Design Human Avoidance for Warehouse Robots
Company: Amazon
Role: Software Engineer
Category: System Design
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Technical Screen
Design a software module that allows an autonomous warehouse robot to avoid humans while navigating.
Your answer should cover:
- Which sensors you would use and why.
- How sensor data flows through the system.
- What data structures you would use to represent nearby humans, obstacles, and the robot's planned path.
- How the robot decides whether to continue, slow down, stop, or re-plan.
- Pseudocode for the core collision-avoidance loop.
- A high-level architecture showing the main components and their responsibilities.
Assume the robot operates indoors in a warehouse, moves among shelves and people, and must prioritize human safety over speed.
Quick Answer: This question evaluates competencies in robotics perception, sensor fusion, motion planning, obstacle and human representation, real-time decision-making, and safety-critical system architecture within the system design domain.
