Apparatus and method of obtaining location information of a motorized transport unit

• US 10,071,892 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2016
• Issued: 09/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: High, Donald R., Atchley, Michael D., McHale, Brian G., Taylor, Robert C., Winkle, David C.
• Primary Examiner(s): FREJD, RUSSELL WARREN
• Application Number:
  US15/061,406
• Publication Number:
  US 20160259028A1
• Time in Patent Office: 921 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A47F 10/04 for storing or handling self-service hand-carts or baskets
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• CPC Class Codes: A47F 2010/005 using RFID elements
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• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/04 Automatic control of the travelling movement; Automatic obstacle detection
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 2501/0045 Return vending of articles, e.g. bottles
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 2501/0054 Sorting of waste or refuse
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 2501/0063 Using robots
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• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 : Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10028 : Range image; Depth image; 3D point clouds
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/593 : from stereo images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/74 : involving reference images or patches
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• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/44 : Event detection
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• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 : exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
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• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/224 : of printed characters having additional code marks or containing code marks
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• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 : Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
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• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0071 : with a programmable schedule
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/38 : Transceivers, i.e. devices in which transmitter and receiver form a structural unit and in which at least one part is used for functions of transmitting and receiving
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• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0846 : using time-dependent-passwords, e.g. periodically changing passwords
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• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 : Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/143 : Termination or inactivation of sessions, e.g. event-controlled end of session
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• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 : between a recording apparatus and a television camera
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• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 : Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 : Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 : Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 : for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 : Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 : Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 : Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 : Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 30/82 : Recycling of waste of electrical or electronic equipment [WEEE]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 90/00 : Enabling technologies or technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 90/10 : Bio-packaging, e.g. packing containers made from renewable resources or bio-plastics
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/50 : Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 : Mobile robot

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses are provided, some apparatuses comprise: a location controller separate from a motorized transport unit, comprising: a transceiver configured to receive communications from the motorized transport unit; a control circuit; a memory storing computer instructions that when executed by the control circuit cause the control circuit to perform the steps of: obtain, from the communications, a unique light source identifier of a light source detected by the motorized transport unit, and relative distance information determined by the motorized transport unit through an optical measurement; process the at least one unique light source identifier and the relative distance information relative to a mapping of the shopping facility; and determine, in response to the processing, a location of the motorized transport unit within the shopping facility as a function of the at least one unique light source identifier and the relative distance information.

Claims

1. An apparatus providing control over movement of a motorized transport unit within a shopping facility, comprising:

a location controller separate and distinct from a self-propelled motorized transport unit, wherein the location controller comprises;

a transceiver configured to receive communications from the motorized transport unit located within a shopping facility;

a control circuit coupled with the transceiver;

a memory coupled to the control circuit and storing computer instructions that when executed by the control circuit cause the control circuit to perform the steps of;

obtain, from the communications received from the motorized transport unit, a unique light source identifier of an external light source, of a plurality of separate external light sources within the shopping facility, detected by the motorized transport unit from light emitted by the light source providing a corresponding illumination area of a plurality of different illumination areas each representative of an area that is illuminated by a corresponding one of the plurality of separate external light sources, and relative distance information determined by the motorized transport unit through an optical measurement corresponding to a distance between the motorized transport unit and an external object;

process the at least one unique light source identifier and the relative distance information relative to a mapping of the shopping facility; and

determine, in response to the processing, a location of the motorized transport unit within the shopping facility as a function of the at least one unique light source identifier and the relative distance information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control circuit is further configured to:

obtain, from the communications from the motorized transport unit, first code information corresponding to a first machine readable code of a plurality of unique machine readable codes that are positioned at different locations distributed throughout at least a portion of the shopping facility and detected by the motorized transport unit;

identify, based on the first code information relative to the mapping, a location of the first machine readable code within the shopping facility; and

determine, relative to the mapping of the shopping facility, the location of the motorized transport unit within the shopping facility as a function of the at least one unique light source identifier, the relative distance information and the identified location of the first machine readable code.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control circuit is further configured to:

determine, relative to the mapping and the determined location of the motorized transport unit, one or more movement commands to control movement of the motorized transport unit to cause the motorized transport unit to move in a desired direction; and

