Patent ID: 8918209

Claim:
A mobile robot comprising: a robot body; a drive system supported by the robot body, the drive system maneuvering the robot over a work surface of a scene and measuring odometry; an imaging sensor disposed on the robot body and pointing downward toward the work surface along a forward drive direction of the drive system, the imaging sensor capturing three-dimensional images of a scene about the robot; and a controller in communication with the drive system and the imaging sensor, wherein the controller: receives the odometry from the drive system and attributes one or more time stamps to the drive system odometry; receives point cloud signals from the imaging sensor and attributes one or more time stamps to the point cloud signals; determines visual odometry based on the received point cloud signals; compares the drive system odometry and the visual odometry based on the time stamps; determines an error between the drive system odometry and the visual odometry; and issues drive commands to the drive system based at least in part on the error between the drive system odometry and the visual odometry.