Blind spot coverage device, control device, and recording medium storing distributed control program for moving body

• US 10,356,367 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2017
• Issued: 07/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Miyano, Tatsuya, Shibata, Kazuki, Jimbo, Tomohiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Quang
• Application Number:
  US15/824,239
• Publication Number:
  US 20180152671A1
• Time in Patent Office: 595 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/01 Satellite radio beacon positioning systems transmitting time-stamped messages, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System], GLONASS [Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System] or GALILEO
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0202 specially adapted to aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30232 Surveillance
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/185 from a mobile camera, e.g. for remote control

Abstract

A blind spot coverage device that includes: a sensor section that senses external environmental information; a definition section that defines an external environmental region, in which sensing information is unobtainable, as a blind spot region; a determination section that determines whether or not the blind spot region is to be covered; and an instructing section that, in a case in which the determination section determines that the blind spot region is to be covered, instructs an actuator to move such that the blind spot region is covered. The determination section determines that the blind spot region is to be covered in a case in which determination is made that the blind spot region lacks global coverage.

Claims

1. A control device in a moving body distributed control system that includes a fixed sensor and a plurality of moving bodies that are respectively disposed in mutually non-overlapping regions of responsibility and that are each provided with a sensor capable of changing a monitoring range, the distributed control system moving the plurality of moving bodies so as to change the regions of responsibility while avoiding collisions due to the plurality of moving bodies exchanging position information between each other,

the control device comprising:

a movement control unit that, in a case in which a designated monitoring target region is present in a region of responsibility of a self-moving body, moves the self-moving body such that the designated monitoring target region is in a monitoring range;

a coverage ratio information communication unit that transmits information relating to a coverage ratio representing a monitoring level of the monitoring target region in the region of responsibility of the self-moving body after being moved by the movement control unit, and that receives information relating to a coverage ratio representing a monitoring level of the monitoring target region in a region of responsibility of a moving body other than the self-moving body;

a determination unit that determines whether or not a condition has been met to move the self-moving body beyond its own current region of responsibility to a monitoring target region within a region of responsibility of another device for which the coverage ratio received by the coverage ratio information communication unit is less than 100%; and

a mediation unit that executes mediation in order to establish which moving body to move, from a plurality of moving bodies including the self-moving body, for which the condition for moving themselves is met in the determination unit.

2. The control device of claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines whether or not there would be a collision with a moving body other than the self-moving body on a movement path to a destination monitoring target region.

3. The control device of claim 1, wherein the mediation unit performs mediation based on at least one of a duration until the condition is met, a time taken for movement, or a demanded sensor function.