Method for autonomous navigation

A method for autonomous navigation comprising, at an autonomous vehicle:

• during a first scan cycle:
• recording a first image via a first sensor arranged on the autonomous vehicle;
• and
• recording a second image via a second sensor arranged on the autonomous vehicle;
• calculating a first field of view of the first sensor during the first scan cycle based on surfaces represented in the first image;
• calculating a second field of view of the second sensor during the first scan cycle based on surfaces represented in the second image;
• characterizing a first spatial redundancy between the first sensor and the second sensor based on a first overlap of the first field of view and the second field of view;
• in response to the first spatial redundancy remaining below a threshold redundancy, decreasing a maximum available rate of execution of a first navigational action by the autonomous vehicle, the first navigational action informed by presence of external objects within a first region of a scene around the autonomous vehicle spanning the first overlap;
• and
• autonomously executing a first set of navigational actions over a first time period succeeding the first scan cycle, the first set of navigational actions comprising the first navigational action limited to the maximum available rate of execution.

A method for autonomous navigation comprising, at an autonomous vehicle:

• during a scan cycle, recording multi-dimensional images via a set of sensors arranged on the autonomous vehicle;
• for each sensor in the set of sensors, calculating a field of view of the sensor during the scan cycle based on external surfaces detected in a multi-dimensional image output by the sensor during the scan cycle;
• compiling fields of view of the sensors in the set of sensors into a sensor redundancy map based on known relative positions of the set of sensors arranged on the autonomous vehicle;
• characterizing a level of redundancy between a first sensor and a second sensor in the set of sensors based on a degree of an overlap between a first field of view of the first sensor and a second field of view of the second sensor indicated by the sensor redundancy map;
• in response to the level of redundancy exceeding a threshold:
• verifying integrity of a first image recorded by the first sensor during the scan cycle and a second image recorded by the second sensor during the scan cycle based on alignment between data contained in a first region of the first image and a second region of the second image corresponding to overlapping fields of view of the first sensor and second sensor during the scan cycle;
• and
• executing a navigational action based on external surfaces detected in the first image and the second image;
• and
• in response to the level of redundancy remaining below the threshold:
• labeling the first image and the second image as unverified;
• and
• disabling a subset of navigational actions informed by presence of external objects within a first region of a scene around the autonomous vehicle spanning the overlap between the first field of view of the first sensor and the second field of view of the second sensor.