Autonomous navigation inside trailers
AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.
InventorAdam Joseph Greenbaum
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed for autonomous navigation inside trailers. In one embodiment, an example autonomous robot may include a front end, a rear end, a sensor disposed at the front end, a rear-facing camera disposed at the rear end, and a force sensor configured to detect lateral and longitudinal forces exerted on a container being transported by the autonomous robot. The autonomous robot may be configured to transport the container from a facility into a trailer, where the autonomous robot is configured to navigate inside the trailer using the rear-facing camera.
Claims20
An autonomous robot configured to load containers into a semi-trailer, the autonomous robot comprising:
- a rear-facing camera disposed at a rear end of the autonomous robot;
- a sensor disposed at a front end of the autonomous robot;
- a force sensor disposed at a top side of the autonomous robot, wherein the force sensor is disposed between the top side of the autonomous robot and a bottom side of a container being transported by the autonomous robot;
- and
- a controller configured to guide the autonomous robot by:
- determining a drop off location for the container inside the semi-trailer;
- causing the autonomous robot to enter the semi-trailer through an entryway;
- capturing, using the rear-facing camera, a first image of the entryway;
- determining, using the first image, a first set of lines corresponding to edges of the entryway, the first set of lines comprising a first vertical line, a second vertical line, a first horizontal line, and a second horizontal line, wherein the first set of lines are connected and form a rectangular shape;
- determining an area inside the first set of lines;
- determining a distance between the entryway and the autonomous robot based at least in part on the area;
- determining a distortion value for the rectangular shape formed by the set of lines, wherein the distortion value is relative to a default rectangle;
- determining an orientation of the autonomous robot based at least in part on the distortion value;
- determining, using the distance and the orientation, a current position relative to the drop off location;
- and
- determining a path to the drop off location based at least in part on the current position.
An autonomous robot comprising:
- a front end;
- a rear end;
- a sensor disposed at the front end;
- a rear-facing camera disposed at the rear end;
- and
- a force sensor configured to detect lateral and longitudinal forces exerted on a container being transported by the autonomous robot, wherein the autonomous robot is configured to transport the container from a facility into a trailer;
- memory comprising computer-executable instructions;
- and
- one or more computer processors configured to access the memory and execute the computer-executable instructions to:
- determine a first image using the rear-facing camera;
- determine, using the first image, a set of lines corresponding to edges of an entryway to the trailer, wherein the set of lines connect to form a shape;
- determine an area inside the set of lines;
- and
- determine a first distance between the entryway and the autonomous robot based at least in part on the area;
- wherein the autonomous robot is configured to navigate inside the trailer using the rear-facing camera.
An autonomous robot comprising:
- a front end;
- a front-facing camera disposed at the front end;
- a rear end;
- a sensor disposed at the front end;
- a rear-facing camera disposed at the rear end;
- and
- a force sensor configured to detect lateral and longitudinal forces exerted on a container being transported by the autonomous robot, wherein the autonomous robot is configured to transport the container from a facility into a trailer, and to navigate inside the trailer using the rear-facing camera;
- wherein the autonomous robot is configured to:
- (i) tunnel underneath the container and lift the container from a bottom surface, and (ii) navigate autonomously both in the facility and in the trailer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.