US 2019/0337158 A1 · METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY GENERATING WAYPOINTS FOR IMAGING SHELVES WITHIN A STORE

Abstract

One variation of a method for automatically generating waypoints for imaging shelves within a store includes: dispatching a robotic system to autonomously generating a map of a floor space within the store; accessing an architectural metaspace defining target locations and addresses of the set of shelving structures within the store; distorting the architectural metaspace into alignment with the map to generate a normalized metaspace representing real locations and addresses of the set of shelving structures in the store; defining a set of waypoints distributed longitudinally along and offset laterally from a first shelving structure represented in the normalized metaspace based on a known position of an optical sensor in the robotic system; and dispatching the robotic system to record optical data while occupying the set of waypoints during an imaging routine.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A method for automatically mapping a store comprising:

accessing a map of a floor space within the store generated based on map data collected by a robotic system while navigating through the store during a mapping routine;
accessing an architectural metaspace defining target locations of a set of shelving structures within the store;
distorting features in the architectural metaspace into alignment with like features in the map to generate a normalized metaspace representing real locations of the set of shelving structures in the store;
defining a set of waypoints within the normalized metaspace relative to the coordinate system, the set of waypoints comprising a first subset of waypoints distributed along a first shelving structure, in the set of shelving structures, represented in the normalized metaspace;
and
dispatching the robotic system to scan shelving structures in the set of shelving structures in the store while occupying waypoints in the set of waypoints during a scan cycle succeeding the mapping routine.

3 more elements

A method for automatically mapping shelving structures within a store comprising:

accessing a map of a floor space of the store generated based on map data collected by a robotic system while navigating through the store;
accessing a set of images recorded by the robotic system while navigating through the store, each image in the set of images associated with a location within the map corresponding to a position of the robotic system during recordation of the image;
detecting a set of shelving structures represented in the map;
for each image in the set of images:
detecting a shelving structure, in the set of shelving structures, depicted in the image based on a location within the map associated with the image;
detecting a set of features in the image;
identifying a set of products located on the shelving structure based on the set of features;
and
generating a stock condition of the shelving structure based on the set of products;
and
aggregating stock conditions of the set of shelving structures into a realogram of the store.

8 more elements

A method for automatically mapping shelving structures within a store comprising:

accessing a map of a floor space of the store generated based on map data collected by a robotic system while navigating through the store;
accessing a set of images recorded by the robotic system while navigating through the store, each image in the set of images associated with a location within the map corresponding to a position of the robotic system during recordation of the image;
detecting a set of shelving structures represented in the map;
for each image in the set of images:
detecting a set of features in the image;
detecting an optical identifier, applied to a shelving structure in the set of shelving structures, in the image;
based on the optical identifier, identifying a product assigned to the shelving structure;
retrieving a set of template images from a database of template images, each template image in the set of template images representing the product;
confirming presence of a unit of the product on the first shelving structure based on correlation between features in the set of features detected in the image and features in a template image, in the set of template images, representing the product;
and
generating a stock condition, of the shelving structure, indicating presence of the unit of the product on the shelving structure;
and
aggregating stock conditions of the set of shelving structures into a realogram of the store.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method for automatically generating waypoints for imaging shelves within a store

Life of this patent

Method for automatically generating waypoints for imaging shelves within a store

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21