Path risk evaluating apparatus

• US 7,844,398 B2
• Filed: 07/08/2009
• Issued: 11/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Mizutani, Kenji, Sato, Taichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Khoi
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sriraman; Nikhil
• Application Number:
  US12/671,144
• Publication Number:
  US 20100217528A1
• Time in Patent Office: 510 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/25, 701/26, 701/300, 701/301, 700/213, 700/214, 700/245, 700/255
• US Class Current: 701/301
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1666 Avoiding collision or forbidden zones
• 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

Abstract

A path risk evaluating apparatus includes a secondary collision likelihood direction evaluating unit (108) and a secondary collision likelihood distance evaluating unit (109) which evaluate, based on the relationship between a movement path and a position of objects in an environment where a mobile device moves, the likelihood of the mobile device having primary collision with a first object and the first object further having secondary collision with a second object; a risky attribute combination evaluating unit (112) which determines degree of damage when secondary collision occurs, by referring to information, indicating degree of damage when objects in the environment collide, held by a risky attribute combination information holding unit (111); and a path evaluating unit (113) which evaluates the risk of the moving path for the mobile device, based on the evaluation result from the secondary collision likelihood direction evaluating unit (108) and the secondary collision likelihood distance evaluating unit (109) and the degree of damage determined by the risky attribute combination evaluating unit (112).

Claims

1. A path risk evaluating apparatus for evaluating risk of a movement path of a mobile device, said path risk evaluating apparatus comprising:

a secondary collision likelihood evaluating unit configured to evaluate a likelihood of a first object that has a likelihood of being moved by contact with the mobile device coming into contact with or coming close to a second object, based on a relationship between the movement path of the mobile device indicated in movement path information and positions of objects indicated in position information, the movement path information being information indicating a movement path of the mobile device, and the position information being information indicating positions of objects present in an environment in which the mobile device moves;

a risky attribute combination evaluating unit configured to determine a degree of damage in the case where the first object and the second object come into contact with or come close to each other, by referring to information indicating degrees of damage in the case where pairs of the objects come into contact with or come close to each other; and

a path evaluating unit configured to evaluate the risk of the movement path for the mobile device, based on a result of the evaluation by said secondary collision likelihood evaluation unit and the degree of damage determined by said risky attribute combination evaluating unit.

2. The path risk evaluating apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said path evaluating unit is configured to evaluate that the risk of the moving path for the mobile device increases with an increase in a product obtained by multiplying an evaluation value indicating the evaluation by said secondary collision likelihood evaluating unit and a value indicating the degree of damage determined by the risky attribute combination evaluating unit.

3. The path risk evaluating apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said secondary collision likelihood evaluating unit includes a secondary collision likelihood direction evaluating unit configured to evaluate the likelihood of the first object coming into contact with or coming close to the second object, by calculating a secondary collision likelihood direction evaluation value which increases as an angle, which is created by a movement direction of the mobile device in the movement path and a straight line connecting a position of the first object and a position of the second object, approaches zero degrees.

4. The path risk evaluating apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein said secondary collision likelihood direction evaluating unit is configured to evaluate the likelihood of the first object coming into contact with or coming close to the second object, by calculating the secondary collision likelihood direction evaluation value which is largest when a straight line passing a center position of the first object intersects a circumscribed circle of the second object, the straight line being obtained by translation of the movement path.

5. The path risk evaluating apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein said secondary collision likelihood direction evaluating unit is configured to evaluate the likelihood of the first object coming into contact with or coming close to the second object, by calculating the secondary collision likelihood direction evaluation value which is largest when a circumscribed circle of the first object and a circumscribed circle of the second object come into contact when it is assumed that the circumscribed circle of the first object passes beyond a straight line which passes a center position of the first object and is obtained by translation of the movement path.

6. The path risk evaluating apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said secondary collision likelihood evaluating unit includes a secondary collision likelihood distance evaluating unit configured to evaluate the likelihood that the first object contacts or approaches the second object, by calculating a secondary collision likelihood distance evaluation value which increases as a distance between the first object and the second object decreases.

7. The path risk evaluating apparatus according to claim 6,

wherein said secondary collision likelihood distance evaluating unit is configured to evaluate the likelihood that the first object contacts or approaches the second object, by calculating the secondary collision likelihood distance evaluation value which increases as the distance between the first object and the second object decreases and a size of the second object increases.

