Reorienting a Distance Sensor using an Adjustable Leveler

A mobile robotic device comprising:

• a distance sensor;
• a leveler configured to spatially reorient the distance sensor relative to the ground surface;
• one or more processors;
• a non-transitory computer readable medium;
• and
• program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by the one or more processors to:
• determine a height map indicating surface elevation data for a ground surface on which the mobile robotic device is travelling within an environment;
• determine a current location of the mobile robotic device within the environment relative to the height map;
• determine a current spatial orientation of the distance sensor relative to the ground surface, based on the determined current location of the mobile robotic device within the environment relative to the height map;
• determine an adjusted position of the leveler to which the leveler is movable to cause the distance sensor to spatially reorient from the current spatial orientation to a target spatial orientation;
• and
• cause the distance sensor to spatially reorient from the current spatial orientation to the target spatial orientation by moving the leveler to the determined adjusted position.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein instructions executable by one or more processors to cause a mobile robotic device to perform functions comprising:

• determining a height map indicating surface elevation data for a ground surface on which the mobile robotic device is travelling within an environment, wherein the mobile robotic device comprises a distance sensor and a leveler configured to spatially reorient the distance sensor relative to the ground surface;
• determining a current location of the mobile robotic device within the environment relative to the height map;
• determining a current spatial orientation of the distance sensor relative to the ground surface, based on the determined current location of the mobile robotic device within the environment relative to the height map;
• determining an adjusted position of the leveler to which the leveler is movable to cause the distance sensor to spatially reorient from the current spatial orientation to a target spatial orientation;
• and
• causing the distance sensor to spatially reorient from the current spatial orientation to the target spatial orientation by moving the leveler to the determined adjusted position.