cause the transceiver to transmit the one or more movement commands to the motorized transport unit to cause the motorized transport unit to control its movements in accordance with the movement commands.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control circuit is further configured to:

determine a destination location within the shopping location;

identify, relative to the mapping, a route between the determined location of the motorized transport unit and the destination location;

identify one or more movement commands to control movement of the motorized transport unit to cause the motorized transport unit to move to the destination location; and

cause the transceiver to transmit the one or more movement commands to the motorized transport unit to cause the motorized transport unit to control its movements in accordance with the movement commands.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control circuit, in obtaining the at least one unique light source identifier, is further configured to obtain from the communications multiple unique light source identifiers detected by the motorized transport unit from light emitted from multiple separate light sources, of the plurality of separate light sources, simultaneously impinging on a detector of the motorized transport unit;

wherein the control circuit in determining the location of the motorized transport unit is further configured to determine the location of the motorized transport unit as a function of the multiple unique light source identifiers.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the control circuit, in determining the location of the motorized transport unit is further configured to identify, relative to the mapping, a location of an overlapping light area of the light emitted from the multiple light sources wherein the multiple light sources are ceiling mounted overhead lights.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

the motorized transport unit located within the shopping facility, wherein the motorized transport unit comprises;

a light receiver unit configured to detect the light from the light source within the shopping facility and extract the unique light source identifier from the detected light;

a distance measurement unit comprising a light emitter and a light detector, wherein the distance measurement unit is configured to determine the relative distance from the light emitter to the external object; and

a communication transmitter configured to transmit the communications comprising at least the light source identifier and the relative distance.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the motorized transport unit further comprises a machine readable code reader configured to optically read a first machine readable code of a plurality of unique machine readable codes that are positioned at different locations distributed throughout at least a portion of the shopping facility;

wherein the control circuit is further configured to;

obtain, from the communications from the motorized transport unit, the first code information;

identify, based on the first code information relative to the mapping, a location of the first machine readable code within the shopping facility; and

determine, relative to the mapping of the shopping facility, the location of the motorized transport unit within the shopping facility as a function of the at least one unique light source identifier, the relative distance information and the identified location of the first machine readable code.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control circuit, in determining the location of the motorized transport unit, is further configured to:

obtain an additional unique light source identifier from light emitted by an additional light source of the plurality of separate light sources within the shopping facility and detected by a light receiver unit positioned on a movable item container removably coupled with the motorized transport unit configured to be moved by the motorized transport unit through at least a portion of the shopping facility;

process the additional unique light source identifier and determine, relative to the mapping, a location within the mapping of a light pattern of the additional light source; and

determine, in response to the processing, the location of the motorized transport unit within the shopping facility as a function of the at least one unique light source identifier, the relative distance information and the location within the mapping of the light pattern.

10. An apparatus providing control over movement of a motorized transport unit within a shopping facility, comprising:

a self-propelled motorized transport unit within a shopping facility, wherein the motorized transport unit comprises;

a light receiver unit configured to detect light from one or more external light sources of a plurality of separate external light sources within a shopping facility and extract at least one unique light source identifier from the detected light, wherein each of the plurality of separate light sources provide a corresponding illumination area representative of an area that is illuminated by a corresponding one of the plurality of separate light sources;

a distance measurement unit comprising a light emitter and a light detector, wherein the distance measurement unit is configured to determine, as a function of light detected from the light emitter, a relative distance from the light emitter to one or more remote objects;

a control circuit; and

a memory coupled to the control circuit and storing computer instructions that when executed by the control circuit cause the control circuit to control movement of the motorized transport unit as a function of a location of the motorized transport unit determined relative to a mapping of the shopping facility and based on the at least one light source identifier and the relative distance.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the motorized transport unit further comprises a machine readable code reader configured to read a first machine readable code of a plurality of unique machine readable codes that are positioned at different locations distributed throughout at least a portion of the shopping facility, and to extract a first code information corresponding to the first machine readable code;

wherein the control circuit in controlling the movement of the motorized transport unit is further configured to control the movement of the motorized transport unit as a function of the location of the motorized transport unit determined based on a location of the first machine readable code relative to the mapping and the at least one light source identifier and the relative distance.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the motorized transport unit further comprises:

