Robust Docking of Robots with Imperfect Sensing

• Main Authors: Klingensmith, Matthew Jacob, Whitman, Eric Cary, Stathis, Christopher, Gonano, Dion
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 23.06.2022
• Subjects: CONTROLLING; ELECTRIC EQUIPMENT OR PROPULSION OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLEDVEHICLES; ELECTRODYNAMIC BRAKE SYSTEMS FOR VEHICLES, IN GENERAL; LAND VEHICLES FOR TRAVELLING OTHERWISE THAN ON RAILS; MAGNETIC SUSPENSION OR LEVITATION FOR VEHICLES; MOTOR VEHICLES; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; REGULATING; SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES; TRAILERS; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLES IN GENERAL

A computer-implemented method when executed by data processing hardware of a legged robot causes the data processing hardware to perform operations including receiving sensor data corresponding to an area including at least a portion of a docking station. The operations include determining an estimated pose for the docking station based on an initial pose of the legged robot relative to the docking station. The operations include identifying one or more docking station features from the received sensor data. The operations include matching the one or more identified docking station features to one or more known docking station features. The operations include adjusting the estimated pose for the docking station to a corrected pose for the docking station based on an orientation of the one or more identified docking station features that match the one or more known docking station features.