Abstract: In accordance with one aspect of the inventive concepts, provided is a method and a system for horizontal infrastructure localization, comprising a robotic vehicle platform, such as an AMR, a mechanism for collecting sensor data, e.g., point cloud data, such as a LiDAR scanner or 3D camera, and a processor configured to process the sensor data to identify and determine a position and orientation of the horizontal infrastructure. The robotic vehicle processes the sensor data to identify a horizontal infrastructure, determine its pose, and then determine if an area of a horizontal surface of the horizontal infrastructure is clear for dropping a load, e.g., palletized load.

Abstract: In accordance with one aspect of the inventive concepts, provided is an autonomous mobile robot (AMR), comprising: a carriage actuation and feedback system configured to robotically control a carriage to control a height of a pair of forks; at least one sensor configured to acquire sensor data over multiple planes in a direction of the forks during actuation of the carriage that raises and lowers the forks; an infrastructure localization system configured to combine the sensor data from the multiple planes into dense point cloud data and identify an infrastructure from the dense point cloud data. A method of localizing infrastructure using dense point cloud data is also provided.

Abstract: Systems and methods for detection of potential obstructions in a specified space. In some embodiments, the system and/or method comprises a robotic vehicle having one or more sensors configured to collect point cloud data from locations at or near a target drop zone. At least one processor performs an object detection analysis using the point cloud data to determine if there is an object in the target drop zone. To determine if there is an object or obstruction at the target drop zone, a volume of interest that is about the size of a pay load can be generated for the target drop zone. If point cloud data indicates an object within the VOI, an obstruction exists and the payload is held rather than dropped at the target drop location.