US Patent 10222798 Autonomous ground vehicles congregating in meeting areas

Autonomous ground vehicles (“AGVs”) are utilized to transport ordered items and may congregate in meeting areas (e.g., to receive items from common sources, utilize common resources, communicate, etc.) and the positions of the AGVs in an area may be coordinated. For example, AGVs waiting to receive ordered items from a transportation vehicle (e.g., a delivery truck) may be lined up according to delivery addresses, or according to an order of items in the transportation vehicle, etc. As another example, AGVs that are in a pickup area (e.g., where users may retrieve ordered items from the AGVs), may be arranged in a configuration that is relatively compact but which provides easy access for the users to retrieve the ordered items, etc. The AGVs may be repositioned based on various events (e.g., an AGV leaving the configuration, an improved arrangement being dynamically determined, etc.).