Dynamic mapping of outdoor yards

A method for maintaining a digital twin of a state of operation of an outdoor yard of the distribution center indicative of changes in states of vehicles in the outdoor yard, the method comprising:

• receiving a first image of a vehicle entering the outdoor yard at an ingress location;
• extracting from the first image visual features of one or a combination of visual appearance and visual markings on the vehicle;
• generating a digital identifier of the vehicle from the visual features of the first image;
• adding to a list of vehicles present in the outdoor yard a digital representation of the vehicle identified by the digital identifier;
• and
• generating a dynamic map for the digital twin of the outdoor yard by reflecting a state of the vehicle identified by the digital identifier on the dynamic map at the ingress location;
• receiving a second image of the vehicle at a landmark location of the outdoor yard;
• extracting from the second image the visual features of the vehicle;
• generating the digital identifier of the vehicle from the visual features of the second image;
• verifying existence of the vehicle with the digital identifier in the list of vehicles present in the outdoor yard;
• updating the dynamic map by reflecting the state of the vehicle identified by the digital identifier on the dynamic map at the landmark location;
• receiving a third image of the vehicle exiting the outdoor yard at an egress location of the outdoor yard;
• extracting from the third image the visual features of the vehicle;
• generating the digital identifier of the vehicle from the visual features of the third image;
• and
• removing the digital identifier of the vehicle from the list and the dynamic map of the outdoor yard.

A yard management system for maintaining a digital twin of a state of operation of an outdoor yard of the distribution center indicative of changes in states of vehicles in the outdoor yard, the yard management system comprising:

• a memory configured to store a dynamic map of an outdoor yard of a distribution center and program instructions forming modules of the yard management system;
• and
• a processor coupled to the memory and configured to execute the modules to update the dynamic map of the outdoor yard, wherein the modules comprise:
• an input interface module configured to receive sensor data associated with the outdoor yard and with the vehicles in the outdoor yard;
• sensor modules configured to, for each vehicle of the vehicles in the outdoor yard:
• generate a digital identification associated with a vehicle based on determining visual features of the vehicle from the sensor data;
• determine a state of the vehicle relative to the outdoor yard based on the sensor data;
• and
• provide an indication of the state of the vehicle in association with the digital identification of the vehicle to an output interface module;
• and
• an output interface module configured to update the dynamic map of the outdoor yard with the indications of the states of the vehicles based on reflecting the states of the vehicles relative to the outdoor yard on the dynamic map, and to output the dynamic map of the outdoor map.