Autonomously delivering items to corresponding delivery locations proximate a delivery route

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11435744-B2
Application number	US-202016921454-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 6, 2020
Priority date	Jun 13, 2017
Publication date	Sep 6, 2022
Grant date	Sep 6, 2022

Abstract

Various systems and methodologies may be utilized to determine whether a particular shipment/item is eligible for delivery between a manual delivery vehicle and a final destination location via an autonomous delivery vehicle. To ensure autonomous deliveries are performed in a resource effective manner, shipments/items deemed eligible for autonomous delivery may be vetted by comparing the destination for the autonomous delivery shipment/item against one or more manual delivery destinations (serviced by the manual delivery vehicle operator), and ultimately identifying an optimal launch location for the autonomous delivery vehicle to leave the manual delivery vehicle to complete the autonomous delivery. If the autonomous delivery location does not satisfy applicable autonomous delivery criteria, the autonomous delivery shipment/item may be reclassified for manual delivery by the manual delivery vehicle operator.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An autonomous vehicle item delivery method for autonomously delivering at least one item to a destination location, the method comprising:
determining at least one autonomous delivery-eligible item satisfies autonomous delivery criteria;
identifying at least one manual delivery location as a launch location for an autonomous vehicle to depart a delivery vehicle for final delivery of the at least one autonomous delivery-eligible item satisfying the autonomous delivery criteria to the destination location; and
causing the autonomous vehicle to depart from the delivery vehicle to deliver the at least one autonomous delivery-eligible item satisfying the autonomous delivery criteria to the destination location.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the launch location is located within a predefined distance of the destination location for the at least one autonomous delivery-eligible item.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the at least one manual delivery location as the launch location comprises identifying a location where the delivery vehicle crosses a radius area of the destination location.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the at least one manual delivery location as the launch location is based on a determination that the delivery vehicle is estimated to remain at a particular manual delivery serviceable point for more than a threshold amount of time.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the autonomous delivery criteria comprise a hierarchy of criteria for identifying the launch location, the hierarchy of criteria ranked for maximizing delivery of a total number of autonomous delivery-eligible items.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the at least one manual delivery location as the launch location comprises an analysis of simultaneous conflicts when delivering a plurality of autonomous delivery-eligible items.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising reclassifying the at least one autonomous delivery-eligible item as at least one manual delivery-eligible item.

8. One or more non-transitory computer storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon, that when executed by at least one processor, cause a computer system to perform a method for autonomously delivering at least one item to an autonomous delivery location, the method comprising:
receiving item data for the at least one item; and
determining a launch location along a manual delivery vehicle route from a first manual delivery location to the autonomous delivery location, the determining based at least in part on the item data and one or more established clusters of autonomous delivery locations, wherein an autonomous vehicle is configured to depart a manual delivery vehicle at the launch location to deliver the at least one item to the autonomous delivery location.

9. The media of claim 8 , wherein the one or more established clusters of autonomous delivery locations comprise serviceable points for autonomous deliveries within a single geofenced area.

10. The media of claim 9 , wherein the single geofenced area comprises a number above a threshold number of the serviceable points along the manual delivery vehicle route.

11. The media of claim 9 , wherein the single geofenced area is defined around a neighborhood comprising either a plurality of residences or a particular subsection of a neighborhood.

12. The media of claim 8 , wherein the one or more established clusters of autonomous delivery locations are determined based on location information of manual delivery locations.

13. The media of claim 8 , wherein the item data comprises shipment instructions for the at least one item.

14. The media of claim 8 , further comprising:
prior to determining the launch location, determining a recipient of the at least one item prefers autonomous delivery to manual delivery;
updating the item data based on the determining the recipient of the at least one item prefers autonomous delivery; and
prior to determining the launch location, determining the item data satisfies autonomous delivery criteria.

15. The media of claim 8 , further comprising:
determining that a recipient of a second item prefers manual delivery to autonomous delivery; and
updating item data of the second item to indicate that autonomous delivery is not available for the second item.

16. An autonomous vehicle item delivery method for autonomously delivering at least one item to a destination location, the method comprising:
receiving item data for the at least one item; and
dynamically establishing a launch location along a manual delivery route based at least in part on the item data and on an estimated elapsed delivery time for delivering the at least one item to a particular manual delivery serviceable point along the manual delivery route, wherein an autonomous vehicle is configured to depart a manual delivery vehicle at the launch location to deliver the at least one item to the destination location corresponding to the particular manual delivery serviceable point.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
prior to dynamically establishing the launch location, determining the estimated elapsed delivery time using historical delivery data of historical deliveries to the particular manual delivery serviceable point.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the historical delivery data comprises an amount of time for a driver to: unbuckle, disembark from the manual delivery vehicle, and return to the manual delivery vehicle.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein the item data for the at least one item comprises an item size, an item weight, and contents of the item.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein the estimated elapsed delivery time was determined based on an amount of time the manual delivery vehicle would be positioned within a delivery radius surrounding the particular manual delivery serviceable point.

Assignees

• United parcel service america inc

Inventors

• Cooper Jeffrey

Classifications

• B64U80/86

  Land vehicles · CPC title

• B64U2201/104

  using satellite radio beacon positioning systems, e.g. GPS · CPC title

• B64U2101/60

  for transporting passengers; for transporting goods other than weapons · CPC title

• G06Q10/08

  Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management · CPC title

• G01S17/933

  of aircraft or spacecraft · CPC title