8. The path risk evaluating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a primary collision likelihood evaluating unit configured to evaluate the likelihood that the mobile device contacts or approaches the first object, by calculating a primary collision likelihood evaluation value which increases as a distance between the movement path and the first object decreases,

wherein said path evaluating unit is configured to evaluate the risk of the moving path for the mobile device, based on a result of the evaluation by said secondary collision likelihood evaluating unit, the degree of damage determined by said risky attribute combination evaluating unit, and a result of the evaluation by said primary collision likelihood evaluating unit.

9. The path risk evaluating apparatus according to claim 8,

wherein said attribute combination evaluating unit is configured to determine a degree of damage in the case where the mobile device and the first object come into contact with or come close to each other, by referring to information indicating degrees of damage in the case where the mobile device comes into contact with or comes close to each of the objects present in the environment, and

wherein said path evaluating unit is configured to evaluate the risk of the moving path for the mobile device, based on the result of the evaluation by said secondary collision likelihood evaluating unit, the degree of damage determined by said risky attribute combination evaluating unit, the result of the evaluation by said primary collision likelihood evaluating unit, and the degree of damage determined by said risky attribute combination evaluating unit.

10. The path risk evaluating apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the movement path information is information indicating a movement path of plural points of the mobile device,

said secondary collision likelihood evaluating unit is configured to evaluate the likelihood that the first object contacts or approaches the second object, for each of the plural points of the mobile device, and

said path evaluating unit is configured to evaluate the risk of the movement path for the mobile device, by evaluating the risk of the movement path for each of the plural points of the mobile device and totaling, for the plural points, a result of the evaluation for each of the plural points.

11. The path risk evaluating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a behavior planning unit configured to determine, according to a result of the evaluation by said path evaluating unit, a slower movement speed on the movement path for the mobile device as the risk of the movement path for the mobile device increases.

12. The path risk evaluating apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the first object is different from an object on which the mobile device is to perform an operation, and

said path risk evaluating apparatus further comprises

a path generating unit configured to judge whether or not the risk of the movement path evaluated by said path evaluating unit exceeds a predetermined risk, to generate the movement path of the mobile device that does not pass through the evaluated movement path when the predetermined risk is exceeded.

13. The path risk evaluating apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the first object is an object on which the mobile device is to perform an operation, and

said path risk evaluating apparatus further comprises

a behavior planning unit configured to determine, when there is a plurality of first objects including the first object, a movement path that is evaluated by said path evaluating unit as having a lowest risk among movement paths of the plurality of first objects, as the movement path of the mobile device.

14. The path risk evaluating apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said risky attribute combination evaluation unit is configured to determine, as the degree of damage in the case where the first object and the second object come into contact with or come close to each other, the damage monetary amount in the case where the first object and the second object come into contact with or come close to each other, by referring to information on damage monetary amounts in the case where the objects present in the environment come into contact with or come close to each other, as the information indicating degrees of damage.

15. The path risk evaluating apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the first object is an object to be transported by the mobile device.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium on which a program is stored, the program being for evaluating risk of a movement path of a mobile device, said program causing a computer to execute a path risk evaluating method comprising:

evaluating a likelihood of a first object that has a likelihood of being moved by contact with the mobile device coming into contact with or coming close to a second object, based on a relationship between a movement path of the mobile device and positions of objects present in an environment in which the mobile device moves, the movement path of the mobile device being indicated in movement path information, and the positions of the objects being indicated in position information;

determining a degree of damage in the case where the first object and the second object come into contact with or come close to each other, by referring to information indicating degrees of damage in the case where the objects present in the environment come into contact with or come close to each other; and

evaluating the risk of the movement path for the mobile device, based on a result of the evaluation in said evaluating of a likelihood and the degree of damage determined in said determining.

17. A computer-executable program embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, said program for evaluating risk of a movement path of a mobile device, and said program causing a computer to execute:

evaluating a likelihood of a first object that has a likelihood of being moved by contact with the mobile device coming into contact with or coming close to a second object, based on a relationship between a movement path of the mobile device and positions of objects present in an environment in which the mobile device moves, the movement path of the mobile device being indicated in movement path information, and the positions of the objects being indicated in position information;

determining a degree of damage in the case where the first object and the second object come into contact with or come close to each other, by referring to information indicating degrees of damage in the case where the objects present in the environment come into contact with or come close to each other; and

evaluating the risk of the movement path for the mobile device, based on a result of the evaluation in said evaluating of a likelihood and the degree of damage determined in said determining.