Autonomous moving apparatus having obstacle avoidance funtion
First Claim
1. An autonomous moving apparatus moving to a destination while detecting and avoiding an obstacle, comprising:
- a scan-type sensor for scanning a horizontal plane in a travelling direction to thereby detect a position of an obstacle;
a non-scan-type sensor for detecting, without scanning, an obstacle in a space different from the scanning plane scanned by the scan-type sensor;
an obstacle detecting element for always detecting an obstacle based on a detection information from the scan-type sensor and, when an obstacle is detected by the scan-type sensor, making the non-scan-type sensor operative to thereby guess a position of the obstacle or an area where the obstacle exists based on detection information from both of the scan-type and non-scan-type sensors; and
a controller for controlling the autonomous moving apparatus to travel to the destination, based on the position of the obstacle obtained by the obstacle detecting element.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An autonomous moving apparatus moving to a destination while detecting and avoiding an obstacle includes a radar device for scanning a horizontal plane in its travelling direction to thereby detect a position of an obstacle and an obstacle sensor for detecting an obstacle in a space different from the scanning plane of the radar device. The apparatus moves to the destination under such control as to avoid the obstacle based on detection information from the radar device and the obstacle sensor from a detection output provided by a specific-configuration detecting element for detecting a present specific configuration from scanning information by the radar device. By providing such a specific-configuration detecting element that detects a specific configuration based on the scan information by the radar device that can accurately know about position information, it is possible to guess an obstacle having an upper structure, thus providing efficient avoidance.
16 Citations
18 Claims
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1. An autonomous moving apparatus moving to a destination while detecting and avoiding an obstacle, comprising:
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a scan-type sensor for scanning a horizontal plane in a travelling direction to thereby detect a position of an obstacle;
a non-scan-type sensor for detecting, without scanning, an obstacle in a space different from the scanning plane scanned by the scan-type sensor;
an obstacle detecting element for always detecting an obstacle based on a detection information from the scan-type sensor and, when an obstacle is detected by the scan-type sensor, making the non-scan-type sensor operative to thereby guess a position of the obstacle or an area where the obstacle exists based on detection information from both of the scan-type and non-scan-type sensors; and
a controller for controlling the autonomous moving apparatus to travel to the destination, based on the position of the obstacle obtained by the obstacle detecting element.
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2. An autonomous moving apparatus moving to a destination while detecting and avoiding an obstacle, comprising:
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a scan-type sensor for scanning a horizontal plane in a travelling direction to thereby detect a position of an obstacle;
a non-scan-type sensor for detecting, without scanning, an obstacle in a space different from the scanning plane scanned by the scan-type sensor;
a specific-configuration detecting element for guessing a configuration of a detected object based on detected-object distance information for each scanning angle by the scan-type sensor to thereby detect a preset specific configuration;
an obstacle detecting element for guessing a position of an obstacle or an area where the obstacle exists based on detection information from both of the scan-type and non-scan-type sensors if any specific configuration is detected by the specific-configuration detecting element and, otherwise, guessing a position of the obstacle only based on detection information from the scan-type sensor; and
a controller for controlling the autonomous moving apparatus to travel to the destination, based on the position of the obstacle obtained by the obstacle detecting element. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification