Deployable sensors

• US 10,330,480 B1
• Filed: 09/07/2017
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Krishnaswamy, Sarath, Brazeau, Jeremiah David
• Primary Examiner(s): Paige, Tyler D
• Application Number:
  US15/698,360
• Time in Patent Office: 656 Days
• Field of Search: 701461
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 20/87 Mounting of imaging devices, e.g. mounting of gimbals
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/00 UAVs specially adapted for particular uses or applications
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/30 for imaging, photography or videography
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/00 UAVs characterised by their flight controls
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3423 Multimodal routing, i.e. combining two or more modes of transportation, where the modes can be any of, e.g. driving, walking, cycling, public transport
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/383 Indoor data
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3841 Data obtained from two or more sources, e.g. probe vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3881 Tile-based structures
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31005 Detect obstacles on path of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31006 Monitoring of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0027 involving a plurality of vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling fleet control of land vehicles from a control room G05D1/0297; traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00; for marine craft G08G3/00; for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Systems and methods for maintaining a current map of a workspace using on-demand sensors and fixed sensors are described herein. For example, a system may include a fixed sensor positioned within the workspace, an on-demand sensor available for selective deployment in the workspace, and a computing device. The computing device may maintain a digital map of the workspace, identify a region in the workspace for collection of additional sensor information, and cause the on-demand sensor to gather the additional sensor information for updating the digital map.

Claims

1. A system for maintaining a digital map of a workspace, the system comprising:

a plurality of mobile drive units configured for material transportation within the workspace;

a plurality of fixed sensors disposed at a plurality of fixed locations within the workspace;

a plurality of mobile sensors connected to a plurality of automated devices, the plurality of automated devices configured for selective deployment within the workspace; and

a management module in communication with the plurality of mobile drive units, the plurality of fixed sensors, and the plurality of automated devices, the management module configured to;

maintain a first version of the digital map of the workspace based at least in part on first visual information received from a portion of the plurality of fixed sensors, the digital map comprising a plurality of regions corresponding to a plurality of areas within the workspace;

identify a difference between a region in the first version of the digital map and a corresponding region in a second version of the digital map, the difference representative of a physical change in a workspace condition in an area of the workspace corresponding to the region and the corresponding region;

cause an automated device of the plurality of automated devices to (i) navigate to the area in the workspace, (ii) orient a mobile sensor of the plurality of mobile sensors, and (iii) use the mobile sensor to collect additional visual information at the area;

receive the additional visual information from the mobile sensor; and

update the digital map based at least in part on the additional visual information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein updating the digital map comprises generating a third version of the digital map.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the additional visual information has a first resolution value that is greater than resolution values of the region and the corresponding region.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein a first portion of the plurality of regions is updated at a first update frequency and a second portion of the plurality of regions is updated at a second update frequency that is different from the first update frequency.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the automated device comprises an unmanned aerial vehicle, a mobile drive unit, or a robotic manipulator.

6. A system for maintaining a global visual representation of a workspace, comprising:

a set of fixed sensors positioned within the workspace;

an on-demand sensor available for selective deployment within the workspace; and

a management module in communication with the set of fixed sensors and the on-demand sensor, the management module configured to;

maintain the global visual representation of the workspace based at least in part on first sensor information from at least one fixed sensor of the set of fixed sensors;

identify, based at least in part on the global visual representation, an area of the workspace for collection of additional sensor information, the area comprising a physical change in a workspace condition; and

in response to identifying the area, cause the on-demand sensor to collect the additional sensor information within the area.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the management module is further configured such that causing the on-demand sensor to collect the additional sensor information comprises instructing an automated device to which the on-demand sensor is connected to navigate to the area and orient the on-demand sensor such that the on-demand sensor can collect the additional sensor information.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the management module is further configured such that identifying the area of the workspace for collection of the additional sensor information comprises identifying a difference between a region in a first version of the global visual representation and a corresponding region in a second version of the global visual representation, the difference representative of the physical change in the workspace condition in the area of the workspace corresponding to the region and the corresponding region.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the management module is further configured to update, based at least in part on the additional sensor information, a region of the global visual representation corresponding to the area to create an updated region of the global visual representation corresponding to the area.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the management module is further configured to:

identify one or more objects present in the area of the workspace and represented in the updated region of the global visual representation; and

monitor movement of the one or more objects within the workspace based at least in part on additional updates to the updated region of the global visual representation corresponding to the area.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more objects comprise one or more of human workers, items, mobile drive units, or inventory holders.

12. The system of claim 9, further comprising a mobile drive unit, and wherein the management module is further configured to provide at least the updated region of the global visual representation to the mobile drive unit, the updated region of the global visual representation useable by the mobile drive unit for navigating within the workspace.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the updated region of the global visual representation comprises a three-dimensional rendering of the area of the workspace.

14. The system of claim 6, wherein the management module is further configured such that identifying the area of the workspace for collection of the additional sensor information is based at least in part on a confidence measure computed for a region of the global visual representation corresponding to the area, the confidence measure being based at least in part on a resolution value for the region and an age value for the region.

15. The system of claim 6, wherein:

the management module is further configured such that identifying the area of the workspace for collection of the additional sensor information comprises identifying the area where a resolution value from a corresponding region of the global visual representation falls below a resolution threshold; and

the management module is further configured to update the corresponding region based at least in part on the additional sensor information such that an updated resolution value for the updated corresponding region at least meets the resolution threshold.

16. A computer-implemented method for maintaining a digital representation of a workspace, comprising:

receiving first sensor information from a first sensor, the first sensor information comprising a representation of workspace conditions present at a particular location within the workspace;

identifying a physical obstruction at the particular location based at least in part on the first sensor information; and

in response to identifying the physical obstruction, causing an on-demand sensor to gather second sensor information at the particular location, the second sensor information comprising an enhanced representation of the workspace conditions present at the particular location.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein:

the first sensor is an first onboard sensor of a first mobile drive unit; and

the on-demand sensor is a second onboard sensor of a second mobile drive unit or a third onboard sensor of an unmanned aerial vehicle.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein causing the on-demand sensor to gather the second sensor information at the particular location comprises:

instructing an automated device including the on-demand sensor to (i) navigate to the particular location, (ii) orient the on-demand sensor based on an orientation instruction, and (iii) use the on-demand sensor to collect the second sensor information, the automated device comprising a mobile drive unit or an unmanned aerial vehicle;

or

providing information about the particular location to a plurality of automated devices including a plurality of on-demand sensors and allowing the plurality of automated devices to select which of the plurality of automated devices will (i) navigate to the particular location, (ii) orient the on-demand sensor based on the orientation instruction, and (iii) use the on-demand sensor to collect the second sensor information.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the physical obstruction comprises at least one of a human worker, a mobile drive unit, an inventory item, a spilled liquid, or a congested intersection.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the enhanced representation comprises a higher resolution representation of the workspace conditions as compared to the representation of the workspace conditions.