An apparatus for guiding an autonomous vehicle towards a docking station including an autonomous vehicle with a camera-based sensing system, a drive system for driving the autonomous vehicle, and a control system for controlling the drive system. The apparatus includes a docking station including a first fiducial marker and a second fiducial marker, wherein the second fiducial marker is positioned on the docking station to define a predetermined relative spacing with the first fiducial marker, wherein the control system is operable to receive an image provided by the camera-based sensing system, the image including a representation of the first and second fiducial markers, and to control the drive system so as to guide the autonomous vehicle towards the base station based on a difference between the representation of the first and second fiducial markers in the received image and the predetermined relative spacing between the first and second fiducial markers.

A method for operating a vehicle, whereby the vehicle, parked at a parking position in a parking facility, is guided autonomously from the parking position to a loading station and parked autonomously at the loading station, so that the vehicle can be loaded at the loading station. Also described is a related vehicle and computer program.

The present invention is a mobile robot with an attached cleaning element and capable of autonomously seeking areas with low overhead clearance. In the preferred embodiment is a mobile robot using an array of upward facing distance sensors in communication with a controller to detect the presence of obstructions or surfaces above the apparatus. The controller directs the movements of the mobile robot through the use of a drive system, using pattern recognition to avoid becoming stuck and using random movements to increase floor coverage.

A method for navigating an airborne device relative to a target comprises detecting, at an optical detector on the airborne device, an optical signal generated by one or more LEDs on the target. The method also comprises comparing, by a processor on the airborne device, the detected optical signal with a previously-detected optical signal. The method further comprises determining, by the processor based on the comparison, a change in location of at least one of the airborne device or the target. The method also comprises adjusting a position of the airborne device based on the determined change in location. The method also comprises predicting, by the processor, a movement of the target based on information indicative of at least one of a position, a rotation, an orientation, an acceleration, a velocity, or an altitude of the target, wherein the position of the airborne device is adjusted based on the predicted movement of the target. The method also comprises detecting an obstacle in a flight path associated with the airborne device and adjusting a position of the airborne device is further based, at least in part, on detected obstacle information.

Disclosed are embodiments of environmental sensing devices and information acquiring methods applied to environmental sensing devices. In some embodiments, an environmental sensing device includes a camera sensor, a laser radar sensor that are integrated, and a control unit. The control unit is connected simultaneously to the camera sensor and the laser radar sensor. The control unit is used for simultaneously entering a trigger signal to the camera sensor and the laser radar sensor. The design of integrating the camera sensor and the laser radar sensor avoids the problems such as poor contact and noise generation that easily occur in a high-vibration and high-interference vehicle environment, and can precisely trigger the camera sensor and the laser radar sensor simultaneously, so as to obtain high-quality fused data, thereby improving the accuracy of environmental sensing. As a result, the camera sensor and the laser radar sensor have a consistent overlapping field of view.

Apparatus are provided for a sensor platform. The sensor platform includes a sensor mount adapted to receive a sensing device, and a first articulation system that has a first rotational axis. The sensor platform includes a second articulation system that has a second rotational axis, and the second rotational axis is different than the first rotational axis. The sensor platform includes a base that supports the first articulation system, the second articulation system and the sensor mount. The first articulation system and the second articulation system are independently movable to define two degrees of freedom for positioning the sensor platform.

A system for determining and executing an autonomous-vehicle vehicle travel route, including a hardware-based processing unit and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. The storage medium includes an input-interface module that, when executed by the hardware-based processing unit, obtains factor data indicating factors relevant to determining a vehicle travel route. The storage medium also includes a route-generation module comprising a route-complexity sub-module. The route-complexity sub-module determines, based on the factor data, route-complexity indexes corresponding to respective optional routes. The route-generation module determines the vehicle travel route based on the route-complexity indexes. The storage in various embodiments includes other sub-modules associated with other elements, such as autonomous-driving safety, comfort, stress, pollution, scenery, or infrastructure-accessibility, for determining and executing an autonomous-driving travel route. In some embodiments, the storage includes an autonomous-driving perceptions module and an autonomous-driving control module for modifying vehicle functions in executing the autonomous-driving travel route.

As an example, data identifying characteristics of a road user as well as contextual information about the vehicle's environment is received from the vehicle's perception system. A prediction of the intent of the object including an action of a predetermined list of actions to be initiated by the road user and a point in time for initiation of the action is generated using the data. A prediction of the behavior of the road user for a predetermined period of time into the future indicating that the road user is not going to initiate the action during the predetermined period of time is generated using the data. When the prediction of the behavior indicates that the road user is not going to initiate the action during the predetermined period of time, the vehicle is maneuvered according to the prediction of the intent prior to the vehicle passing the object.

Techniques for detecting attributes and/or gestures associated with pedestrians in an environment are described herein. The techniques may include receiving sensor data associated with a pedestrian in an environment of a vehicle and inputting the sensor data into a machine-learned model that is configured to determine a gesture and/or an attribute of the pedestrian. Based on the input data, an output may be received from the machine-learned model that indicates the gesture and/or the attribute of the pedestrian and the vehicle may be controlled based at least in part on the gesture and/or the attribute of the pedestrian. The techniques may also include training the machine-learned model to detect the attribute and/or the gesture of the pedestrian.

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to using audible cues to guide a passenger to a vehicle having an autonomous driving mode. For instance, one or more processors of the vehicle may receive, from a server computing device, instructions to pick up the passenger at a pickup location. The one or more processors may maneuver the vehicle towards the pickup location in the autonomous driving mode. The one or more processors may receive a signal indicating that the passenger requests assistance locating the vehicle. The one or more processors may use the signal to generate the audible cues. The audible cues may be played by the one or more processors through a speaker of the vehicle in order to guide the passenger towards the vehicle.