System of configuring active lighting to indicate directionality of an autonomous vehicle
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- causing an autonomous vehicle to navigate in a first direction of travel within an environment, the autonomous vehicle configured to navigate in the first direction of travel in which a first end of the autonomous vehicle is leading and a second end of the autonomous vehicle is trailing and a second direction of travel in which the second end is leading and the first end is trailing;
identifying a location of an object within the environment;
determining an orientation of the autonomous vehicle relative to the location of the object;
selecting, based at least in part on the orientation of the autonomous vehicle, a light emitter of the autonomous vehicle to emit a light pattern to visually convey the first direction of travel; and
causing the light emitter to emit the light pattern to visually convey the first direction of travel.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems, apparatus and methods may be configured to implement actively-controlled light emission from a robotic vehicle. A light emitter(s) of the robotic vehicle may be configurable to indicate a direction of travel of the robotic vehicle and/or display information (e.g., a greeting, a notice, a message, a graphic, passenger/customer/client content, vehicle livery, customized livery) using one or more colors of emitted light (e.g., orange for a first direction and purple for a second direction), one or more sequences of emitted light (e.g., a moving image/graphic), or positions of light emitter(s) on the robotic vehicle (e.g., symmetrically positioned light emitters). The robotic vehicle may not have a front or a back (e.g., a trunk/a hood) and may be configured to travel bi-directionally, in a first direction or a second direction (e.g., opposite the first direction), with the direction of travel being indicated by one or more of the light emitters.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method comprising:
-
causing an autonomous vehicle to navigate in a first direction of travel within an environment, the autonomous vehicle configured to navigate in the first direction of travel in which a first end of the autonomous vehicle is leading and a second end of the autonomous vehicle is trailing and a second direction of travel in which the second end is leading and the first end is trailing; identifying a location of an object within the environment; determining an orientation of the autonomous vehicle relative to the location of the object; selecting, based at least in part on the orientation of the autonomous vehicle, a light emitter of the autonomous vehicle to emit a light pattern to visually convey the first direction of travel; and causing the light emitter to emit the light pattern to visually convey the first direction of travel. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A system comprising:
-
one or more light emitters; one or more processors; and one or more computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform operations comprising; causing an autonomous vehicle to navigate in a first direction of travel within an environment, the autonomous vehicle configured to navigate in the first direction of travel in which a first end of the autonomous vehicle is leading and a second end of the autonomous vehicle is trailing and a second direction of travel in which the second end is leading and the first end is trailing; determining a trajectory of the autonomous vehicle; identifying an object within the environment; determining a location of the object within the environment; selecting a light emitter of the one or more light emitters to emit a light pattern to visually convey the first direction of travel; and causing the light emitter to emit the light pattern to visually convey the first direction of travel. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. One or more computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
-
causing an autonomous vehicle to navigate in a first direction of travel within an environment, the autonomous vehicle configured to navigate in the first direction of travel in which a first end of the autonomous vehicle is leading and a second end of the autonomous vehicle is trailing and a second direction of travel in which the second end is leading and the first end is trailing; determining a first location of the autonomous vehicle within the environment; determining a second location of an object within the environment; selecting light emitter on the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the first location and the second location; selecting data representing a light pattern that indicates the first direction of travel of the autonomous vehicle; and causing, using the data, the light emitter to emit light to visually convey the first direction of travel. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
-
Specification