Patent ID: 11898849
Assignee: CLEARPATH ROBOTICS INC.
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A method of operating a self-driving material transport vehicle to update an electronic map of a facility while the self-driving material transport vehicle is executing a mission, the method comprising:
receiving, at the self-driving material transport vehicle, one or more mission instructions to initiate the self-driving material transport vehicle to execute one or more mission tasks at one or more destination locations within the facility;
while the self-driving material transport vehicle navigates within the facility to execute the one or more mission tasks, concurrently operating the self-driving material transport vehicle to execute an electronic map update task separate from the one or more mission tasks, the electronic map update task comprising one or more map update instructions to operate the self-driving material transport vehicle to:
collect image data at a current position of the self-driving material transport vehicle until the self-driving material transport vehicle arrives at a destination location of the one or more destination locations, the image data representing one or more features observable from the current position;
determine if the electronic map comprises a map node associated with the current position, wherein the electronic map comprises a set of map nodes, each map node being associated with a different location in the facility, and each map node comprises stored image data associated with a respective location within the facility,
in response to determining that the electronic map does not include a map node associated with the current position, identify one or more neighboring map nodes within a neighbor threshold of the current position;
compare the collected image data with the stored image data associated with one or more of (i) the map node associated with the current position, and (ii) at least one neighboring map node of the one or more neighboring map nodes, to determine a dissimilarity level;
determine whether the dissimilarity level exceeds a dissimilarity threshold; and

in response to determining the dissimilarity level exceeds the dissimilarity threshold, update the electronic map based at least on the collected image data.