Decentralized traffic-aware navigational planning for mobile robots

Abstract

A method includes: storing an occupancy map for a facility, the occupancy map defining: for each of a plurality of regions in the facility, a current occupancy for a present time value, and for each of at least a subset of the regions, a future occupancy for a subsequent time value; generating a path from a current pose of a mobile robot in the facility to a target pose, based on the current and future occupancies; in response to execution of the path at the mobile robot, capturing sensor data representing a vicinity of the mobile robot; detecting an obstacle from the sensor data; and transmitting occupancy data for generating an updated occupancy map including an updated future occupancy for at least one of the subset of regions, the occupancy data including obstacle data indicating a location of the obstacle, and path data defining the path.