Amazon.com, Inc.
Navigation directly from perception data without pre-mapping

Abstract:

An autonomous delivery robot system to enable delivery of a product to a customer is described. One autonomous ground vehicle (AGV) includes a processing device that receives a delivery request comprising a route divided into multiple navigation segments and computes a navigable space from perception data stored in a perception map. The perception map is a robot-centered local map that stores the perception data indicative of the surroundings of the AGV. The processing device computes a cost inflation from the perception data stored in the perception map, determines a sub-goal that is on the navigable space and reachable by the AGV using the navigable space and the cost inflation, and determines a path to achieve the sub-goal using the using the navigable space and the cost inflation. The processing device controls one or more actuators to move along the path.