AUTONOMOUSLY DELIVERING ITEMS TO CORRESPONDING DELIVERY LOCATIONS PROXIMATE A DELIVERY ROUTE
First Claim
1. An autonomous vehicle item delivery system for autonomously delivering at least one item to a destination location, the system comprising:
- a manual delivery vehicle operable by a vehicle operator, wherein the manual delivery vehicle is configured to traverse an assigned manual delivery vehicle route between a plurality of manual delivery locations;
an autonomous delivery vehicle configured for autonomously transporting at least one item between the manual delivery vehicle and an autonomous delivery location; and
a computing entity comprising one or more memory storage areas and one or more hardware processors, wherein the one or more hardware processors are configured to;
receive item data for the at least one item identified for autonomous delivery, wherein the item data identifies an autonomous delivery location for the at least one item;
determining, based at least in part on the item data, a launch location along the manual delivery vehicle route for the at least one item; and
wherein the autonomous vehicle is configured to depart the manual delivery vehicle at the launch location to deliver the at least one item to the autonomous delivery location.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Various systems and methodologies may be utilized to determine whether a particular shipment/item is eligible for delivery between a manual delivery vehicle and a final destination location via an autonomous delivery vehicle. To ensure autonomous deliveries are performed in a resource effective manner, shipments/items deemed eligible for autonomous delivery may be vetted by comparing the destination for the autonomous delivery shipment/item against one or more manual delivery destinations (serviced by the manual delivery vehicle operator), and ultimately identifying an optimal launch location for the autonomous delivery vehicle to leave the manual delivery vehicle to complete the autonomous delivery. If the autonomous delivery location does not satisfy applicable autonomous delivery criteria, the autonomous delivery shipment/item may be reclassified for manual delivery by the manual delivery vehicle operator.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. An autonomous vehicle item delivery system for autonomously delivering at least one item to a destination location, the system comprising:
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a manual delivery vehicle operable by a vehicle operator, wherein the manual delivery vehicle is configured to traverse an assigned manual delivery vehicle route between a plurality of manual delivery locations; an autonomous delivery vehicle configured for autonomously transporting at least one item between the manual delivery vehicle and an autonomous delivery location; and a computing entity comprising one or more memory storage areas and one or more hardware processors, wherein the one or more hardware processors are configured to; receive item data for the at least one item identified for autonomous delivery, wherein the item data identifies an autonomous delivery location for the at least one item; determining, based at least in part on the item data, a launch location along the manual delivery vehicle route for the at least one item; and wherein the autonomous vehicle is configured to depart the manual delivery vehicle at the launch location to deliver the at least one item to the autonomous delivery location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for delivering at least one item from a manual delivery vehicle to a destination location via an autonomous delivery vehicle, the method comprising:
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receiving, via a computing entity, item data for a plurality of items to be delivered to corresponding delivery locations at least in part via a delivery vehicle; electronically classifying, based at least in part on the item data, each of the plurality of items as one of manual-delivery eligible or autonomous-delivery eligible, wherein manual delivery-eligible items are eligible for final delivery between the delivery vehicle and corresponding manual delivery locations by a delivery vehicle operator and autonomous-delivery eligible items are eligible for final delivery between the delivery vehicle and corresponding autonomous delivery locations by an autonomous vehicle; determining whether at least one autonomous delivery-eligible item satisfies autonomous delivery criteria by; comparing a destination location for the at least one autonomous delivery-eligible item against the delivery locations corresponding to the manual delivery eligible items; and responsive to determining that the autonomous delivery criteria is satisfied; identifying at least one manual delivery location as a launch location for the autonomous vehicle to depart the delivery vehicle for final delivery to the destination location; monitoring the location of the delivery vehicle relative to the launch location; and upon detecting that the delivery vehicle is at the launch location, causing the autonomous vehicle to depart from the delivery vehicle to deliver the at least one autonomous-delivery eligible item to the destination location. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification