SYSTEM AND APPARATUS SUITABLE FOR FACILITATING CART TRANSPORTATION, AND A PROCESSING METHOD IN ASSOCIATION THERETO
There is provided a processing method suitable for facilitating cart transportation, which may include an initialization step wherein a state estimate in association with a cart state associated with a cart is determined. The cart comprises a cart body and a plurality of wheels coupled to the cart body. An inference step of the method wherein an overall state update associable with the cart is inferable, the overall state update being associated with a cost function. The cost function can include a longitudinal position error parameter with respect to the cart body, a lateral positional error parameter between the cart body corners where observable, and positioning parameter corresponding to positioning of the wheels with respect to state estimate.
1 . A processing method ( 300 ) suitable for facilitating cart transportation, the processing method ( 300 ) comprising:
an initialization step ( 302 ) wherein a state estimate in association with a cart state associated with a cart is determined, the cart comprising a cart body and a plurality of wheels coupled to the cart body, and
an inference step ( 306 ) wherein an overall state update associable with the cart is inferable, the overall state update being associated with a cost function,
wherein the cost function comprises:
a longitudinal position error parameter with respect to the cart body,
a lateral positional error parameter between the cart body corners where observable, and
positioning parameter corresponding to positioning of the wheels with respect to state estimate.
2 . The processing method ( 300 ) of claim 1 , further comprising a preprocessing step ( 304 ), one or both of positions of the wheels and orientations of the wheels being determined based on captured data.
3 . The processing method ( 300 ) of any of the preceding claims , further comprising a preprocessing step ( 304 ), depth data being determined based on captured data.
4 . The processing method ( 300 ) of any of the preceding claims , captured data being communicable from one or both of at least one light detection and ranging (lidar) sensor and at least one depth sensor.
5 . The processing method ( 300 ) of any of the preceding claims , captured data being processed by manner of at least one of clustering-based processing, wheel fitting-based processing and occlusion characterization-based processing.
6 . The processing method ( 300 ) of any of the preceding claims , clustering-based processing being based on any one of jump distance clustering and division of cart region into quadrants.
7 . The processing method ( 300 ) of any of the preceding claims , wheel fitting-based processing being based on at least one of Random sample consensus (RANSAC) processing non-linear least squares processing and training a neural network to regress wheel pose from a subset of the captured data.
8 . The processing method ( 300 ) of any of the preceding claims , occlusion characterization-based processing corresponding to determining potential occlusion of any of the wheels.
9 . The processing method ( 300 ) of any of the preceding claims , wherein the inference step ( 306 ) includes performing at least one processing task in association with inference-based processing.
10 . The processing method ( 300 ) of any of the preceding claims , wherein inference-based processing is associated with at least one statistical inference approach-based technique.
11 . The processing method ( 300 ) of any of the preceding claims wherein a statistical inference approach-based technique is based on any one of sliding window factor graph and variational bayes Kalman filter,
12 . The processing method ( 300 ) of any of the preceding claims , wherein where sliding window factor graph is utilized, a plurality of keyframes are strategically selected where some keyframes from an initial approach are selected even when final alignment is underway.
13 . A computer program comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out at least one of the initializing step ( 302 ), the preprocessing step ( 304 ) and the inference step ( 306 ) according to the processing method ( 300 ) of any of the preceding claims .
14 . A computer readable storage medium having data stored therein representing software executable by a computer, the software including instructions, when executed by the computer, to carry out at least one of the initializing step ( 302 ), the preprocessing step ( 304 ) and the inference step ( 306 ) according to the processing method ( 300 ) of any of claims 1 to 12 .
15 . An apparatus ( 102 ) comprising:
a first module ( 202 ) configurable to receive at least one input signal;
a second module ( 204 ) configurable to process the input signal according to the processing method ( 300 ) of any one of claims 1 to 12 to generate at least one output signal; and
a third module ( 206 ) configurable to communicate at least one output signal usable for facilitating cart transportation.