Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Pavithra Madhavan

Jianbo Lu

Sanghyun Hong

Justin Miller, Jr

Smruti Panigrahi

Kurt Michael Lundeen

Dimitar Petrov Filev

Gintaras Vincent Puskorius

Bruno Sielly Jales Costa

Timothy Mark Feldkamp

Gaurav Kumar Singh

Kevin Hwang

Yifan Chen

Hongtei Eric Tseng

Nitendra Nath

Vladimir Ivanovic

Geoffrey Horowitz

Adam Wint

Systems and methods for fleet inspection and maintenance using a robot are provided. The robot may detect a maintenance issue of a vehicle of a fleet of vehicles via one or more sensors, generate a navigation route to a position proximal to the maintenance issue of the vehicle, traverse along the navigation route to the position, and execute a maintenance to rectify the maintenance issue of the vehicle. The robot may include a mobile base removably coupled to a modular platform for performing a maintenance task.

Fleet inspection and maintenance mobile robot

This disclosure is generally directed to generating travel route information that is interpretable by a delivery robot for traversing a last mile of a delivery. In an example embodiment, an individual captures a video clip while moving along a travel route that is preferred by the individual for use by the delivery robot. The video clip is converted into a digital route map that the delivery robot uses to reach a package drop-off location on the property. In another example embodiment, an individual captures an image of a portion of the property and appends oral instructions to reach the package drop-off location. The image and the oral instructions are converted into a digital route map for use by the delivery robot. In yet another example embodiment, markers affixed to a surface of a traversable area on the property are used by the delivery robot to reach the package drop-off location.

Systems and methods to provide last mile assistance to a delivery robot

Systems and methods for administering a hazard condition warning during a package delivery operation are provided. The system includes one or more sensors, e.g., radar sensors or cameras, configured to detect a hazard condition in a vicinity of a delivery vehicle and to generate data indicative of the hazard condition. The system further includes an operator sensor configured to detect a location of an operator relative to the delivery vehicle and one or more indicators, e.g., lights, a mobile application installed on a mobile phone, or an HMI of the vehicle, configured to generate an alert corresponding to the hazard condition. A processor of the system may determine whether the hazard condition is present based on the data indicative of the hazard condition, and cause, based on a presence of the hazard condition and the detected location of the operator, the one or more indicators to generate the alert.

Hazard condition warning for package delivery operation

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for classifying time series image data. Aspects of the invention include encoding motion information from video frames in an eccentricity map. An eccentricity map is essentially a static image that aggregates apparent motion of objects, surfaces, and edges, from a plurality of video frames. In general, eccentricity reflects how different a data point is from the past readings of the same set of variables. Neural networks can be trained to detect and classify actions in videos from eccentricity maps. Eccentricity maps can be provided to a neural network as input. Output from the neural network can indicate if detected motion in a video is or is not classified as an action, such as, for example, a hand gesture.

Classifying time series image data

Systems and methods for delivering a package to a curbside receptacle are provided. A delivery window of a vehicle may be aligned with a curbside receptacle. A carousel within the vehicle may be moved, e.g., rotated, within the vehicle to align a target compartment with the delivery window. A conveyor arm slidably coupled to the delivery window is then extended and aligned with the target compartment, and a target package within the target compartment is ejected from the target compartment onto the conveyor arm, e.g., via a plunger mechanism. The conveyor arm then transfers the target package to curbside receptacle.

Automated systems and methods for transferring packages from a vehicle to a curbside locker box

A lane curvature, a vehicle position offset relative to a lane center line, and a vehicle heading are determined based on image data received from a vehicle camera sensor. An adjusted lane curvature and an adjusted vehicle heading are computed based on a vehicle speed, a vehicle yaw rate and the position offset.

Vehicle lateral motion control

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Westland, MI, United States of America

Pavithra Madhavan