MOBILE APPARATUS, AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF, CONTROL PROGRAM AND SUPERVISORY SYSTEM THEREFOR

• US 20080154391A1
• Filed: 12/18/2007
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Nakamura, Makoto, Kuroda, Mitsuhide, Sawada, Yasuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,571,026 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/30
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 57/032 with alternately or sequentially lifted supporting base and legs; with alternately or sequentially lifted feet or skid B62D57/024 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0212 with means for defining a desired trajectory involving a plurality of land vehicles G05D1/0287
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0251 extracting 3D information from a plurality of images taken from different locations, e.g. stereo vision stereoscopic image analysis H04N13/00; depth recovery from images G06T7/593
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/027 comprising intertial navigation means, e.g. azimuth detector inertial navigation G01C21/16; inertial navigation combined with non-inertial navigation instruments G01C21/165
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0278 using satellite positioning signals, e.g. GPS

Abstract

A mobile apparatus or the like capable of moving or acting by avoiding contact with an object, such as a person, while reducing the possibility of inducing a change of the behavior of the object. It is determined whether or not there is a first spatial element Q₁ that satisfies a contact condition that there is a possibility of contact with a reference spatial element Q₀ on a discriminant plane. The reference spatial element Q₀ and the first spatial element Q₁ represent current images of a robot 1 and an object x, respectively. When it is determined that there is a first spatial element Q₁ that satisfies the contact condition on the discriminant plane, a route that allows the reference spatial element Q₀ to move by avoiding contact with a second spatial element Q₂ is set as a new “first action plan element” on the discriminant plane.

Claims

1. A mobile apparatus that has a control system and autonomously moves according to a first action plan element under the control of the control system,

wherein said control system comprises:

a first processing section that recognizes a current image of said mobile apparatus, a current image of an object, and an intermittent or continuous future image of the object, which is determined according to a behavior of the object and has a larger size than the current image thereof, as a reference spatial element, a first spatial element and a second spatial element having a larger size than the first spatial element on a discriminant plane, respectively;

a second processing section that determines, based on the result of the recognition by the first processing section, whether or not there is a first spatial element that satisfies a contact condition that there is a possibility of contact with the reference spatial element on the discriminant plane; and

a third processing section that sets a route that allows the reference spatial element to avoid contact with the second spatial element on the discriminant plane as said first action plan element based on the result of the recognition by the first processing section, when the second processing section determines that there is a first spatial element that satisfies the contact condition on the discriminant plane.

2. The mobile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first processing section recognizes the behavior of said object by some or all of a position, a velocity and an acceleration of said first spatial element on said discriminant plane and recognizes the first spatial element intermittently or continuously extended according to the result of the recognition so that the second spatial element does not include said reference spatial element, as said second spatial element.

3. The mobile apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said first processing section recognizes the behavior of said object by the velocity of said first spatial element and the relative position and the relative velocity of said first spatial element with respect to said reference spatial element on said discriminant plane and recognizes the first spatial element intermittently or continuously extended according to the result of the recognition as said second spatial element.

4. The mobile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first processing section recognizes a region determined according to contour characteristics of said object extended according to contour characteristics of said mobile apparatus as said first spatial element on said discriminant plane.

5. The mobile apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said first processing section recognizes a Minkowski sum of two regions determined according to the contour characteristics of said mobile apparatus and said object as said first spatial element on the discriminant plane.

6. The mobile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said second processing section determines, based on the result of the recognition by said first processing section, whether or not there is the first spatial element that satisfies a first contact condition, as said contact condition, concerning a movement cost of said reference spatial element on said discriminant plane.

7. The mobile apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said second processing section determines whether or not there is the first spatial element that satisfies the first contact condition that said movement cost falls within a prescribed range or is at a predetermined rank or lower.

8. The mobile apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said second processing section determines whether or not there is the first spatial element that satisfies the first contact condition that said movement cost falls within the prescribed range having a positive lower limit.

9. The mobile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said second processing section determines whether or not there is the first spatial element that satisfies a second contact condition, as said contact condition, concerning a positional relationship between the first spatial element and said route as said first action plan element.

10. The mobile apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said second processing section determines whether or not there is the first spatial element that satisfies the second contact condition that there is an intersection or contact between the first spatial element and said reference spatial element moving along said route as said first action plan element.

11. The mobile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said third processing section sets, as said first action plan element, a condition that the rate of change of either or both of the direction and the magnitude of a velocity of said mobile apparatus is equal to or lower than a threshold value.

12. The mobile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said third processing section sets, as said first action plan element, a condition that a higher priority is given to changing the magnitude of a velocity of said mobile apparatus than changing the direction thereof.

13. The mobile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control system controls operation of an on-board device installed in said mobile apparatus according to a second action plan element, and

said third processing section prepares an announcement of a movement direction of the mobile apparatus as the second action plan element.

14. The mobile apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the mobile apparatus has a driving device for driving a movable part corresponding to a part of a human body as said on-board device, and said third processing section prepares an announcement of a movement direction as said second action plan element by a movement of the driving device.

15. The mobile apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said mobile apparatus has a head as said movable part, and said third processing section sets an operation of turning a front of the head toward the movement direction of said mobile apparatus as said second action plan element.

17. The mobile apparatus of claim 1, wherein a program makes a computer installed in the mobile apparatus function as said control system.

18. The mobile apparatus of claim 17, wherein a supervisory system distributes or broadcasts at least a part of the program to said computer installed in said mobile apparatus.

16. A method of controlling a mobile apparatus that autonomously moves according to a first action plan element, comprising the steps of:

performing first processing of recognizing a current image of said mobile apparatus, a current image of an object, and an intermittent or continuous future image, of the object, which is determined according to a behavior of the object and has a larger size than the current image thereof, as a reference spatial element, a first;

spatial element and a second spatial element having a larger size than the first spatial element on a discriminant plane, respectively;

performing second processing of determining, based on a result of the recognition in the first processing, whether or not there is a first spatial element that satisfies a contact condition that there is a possibility of contact with the reference spatial element on the discriminant plane; and

performing third processing of setting a route, that allows the reference spatial element to avoid contact with the second spatial element on the discriminant plane as said first action plan element based on the result of the recognition by the first processing section, when it is determined in the second processing that there is a first spatial element that satisfies the contact condition on the discriminant plane.