IP Library Granted Patent US 11,703,350
Granted Patent B2
US 11,703,350 · App. 17/075,667 · Granted Jul 18, 2023

System and method for automatically annotating a map

Inventors: Levon Avagyan (San Jose, CA); Jiahao Feng (Castro Valley, CA); Alex Henning (Norwelll, MA); Michael Ferguson (Concord, NH); Melonee Wise (San Jose, CA); Derek King (San Jose, CA)
Assignee: Zebra Technologies Corporation
G01C21/3848G01C21/32G06F40/169G06T11/20G06V20/10G06V20/58
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,703,350
App. No.
17/075,667
Granted
Jul 18, 2023
Kind
B2
Abstract

A system for automatically annotating a map includes: a robot; a server operably connected to the robot; file storage configured to store files, the file storage operably connected to the server; an annotations database operably connected to the server, the annotations database comprising map annotations; an automatic map annotation service operably connected to the server, the automatic map annotation service configured to automatically do one or more of create a map of an item of interest and annotate a map of an item of interest; a queue of annotation requests operably connected to the automatic annotation service; and a computer operably connected to the server, the computer comprising a graphic user interface (GUI) usable by a human user.

Claims (11)

1. A method for automatically annotating a robotic map, comprising:

performing a removal of an exterior wall in the robotic map by performing a flood fill to dilate pixels unobserved by a robot and disposed outside of the exterior wall;

updating the robotic map by:

smoothing the robotic map;

performing edge detection on the robotic map to find edges in the map;

performing a nearest neighbor clustering technique to identify clusters; and

creating a convex hull for the clusters; and

displaying the updated robotic map.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising a further step, performed after the displaying step, of creating an annotation of the updated robotic map.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising an additional step, performed after the displaying step, of receiving input from a human annotator.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the smoothing step comprises Gaussian smoothing.

Assignments (5)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 17, 2026
From: ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
To: SKILD-FETCH LLC
Reel/Frame 075403/0946 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 6, 2026
From: FERGUSON, MICHAEL
To: FETCH ROBOTICS, INC.
Reel/Frame 073721/0744 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 6, 2026
From: FERGUSON, MICHAEL
To: FETCH ROBOTICS, INC.
Reel/Frame 074810/0497 →
MERGER Recorded Oct 21, 2022
From: FETCH ROBOTICS, INC.
To: ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 061737/0712 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Sep 22, 2021
From: FETCH ROBOTICS, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 057565/0329 →
Continuity (4)
Division 16380867 · Apr 10, 2019
Provisional Application 62655744 · Apr 10, 2018
Provisional Application 62655755 · Apr 10, 2018
Related Publication 20210034810A1 · Feb 4, 2021