"It turns out that getting Pikachu to realistically run around and getting Coco's robot to safely and accurately move through the world is actually the same problem. When searching for highly coveted Pokémon, players flocked to hotspots, taking multiple scans of the surrounding urban environments capturing many angles of a single location."
"Niantic Spatial partnered with Coco Robotics, whose flight‑case‑size delivery robots can often be spotted on the sidewalks of Los Angeles, Chicago, Jersey City, Miami, and Helsinki. But the success of the robots depends on them reaching their destination on time-meaning not getting lost. These scans became some of the 30 billion images used to train Niantic's current visual positioning model."
Pokémon Go, launched in 2016, revolutionized augmented reality gaming by encouraging players to explore their surroundings. A decade later, images captured by millions of players searching for Pokémon are serving an unexpected purpose: training robots to navigate urban environments safely and accurately. Niantic Spatial, a spinout company, partnered with Coco Robotics to develop delivery robots that operate on city sidewalks. The company leveraged 30 billion images from Pokémon Go and Ingress players to build a highly accurate Visual Positioning System. These images, captured from multiple angles at various locations, provide the training data necessary for robots to understand and navigate complex urban landscapes effectively.
Read at Fast Company
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