Route generating system for an autonomous mobile robot

• US 7,474,945 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2005
• Issued: 01/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Matsunaga, Shinichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Zanelli; Michael J.
• Application Number:
  US11/299,834
• Publication Number:
  US 20060155436A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,120 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 701/25
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0214 in accordance with safety or protection criteria, e.g. avoiding hazardous areas monitoring the location of vehicles within a certain area, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas, in traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/13
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0217 in accordance with energy consumption, time reduction or distance reduction criteria
• 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

Abstract

In a route generating system for an autonomous mobile robot, a plurality of nodes are designated within an area of movement of the robot and an edge is defined between a pair of nodes only if a distance from the one node to the other node is less than a threshold value and there is no obstacle on a line drawn between the one point and the other point. Because the route is generated from a collection of pre-defined edges which are free from obstacles and are selected so as to optimize the generated route, the robot is enabled to travel from the current position to the destination in a safe and optimum fashion. Furthermore, the edges are defined by connecting only those nodes that are relatively close to each other, the candidates of the edges for generating a route can be reduced to a small number and this reduces computational loads. Also, because the route can be selected in a relatively intelligent manner so as to optimize a certain criterion, a clumsy appearance in the movement of the robot can be avoided.

Claims

1. A route generating system for an autonomous mobile robot, comprising:

map managing means for storing and managing a map that describes information on positions of a plurality of nodes and at least one obstacle defined within an area for movement of the robot, the nodes providing possible points for defining a route and the obstacle providing a point through which the robot should not pass;

edge defining means for defining a collection of edges each formed by connecting a pair of nodes according to a prescribed edge defining rule;

current position detecting means for detecting a current position of the robot on the map;

input means for designating a destination of the robot on the map; and

computing means for computing a route of the robot from the current position to the destination according to a prescribed optimization rule by connecting the edges;

wherein each edge is defined from one node to another only if a distance from the one node to the other node is less than a threshold value and there is no obstacle on a line drawn between the one point and the other point.

2. The route generating system according to claim 1, wherein the edge defining means is adapted to define additional edges by defining the current position and destination on the map as additional nodes, and the computing means is adapted to compute the route using the additional edges in addition to the regular edges.

3. The route generating system according to claim 2, wherein the optimization rule optimizes a time, distance or energy consumption that would be involved for the robot to travel along the route from the current position to the destination.

4. The route generating system according to claim 3, wherein the nodes include at least one reference mark that can be detected by the robot.

5. The route generating system according to claim 1, wherein the input means is adapted to designate an intermediate point that the robot should pass through as an additional node.

6. The route generating system according to claim 1, wherein the input means is provided with a display device showing the area for movement of the robot.