Collaborative autonomous ground vehicle

An autonomous ground vehicle for traversing a ground surface in an environment comprising:

• a body comprising a payload bed, a front end portion and a rear end portion, and at least one of a front camera group and a rear camera group, said front camera group comprising at least one camera having a front field of view in front of said front end portion, said front camera group providing a front camera image of said front field of view, said rear camera group comprising at least one camera having a rear field of view behind said rear end portion, said rear camera group providing a rear camera image of said rear field of view;
• a drive assembly including plural wheels to enable said autonomous ground vehicle to move over the ground surface;
• a control system configured to operate in a teach mode and a repeat mode and comprising a microprocessor configured to be instructed by a digital instruction set, said control system being coupled to said at least one of said front camera group and said rear camera group and to said drive assembly for controlling the movement of said autonomous ground vehicle over the ground surface in at least one of a follow person route and a precede person route, said follow person route being established by said autonomous ground vehicle automatically following a person walking away from said autonomous ground vehicle in said front field of view or said rear field of view, said precede person route being established by said autonomous ground vehicle automatically preceding a person walking toward said autonomous ground vehicle in said front field of view or said rear field of view, said control system being configured for identifying at least one person and the position of said at least one person relative to said front end portion or to said rear end portion, for detecting a region of said front camera image that contains at least one person or for detecting a region of said rear camera image that contains at least one person, for estimating the distance of the at least one person from the front or rear camera group providing the front or rear camera image, and wherein when said control system is in said teach mode said control system remembers said follow person route or said precede person route as a taught route, and when said control system is in said repeat mode causes said autonomous ground vehicle to autonomously traverse said taught route over the ground surface.