MOVABLE ROBOT

• US 20100185327A1
• Filed: 02/15/2007
• Published: 07/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Nomura, Hideki, Lee, Haeyeon, Nakajima, Yuichiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,010,232 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/259
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 5/007 mounted on wheels
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/03 by measuring coordinates of points
• 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 1/0274 using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/32 involving image mosaicing

Abstract

A technique to wholly recognize the surrounding environment may be provided by excluding unknown environment which arises due to parts of a body of a robot hindering the sight of the robot during operations.

The robot of the present invention is provided with a body trunk including head and torso, at least one connected member that is connected to the body trunk by a joint in which a driving mechanism is provided, a body trunk side camera that is arranged on the body trunk, and a connected member side camera that is arranged on the connected member. Further, the robot is provided with a composite image creation unit that creates composite image of a body trunk side image taken by the body trunk side camera and a connected member side image taken by the connected member side camera, such that a part of the body trunk side image is replaced with a part of the connected member side image so as to exclude the connected member from the body trunk side image.

Claims

1. A movable robot comprising:

a body trunk;

a connected member that is connected to the body trunk by a joint in which a driving mechanism is provided;

a body trunk side camera that is arranged on the body trunk;

a connected member side camera that is arranged on the connected member;

a composite image creation unit that creates composite image of a body trunk side image taken by the body trunk side camera and a connected member side image taken by the connected member side camera, such that a part of the body trunk side image is replaced with a part of the connected member side image so as to exclude the connected member from the body trunk side image; and

a camera direction adjusting unit that is configured to adjust direction of the connected member side camera in a case where the connected member is in a scope of photograph of the body trunk side camera, wherein the camera direction adjusting unit adjusts the direction of the connected member side camera such that the connected member side camera is directed to turn to a direction in which the scope of photograph of the body trunk side camera is taken by the connected member side camera.

2. The movable robot as in claim 1, wherein the composite image creation unit comprises:

a first specifying unit that specifies area in which the connected member is photographed within the body trunk side image;

a second specifying unit that specifies corresponding area within the connected member side image that corresponds to the area of the body trunk side image specified by the first specifying unit; and

a replacing unit that replaces the area of the body trunk side image specified by the first specifying unit with the corresponding area of the connected member side image.

3. The movable robot as in claim 1,

comprising a plurality of body trunk side cameras;

wherein the composite image creation unit creates composite image for each body trunk side image taken by the respective body trunk side camera.

4. The movable robot as in claim 1,

further comprising a calculation unit that calculates relative positional relationship, with respect to the movable robot, of one or more objects existing within a photographed scope based on the composite image created by the composite image creation unit.

5. (canceled)

6. The movable robot, comprising:

a body trunk;

a connected member that is connected to the body trunk by a joint in which a driving mechanism is provided;

a plurality of body trunk side cameras that is arranged on the body trunk;

a connected member side camera that is arranged on the connected member;

a first calculating unit that calculates first relative positional relationship, with respect to the movable robot, of one or more objects existing within a photographed scope based on at least two body trunk side images taken by the plurality of body trunk side cameras; and

a second calculating unit that calculates second relative positional relationship, with respect to the movable robot, of one or more objects existing within a photographed scope based on a body trunk side image taken by at least one of the plurality of body trunk side cameras and a connected member side image taken by the connected member side camera;

wherein the second calculating unit selects a body trunk side image in which portion of the connected member being photographed is the smallest to be used in the calculation of the second relative positional relationship.

7. (canceled)

8. A movable robot, comprising:

a body trunk;

a connected member that is connected to the body trunk by a joint in which a driving mechanism is provided;

a plurality of body trunk side cameras that is arranged on the body trunk;

a connected member side camera that is arranged on the connected member; and

a composite image creation unit that creates composite image of a body trunk side image taken by the body trunk side camera and a connected member side image taken by the connected member side camera, such that a part of the body trunk side image is replaced with a part of the connected member side image so as to exclude the connected member from the body trunk side image;

wherein the composite image creation unit creates composite image for each body trunk side image taken by the respective body trunk side camera.