Patent ID: 9259838
Filing Date: 2016-02-16
CPC Classification: B25J,B62D,G05D,Y10S

Claim Text:
1. A method operable by a computing device, the method comprising: determining an orientation of a body of a robotic device with respect to a gravity aligned reference frame; determining a location of one or more contact points between the robotic device and a ground surface; determining, by one or more processors of the computing device, a ground plane estimation of the ground surface based on the determined orientation of the robotic device with respect to the gravity aligned reference frame and the determined locations of the one or more contact points between the robotic device and the ground surface, wherein the ground plane estimation includes a flat-plane approximation of a shape of the ground surface that minimizes a distance between the one or more contact points and the determined ground plane estimation; determining a distance between the body of the robotic device and the determined ground plane estimation; and providing instructions, by the one or more processors, to adjust a position of the robotic device based on the determined distance and the determined ground plane estimation.