a communication transceiver configured to transmit the at least one light source identifier and the relative distance, and to receive one or more commands from a location controller that is separate and remote from the motorized transport unit and configured to determine the location of the motorized transport unit relative to the mapping as a function of the at least one light source identifier and the relative distance; and

wherein the control circuit is further configured to implement the one or more commands to move the motorized transport unit in accordance with the one or more commands.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the motorized transport unit is incapable of determining its own location and is dependent on the one or more commands from the location controller.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

the location controller separate from the motorized transport unit, wherein the location controller comprises;

a transceiver configured to receive the at least one light source identifier and the relative distance;

a second control circuit coupled with the transceiver;

a second memory coupled to the second control circuit and storing computer instructions that when executed by the second control circuit cause the second control circuit to perform the steps of;

process the at least one light source identifier and the relative distance relative to a mapping of the shopping facility;

determine, in response to the processing the at least one light source identifier and the relative distance, the location of the motorized transport unit within the shopping facility; and

identifying the one or more commands as a function of the determined location of the motorized transport unit.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the control circuit is further configured to perform the steps of:

process the at least one light source identifier and the relative distance relative to a mapping of the shopping facility;

determine, in response to the processing the at least one light source identifier and the relative distance, the location of the motorized transport unit within the shopping facility.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the light receiver unit in extracting the at least one unique light source identifier is configured to extract the at least one unique light source identifier encoded in the light from the one or more external light sources that are mounted above a surface along which the self-propelled motorized transport unit moves.

17. A method of controlling movement of a motorized transport unit within a shopping facility, comprising:

receiving, at a location controller separate and distinct from a self-propelled motorized transport unit located within a shopping facility, communications from the motorized transport unit;

obtaining from the communications a unique light source identifier of an external light source, of a plurality of separate external light sources within the shopping facility, detected by the motorized transport unit from light emitted by the light source providing a corresponding illumination area of a plurality of different illumination areas each representative of an area that is illuminated by a corresponding one of the plurality of separate external light sources, and relative distance information determined by the motorized transport unit through an optical measurement corresponding to a distance between the motorized transport unit and an external object;

processing the at least one unique light source identifier and the relative distance information relative to a mapping of the shopping facility; and

determining, in response to the processing, a location of the motorized transport unit within the shopping facility as a function of the at least one unique light source identifier and the relative distance information.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

obtaining, from the communications received from the motorized transport unit, first code information corresponding to a first machine readable code of a plurality of unique machine readable codes positioned at different locations distributed throughout at least a portion of the shopping facility and detected by the motorized transport unit; and

identifying, based on the first code information relative to the mapping, a location of the first machine readable code within the shopping facility;

wherein the determining the location of the motorized transport unit further comprises determining, relative to the mapping of the shopping facility, the location of the motorized transport unit within the shopping facility as a function of the at least one unique light source identifier, the relative distance information and the identified location of the first machine readable code.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

determining, relative to the mapping and the determined location of the motorized transport unit, one or more movement commands to control movement of the motorized transport unit to cause the motorized transport unit to move in a desired direction; and

transmitting the one or more movement commands to the motorized transport unit to cause the motorized transport unit to control its movements in accordance with the movement commands.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

determining a destination location within the shopping location;

identifying, relative to the mapping, a route between the determined location of the motorized transport unit and the destination location;

identifying one or more movement commands to control movement of the motorized transport unit to cause the motorized transport unit to move to the destination location; and

transmitting the one or more movement commands to the motorized transport unit to cause the motorized transport unit to control its movements in accordance with the movement commands.

21. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

detecting, through a light receiver unit of the motorized transport unit located within the shopping facility, light from the light source within the shopping facility;

extracting, at the motorized transport unit, the unique light source identifier from the detected light;

determining, through a distance measurement unit of the motorized transport unit, the relative distance between the motorized transport unit and the external object; and

transmitting, from the motorized transport unit, the communications comprising at least the light source identifier and the relative distance.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

optically reading, through a machine readable code reader of the motorized transport unit, the first machine readable code;

extracting, at the motorized transport unit, the first code information; and

wherein the transmitting, from the motorized transport unit, the communications comprises transmitting the communications comprising at least the light source identifier, the relative distance, and the first code information.