Digital representations of robot operational environment, useful in motion planning for robots

A method of operation of a system, the system comprising at least one processor, and at least one nontransitory processor-readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and which stores processor-executable instructions, the method comprising:

• identifying in a digital representation of a three-dimensional operational environment one or more elements that represent one or more physical objects that reside in the three-dimensional operational environment;
• determining which, if any, of the physical objects represented in the digital representation of the three-dimensional operational environment reside completely within a three-dimensional representation of an oversized volume that encompasses at least an appendage of a first robot, at least one portion of the oversized volume which extends beyond a corresponding peripheral dimension of at least the appendage of the first robot to encompass one or more cables physically coupled to the appendage of the first robot;
• for any of the physical objects that are determined to reside completely within the three-dimensional representation of the oversized volume, setting one or more occupancy values in the digital representation of the three-dimensional operational environment to represent a volume corresponding to the respective physical object as unoccupied to provide a filtered representation of the three-dimensional operational environment in which the oversized volume encompassing at least the robotic appendage of the first robot and the at least one cable is not indicated as being an obstacle;
• performing motion planning for the first robot using the filtered representation of the three-dimensional operational environment;
• and
• providing output that can be used to position and orient robots in a multi-robot environment and cause the robot to perform tasks.

A system, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• at least one nontransitory processor-readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and which stores processor-executable instructions which, when executed by the at least processor, cause the at least one processor to:
• identify in a digital representation of a three-dimensional operational environment one or more elements that represent one or more physical objects that reside in the three-dimensional operational environment;
• determine which, if any, of the physical objects represented in the digital representation of the three-dimensional operational environment reside completely within a three-dimensional representation of an oversized volume that encompasses at least an appendage of a first robot, at least one portion of the oversized volume which extends beyond a corresponding peripheral dimension of at least the appendage of the first robot to encompass one or more structures physically coupled to the appendage of the first robot;
• and
• for any of the physical objects that are determined to reside completely within the three-dimensional representation of the oversized volume, set one or more occupancy values in the digital representation of the three-dimensional operational environment to represent a volume corresponding to the respective physical object as unoccupied to provide a filtered representation of the three-dimensional operational environment in which the oversized volume encompassing at least the robotic appendage of the first robot and the at least one structure is not indicated as being an obstacle.