A method and system for determining position and/or pose of an object. A robotic device moves throughout an environment and includes a master transceiver tag and, optionally, additional tags. The environment includes a plurality of anchor nodes that are configured to form a network. A master anchor node is in communication with at least a portion of the plurality of anchor nodes and is configured to transmit a ranging message as a UWB signal, receive a ranging message response from each other anchor node in the network, generate a reference grid representing physical locations of the plurality of anchor nodes within the network based upon the received ranging message responses, and distribute the reference grid to each of the other anchor nodes. The master transceiver tag receives the reference grid information and, based upon further calculations, determines a specific position and pose of the robotic device within the environment.

A system for automatically annotating a map includes: a robot; a server operably connected to the robot; file storage configured to store files, the file storage operably connected to the server; an annotations database operably connected to the server, the annotations database comprising map annotations; an automatic map annotation service operably connected to the server, the automatic map annotation service configured to automatically do one or more of create a map of an item of interest and annotate a map of an item of interest; a queue of annotation requests operably connected to the automatic annotation service; and a computer operably connected to the server, the computer comprising a graphic user interface (GUI) usable by a human user.

A navigation apparatus and a method for providing an individualization map service of the navigation apparatus are provided. The navigation apparatus includes a detector configured to sense a vehicle state and a travelling environment during travelling, and a processor configured to recognize a drive context based on the vehicle state and the travelling environment, and to make an individualization map to be serviced based on the recognized drive context.

Disclosed herein is a technique for generating and providing an indication to an autonomous vehicle regarding the confidence level for the accuracy or quality of the map data in which the indication is determined from observation data received from other vehicles.

An apparatus and a method allowing a pilot or more generally a crew to enrich a database of user obstacles directly inside the aircraft, on the ground and even during flight. Generally, the apparatus is based on a new software component, which allows new services to be provided for the functional avionic components and for the human machine interfaces HMI of the avionics. This new software component is configured to allow: user obstacles to be created, changed, deleted at the request of components of HMIs of the avionics; user obstacles to be sent to clients of the services of this new software component, which are either other functional components of the avionics or other components of HMIs of the avionics; user obstacles to be recorded to a nonvolatile memory and restored from this nonvolatile memory.

A method for enriching an obstacle database of an aircraft, the method being implemented by an on-board computer of the aircraft, and includes a creation phase performed on board the aircraft, involving a simple interaction between the pilot and a system of the cockpit, for creating an intermediate object representative of a user obstacle, the user obstacle being an obstacle identified by the pilot and not listed in the obstacle database of the aircraft, the intermediate object being created with a geographical position as its sole attribute; and a subsequent phase performed on board the aircraft, consisting in: adding type attributes characterizing the user obstacle to the intermediate object; and storing the user obstacle with the added attributes in a non-volatile memory of a module of the cockpit of the aircraft.

The described technology is generally directed towards digital map truth maintenance. Map inputs shared among multiple users of a shared overlay map service can have a range of credibility, from not credible to highly credible. The disclosed digital map truth maintenance technologies can be used to enhance credibility of shared map inputs. Credibility values can be calculated for map inputs, based on any of multiple factors. Map inputs having sufficiently high credibility, such as a credibility value determined to be above a threshold value, can be shared among multiple mobile devices.

Provided is a system for generation of a customized digital map. The system includes an application server that collects one or more reference transportation routes and regulations associated with a geographical area and one or more current transportation routes and activities being implemented in the geographical area. The application server detects one or more conflicts among a digital map of the geographical area, the one or more reference transportation routes and regulations, and the one or more current transportation routes and activities and executes a conflict resolution routine that resolves the one or more conflicts. The application server further generates conflict resolved data based on an output of the conflict resolution routine and updates the digital map of the geographical area to reflect the conflict resolved data based on presence of at least one difference between the digital map and the conflict resolved data.

An approach is provided for automatically coding cartographic feature(s), e.g., human settlement(s). The approach involves receiving data point(s) associated with point location(s) and indicative of a cartographic feature. The approach also involves retrieving or generating a cartographic feature polygon corresponding to the cartographic feature based on the data point(s). The approach further involves generating a plurality of polygon data points that replicate the cartographic feature polygon, and/or a spider web model that represents the point location(s). The approach further involves retrieving imagery data depicting the cartographic feature based on the plurality of polygon data points and/or the spider web model. The approach further involves merging the data point(s), the plurality of polygon data points, and/or the imagery data to generate new or updated polygon structure data point(s) to represent the cartographic feature. The approach further involves storing the new or updated polygon structure data point(s) in a map database.

The described technology is generally directed towards digital map truth maintenance. Map inputs shared among multiple users of a shared overlay map service can have a range of credibility, from not credible to highly credible. The disclosed digital map truth maintenance technologies can be used to enhance credibility of shared map inputs. Credibility values can be calculated for map inputs, based on any of multiple factors. Map inputs having sufficiently high credibility, such as a credibility value determined to be above a threshold value, can be shared among multiple mobile devices.