RAPID LOCATION-BASED ASSOCIATION OF CARRIERS AND ITEMS

1 . A method, comprising:

obtaining, at a computing device, respective location data corresponding to a carrier and each of a set of items;

for each item in the set of items:

storing a previous association state between the item and the carrier;

generating a set of attributes defining a spatial relationship between the item and the carrier;

providing the set of attributes to a classifier to detect a current association state between the carrier and the item; and

responsive to determining that the current association state between the carrier and the item is different from the previous association state, transmitting a status update message to a dispatcher configured to provide directional guidance to the carrier.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

obtaining the location data for a plurality of items including the set of items; and

selecting the set of items from the plurality of items based on the location data.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

selecting the set of items from the plurality of items based on respective distances between each of the plurality of items and the carrier.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

updating a stored time series of attribute sets with the set of attributes; and

providing the time series to the classifier.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the updating includes, when the stored time series has reached a threshold length, discarding an oldest one of the attribute sets.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of attributes includes at least one of a location of the carrier, a velocity of the carrier, a location of the item, and a velocity of the item.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

prior to generating the set of attributes, transforming the location data corresponding to the set of items to a local frame of reference based on a location of the carrier.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

obtaining, from the classifier, a confidence level corresponding to the current association state;

when the confidence level is below a threshold, discarding the current association state.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the previous association state and the current association state each indicate one of (i) an associated state indicating that the item is carried by the carrier, and (ii) a disassociated state indicating that the item is not carrier by the carrier.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the location data includes receiving the location data from a set of tag readers.

11 . A computing device, comprising:

a memory;

a communications interface; and

a processor configured to:

obtain, via the communications interface, respective location data corresponding to a carrier and each of a set of items;

for each item in the set of items:

store a previous association state between the item and the carrier;

generate a set of attributes defining a spatial relationship between the item and the carrier;

provide the set of attributes to a classifier to detect a current association state between the carrier and the item; and

responsive to determining that the current association state between the carrier and the item is different from the previous association state, transmit a status update message to a dispatcher configured to provide directional guidance to the carrier.

12 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

obtain the location data for a plurality of items including the set of items; and

select the set of items from the plurality of items based on the location data.

13 . The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

select the set of items from the plurality of items based on respective distances between each of the plurality of items and the carrier.

14 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

update a stored time series of attribute sets with the set of attributes; and

provide the time series to the classifier.

15 . The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the processor is configured, in order to update the time series, to discard an oldest one of the attribute sets when the stored time series has reached a threshold length.

16 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the set of attributes includes at least one of a location of the carrier, a velocity of the carrier, a location of the item, and a velocity of the item.

17 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

prior to generation of the set of attributes, transform the location data corresponding to the set of items to a local frame of reference based on a location of the carrier.

18 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

obtain, from the classifier, a confidence level corresponding to the current association state;

when the confidence level is below a threshold, discard the current association state.

19 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the previous association state and the current association state each indicate one of (i) an associated state indicating that the item is carried by the carrier, and (ii) a disassociated state indicating that the item is not carrier by the carrier.

20 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the processor is configured, in order to obtain the location data, to receive the location data from a set of tag readers.