System and method for robotic delivery between moving targets

1. A robot to navigate from a non-stationary origin to a destination within a building, the robot comprising:

one or more sensors that collect sensor data;

one or more processors;

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions embodied thereon, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, perform operations comprising:

receiving a task comprising navigating from a non-stationary origin to a destination;

identifying a current location of the non-stationary origin by interrogating a remote computer having information about the non-stationary origin for the current location of the non-stationary origin;

moving towards the current location of the non-stationary origin;

while moving towards the current location of the non-stationary origin:

determining that the non-stationary origin has changed location by interrogating the remote computer associated with the non-stationary origin for an updated current location of the non-stationary origin;

predicting a next location of the non-stationary origin using an artificial intelligence prediction algorithm;

calculating an updated route to the updated current location of the non-stationary origin;

moving towards the predicted next location of the non-stationary origin via the updated route;

determining whether the robot has arrived at the non-stationary origin;

in response to determining that the robot has not arrived at the non-stationary origin, repeating the determining, predicting, calculating, and moving until the robot has arrived at the non-stationary origin;

detecting an interaction with the robot that is associated with introducing an item to or removing an item from a storage compartment in the robot;

moving towards the destination within the building.

2. The robot of claim 1 , further comprising determining that the robot is within a radius of the non-stationary origin and, sending to the remote computer, an electronic message indicating that the robot is within the radius.

3. The robot of claim 1 , wherein the destination is stationary.

4. The robot of claim 1 , wherein the destination is non-stationary.

5. The robot of claim 1 , wherein the remote computer is a non-stationary remote computer.

6. The robot of claim 1 , wherein the remote computer is a smartphone or vehicle navigation system.

7. The robot of claim 1 , wherein the current location of the non-stationary origin is identified using a global positioning system (GPS) or WIFI receiver of the remote computer.

8. The robot of claim 1 , wherein the non-stationary origin is a vehicle outside of the building.

9. The robot of claim 1 , wherein the non-stationary origin is a person inside or within a distance from the building.

10. The robot of claim 1 , further comprising: using the current location of the non-stationary origin, determining a time of arrival of the non-stationary origin at an anticipated location, and delaying moving towards the non-stationary origin based on the time of arrival.

11. A robot to navigate from an origin within a building to a non-stationary destination, the robot comprising:

one or more sensors that collect sensor data;

one or more processors;

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions embodied thereon, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, perform operations comprising:

receiving a task comprising navigation from an origin to a non-stationary destination;

navigating to the origin;

at the origin, detecting an interaction with the robot that is associated with introducing an item to a storage compartment of the robot;

locking the storage compartment;

identifying a current location of the non-stationary destination by interrogating a remote computer having information about the non-stationary destination for the current location of the non-stationary destination;

moving towards the current location of the non-stationary destination;

while moving towards the current location of the non-stationary destination:

determining that the non-stationary destination has changed location by interrogating the remote computer for an updated current location of the non-stationary destination;

predicting a next location of the non-stationary destination using an artificial intelligence prediction algorithm;

calculating an updated route to the updated current location of the non-stationary destination;

moving towards the predicted next location of the non-stationary destination via the updated route;

determining whether the robot has arrived at the non-stationary destination;

in response to determining that the robot has not arrived at the non-stationary destination, repeating the determining, predicting, calculating, and moving until the robot has arrived at the non-stationary destination;

unlocking the storage compartment.

12. The robot of claim 11 , further comprising determining that the robot is within a radius of the non-stationary destination and, sending to the remote computer, an electronic message indicating that the robot is within the radius.

13. The robot of claim 11 , wherein the origin is stationary.

14. The robot of claim 11 , wherein the origin is non-stationary.

15. The robot of claim 11 , wherein the remote computer is a non-stationary remote computer.

16. The robot of claim 11 , wherein the remote computer is a smartphone or vehicle navigation system.

17. The robot of claim 11 , wherein the current location of the non-stationary destination is identified using a global positioning system (GPS) or WIFI receiver of the remote computer.

18. The robot of claim 11 , wherein the non-stationary destination is a vehicle outside of the building.

19. The robot of claim 11 , wherein the non-stationary destination is a person inside or within a distance from the building.

20. The robot of claim 11 , further comprising authenticating the destination.

21. The robot of claim 20 , wherein authenticating the destination comprises at least one of: requesting and receiving a PIN from a person, matching a voice print of the person, performing a retinal scan of the person, using facial recognition of the person, authenticating a fingerprint of the person, confirming the presence of a smartphone using RFID, requesting that the person swipe a credit card associated with the task, by receiving a signature from the person via a touchscreen, by scanning a QR code displayed by the smartphone, or by scanning an identification card associated with the person.

22. A method for navigating a robot from a non-stationary origin to a destination within a building, the method comprising:

receiving a task comprising navigating from a non-stationary origin to a destination;

identifying a current location of the non-stationary origin by interrogating a remote computer having information about the non-stationary origin for the current location of the non-stationary origin;

moving towards the current location of the non-stationary origin;

while moving towards the current location of the non-stationary origin:

determining that the non-stationary origin has changed location by interrogating the remote computer for an updated current location of the non-stationary origin;

predicting a next location of the non-stationary origin using an artificial intelligence prediction algorithm;

calculating an updated route to the updated current location of the non-stationary origin;

moving towards the predicted next location of the non-stationary origin via the updated route;

determining whether the robot has arrived at the non-stationary origin;

in response to determining that the robot has not arrived at the non-stationary origin, repeating the determining, predicting, calculating, and moving until the robot has arrived at the non-stationary origin;

detecting an interaction with the robot that is associated with introducing an item to or removing an item from a storage compartment in the robot;

moving towards the destination within the building.