude of the autonomous vehicle relative to a ground, and
• wherein the range finding sensor is configured to measure the height of the stack of inventory items by:
• measuring a vertical distance between the autonomous vehicle and the stack of inventory items;
• and
• calculate the height of the stack based on the measured vertical distance and the measured altitude of the autonomous vehicle, and
• wherein the number of inventory items is determined only based on the measured height of the stack of inventory items and a standardized height of each of the inventory items.

A method of performing an inventory of items stored within a storage area using an autonomous vehicle moving within the storage area, the method comprising:

• detecting, by a beacon, a position of the autonomous vehicle within the storage area;
• measuring, by at least one sensor, an altitude of autonomous vehicle and a distance between the autonomous vehicle and a stack of items stored within the storage area;
• calculating, by a processor, a number of items in the stack of items based on the measured altitude, the measured distance and the detected position of the autonomous vehicle;
• updating, by the processor, inventory records based on the calculated number of items in the stack;
• and
• determining, by the processor, a complete inventory of a warehouse by a result of the update of the inventory of the storage area,
• wherein the number of items is calculated by:
• determining a standardized height of a stack associated with the detected position of the autonomous vehicle;
• measuring a height of the stack based on the measured altitude and measured distance;
• comparing the standardized height of the stack to the measured height of the stack;
• and
• calculating a number of items in the stack only based on a comparison of the standardized height and the measured height.