A control system for a transportation vehicle comprises a sensor vehicle that has at least one sensor for scanning an environment, wherein the sensor vehicle is configured to move autonomously to the detected transportation vehicle, and a control unit for controlling the transportation vehicle on the basis of sensor data from the at least one sensor.

Disclosed herein is a mobile device including a communication section that performs communication with a controller which selectively transmits control signals to a plurality of mobile devices, and a data processing section that performs movement control of the own device. The data processing section confirms whether or not an own-device selection signal which indicates that the own device is selected as a control target device has been received from the controller and, upon confirming reception of the own-device selection signal, performs movement control to cause the own device to move in accordance with a selected-device identification track which indicates that the own device is selected as the control target device.

A multirotor aircraft that includes a chassis, three or more vertical rotors, one or more free wings and one or more fixed horizontal rotor. The free wing is attached to the chassis by an axial connection so that the angle of the free wing is changed relative to the chassis according the flow of air over the free wing. The fixed horizontal rotor enables the multirotor aircraft to lower and climb while flying forward at a stable horizontal pitch of the chassis.

A system for determining a pose of a vehicle and building maps from vehicle priors processes received ground intensity LIDAR data including intensity data for points believed to be on the ground and height information to form ground intensity LIDAR (GIL) images including pixels in 2D coordinates where each pixel contains an intensity value, a height value, and x- and y-gradients of intensity and height. The GIL images are formed by filtering aggregated ground intensity LIDAR data falling into a same spatial bin on the ground and using a registration algorithm to align two GIL images relative to one another by estimating a 6-degree-of-freedom pose with associated uncertainty that minimizes error between the two GIL images. The aligned GIL images are provided as a pose estimate to a localizer. The system may provide online localization and pose estimation, prior building, and prior to prior alignment pose estimation using image-based techniques.

An autonomous robotic vehicle includes a conveyance system, a securable compartment configured to autonomously lock and unlock, a customer identification reader, at least one processor, and a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the autonomous robotic vehicle to, autonomously: travel to a destination location of a customer; capture, by the customer identification reader at the destination location, a customer identification object; determine that the captured customer identification object matches an identity of the customer; unlock the securable compartment based on the determination; capture, by the product identification reader, a product identifier; and accept a product to be returned by locking the securable compartment. The securable compartment contains a product identification reader.

A vehicle may include a movable roof, a sensor supported by the roof, and an actuator for selectively raising and lowering the roof.

A system is provided comprising: a materials handling vehicle; a wearable remote control device comprising: a wireless communication system including a wireless transmitter; and a rechargeable power source; a receiver at the vehicle for receiving transmissions from the wireless transmitter; a controller at the vehicle that is communicably coupled to the receiver, the controller being responsive to receipt of the transmissions from the remote control device; and a charging station at the vehicle. The charging station may charge the rechargeable power source of the wearable remote control device. The charging station may comprise a visual indicator.

Systems and techniques may be used to operate an aerial camera device. An example method may include using a mobile device for controlling an aerial device. The method may include receiving a sensor data, for example from the mobile device or the aerial device, establishing a centered position for the mobile device or the aerial device based on sensor information, and converting movement identified in sensor data to an instruction for movement of the aerial device. The instruction for movement may be sent to the aerial device, in an example.

A method of controlling movement of a robotic cleaning device over an area to be cleaned. The method includes acquiring a visual representation of the robotic cleaning device on a display of a wireless communication device, identifying the robotic cleaning device in the visual representation, computing a coordinate transform between the visual representation and a robotic cleaning device coordinate system, creating an instruction by receiving user-indicated spatial information on the display or how the robotic cleaning device should move over the area to be cleaned, applying the transform to the spatial information, transforming the spatial information to the robot coordinate system, and sending the instruction to the robotic cleaning device via wireless communication, to cause the robotic cleaning device to move over said area in accordance with the transformed spatial information.

Systems, methods, and devices of the various embodiments enable local visual identification and verification of robotic vehicles. Various embodiments may enable disambiguation of a robotic vehicle from among a plurality of robotic vehicles.