TOPOLOGICAL-BASED LOCALIZATION AND NAVIGATION
First Claim
1. A location and navigation module implemented by electrical data processing functionality, comprising:
- a high-level control module configured to determine an action to be taken by an agent within an environment based, in part, on structure of the environment, the high-level control module comprising;
a belief determination module configured to determine a plurality of probabilistic beliefs that identify an extent to which the agent is associated with different respective locations of a directed graph;
a vote determination module configured to generate a plurality of votes associated with the different respective locations, each vote identifying an action to be taken by the agent, the plurality of votes being weighted, respectively, by the plurality of probabilistic beliefs; and
a vote selection module configured to select one of the plurality votes and an associated action based on the plurality of probabilistic beliefs; and
a low-level control module configured to implement a navigation action selected by the high-level control module based, in part, on motion of the agent within the environment, the navigation action advancing the agent along an identified edge in the directed graph.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Functionality is described for probabilistically determining the location of an agent within an environment. The functionality performs this task using a topological representation of the environment provided by a directed graph. Nodes in the directed graph represent locations in the environment, while edges represent transition paths between the locations. The functionality also provides a mechanism by which the agent can navigate in the environment based on its probabilistic assessment of location. Such a mechanism can use a high-level control module and a low-level control module. The high-level control module determines an action for the agent to take by considering a plurality of votes associated with different locations in the directed graph. The low-level control module allows the agent to navigate along a selected edge when the high-level control module votes for a navigation action.
26 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A location and navigation module implemented by electrical data processing functionality, comprising:
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a high-level control module configured to determine an action to be taken by an agent within an environment based, in part, on structure of the environment, the high-level control module comprising; a belief determination module configured to determine a plurality of probabilistic beliefs that identify an extent to which the agent is associated with different respective locations of a directed graph; a vote determination module configured to generate a plurality of votes associated with the different respective locations, each vote identifying an action to be taken by the agent, the plurality of votes being weighted, respectively, by the plurality of probabilistic beliefs; and a vote selection module configured to select one of the plurality votes and an associated action based on the plurality of probabilistic beliefs; and a low-level control module configured to implement a navigation action selected by the high-level control module based, in part, on motion of the agent within the environment, the navigation action advancing the agent along an identified edge in the directed graph. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A computer readable medium for storing computer readable instructions, the computer readable instructions providing a location and navigation module when executed by one or more processing devices, the computer readable instructions comprising:
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logic configured to receive at least one input image provided by an agent within an environment; logic configured to compare said at least one input image with a plurality of edge images associated with an edge within a directed graph to produce observations, the edge connecting two nodes in the directed graph and corresponding to a transition path between two locations within the environment; and logic configured to generate a plurality of probabilistic beliefs for a plurality of respective edge images associated with the edge based on the observations, each probabilistic belief corresponding to a likelihood that the agent is associated with an edge image associated with the edge; logic configured to provide control instructions which control motion of the agent along the edge based on the probabilistic beliefs. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method, using electrical data processing functionality, for identifying a location of an agent, comprising:
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receiving a plurality of input images provided by the agent within an environment, including a front image provided by the agent associated with a visual field in view in front of the agent; a back image provided by the agent associated with a visual field of view in back of the agent; and depth-related information provided by the agent that identifies distances between features in the environment and the agent; comparing at least one of the input images with a collection of graph images associated with a directed graph to produce observations, the directed graph presenting a topological representation of the environment, a first subset of graph images being associated with nodes within the directed graph, and a second subset of graph images being associated with edges between the nodes in the directed graph; and generating a plurality of probabilistic beliefs for a plurality of respective locations based on the observations, each probabilistic belief corresponding to a likelihood that the agent is associated with a location identified in the directed graph, - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification