Auto-locating and positioning relative to an aircraft

A robot, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a computer-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
• emitting a light-based signal toward an enclosure;
• receiving a point cloud of the enclosure that includes a candidate target aircraft, wherein the point cloud is based on a signal reflected from a surface of the enclosure;
• extracting a geometric feature from the point cloud associated with the candidate target aircraft;
• comparing a six degrees of freedom position of the geometric feature with a second six degrees of freedom position of the second geometric feature;
• and
• determining whether the candidate target aircraft is the target aircraft based on the comparison of the six degrees of freedom position and the second six degrees of freedom position;
• determining whether the candidate target aircraft is the target aircraft based on the comparison;
• determining a location of the robot relative to the target aircraft based on the point cloud;
• determining a path from the location of the robot to the target aircraft based on the determined relative location of the robot;
• and
• traversing the path from the location to the target aircraft based on the determined path.

A non-transitory, computer-readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed, causes a processor to perform operations comprising:

• receiving a multi-dimensional representation of an enclosure that includes a candidate target aircraft;
• extracting a geometric feature from the multi-dimensional representation associated with the candidate target aircraft;
• comparing a six degrees of freedom position of the geometric feature with a second six degrees of freedom position of the second geometric feature;
• and
• determining whether the candidate target aircraft is the target aircraft based on the comparison of the six degrees of freedom position and the second six degrees of freedom position;
• determining whether the candidate target aircraft is the target aircraft based on the comparison;
• determining a path from a location of a robot to the target aircraft based on the determination;
• and
• traversing the path from the location to the target aircraft based on the determined path.