Patent ID: 8838273

Claim:
A system comprising: a mobile platform configured for motion comprising at least three degrees of freedom; said mobile platform comprising a base and an end-effector coupled through a manipulator, said base and end-effector configured to dispense a medium onto a surface having a width or a length of at least two meters; a laser scanning metrology system configured to measure a position and orientation corresponding to an actual position and orientation of said end-effector relative to said surface; a base wheel odometry sensor configured to measure distance travelled by a wheel of said base; an end-effector angle sensor configured to measure an orientation angle of said end-effector; a manipulator joint angle sensor configured to measure an orientation angle of a joint of said manipulator; an inertial measurement sensor configured to provide base, manipulator and end-effector inertial measurements; an autonomous controller comprising a recursive state estimator configured to generate an estimate of a position and an orientation of said end-effector based at least in part on said position and orientation of said end-effector measured by the laser scanning metrology system and on a physical characteristic model of said system, and further based on measurements provided by: said base wheel odometry sensor, said end-effector angle sensor, said manipulator joint angle sensor and said inertial measurement sensor; said autonomous controller further configured to command said base and said end-effector to adjust said actual position and orientation of said end-effector based upon said estimated position and orientation and to command said end-effector to dispense said medium onto said surface; and a path planner configured to generate a trajectory for said end-effector with respect to said surface, wherein said trajectory avoids end-effector positions associated with a loss of one of said degrees of freedom.