Object recognition system for autonomous mobile body

• US 8,793,069 B2
• Filed: 04/02/2009
• Issued: 07/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Kuroda, Mitsuhide
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): NELSON, SARA J
• Application Number:
  US12/385,257
• Publication Number:
  US 20090254235A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,944 Days
• Field of Search: 701/301, 701/519, 700/245, 700/250, 700/255, 700/253, 700/258, 700/259, 318/568.11, 318/568.23, 318/568.16, 342/104, 342/107, 348/169, 382/103, 382/107
• US Class Current: 701/519
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/12 using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/66 Tracking systems using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/931 of land vehicles

Abstract

The present invention provides an object recognition system for an autonomous mobile body. The object recognition system includes a sensor unit for detecting an obstacle in a target field of view and measuring the position of the obstacle, and an electronic control unit for controlling movement of the autonomous mobile body. The electronic control unit performs the functions of determining a velocity and a travel direction of the obstacle based on changes in the position of the obstacle obtained from the sensor unit over a plurality of measurement cycles, determining a still state of the obstacle, detecting that the obstacle has changed behavior if a current measured value of position of the obstacle deviates a predetermined angle from the previously measured travel direction or if it determined that the obstacle is standing still, and calculating, when a change in the behavior of the obstacle is detected, the velocity and travel direction of the obstacle anew starting at the position where the change has been detected.

Claims

1. An object recognition system provided to an autonomous mobile body, comprising:

a sensor unit configured to detect an obstacle in a target field of view and measuring a position of the obstacle; and

an electronic control unit configured to

control movement of the autonomous mobile body, determine velocity and travel direction of the obstacle based on changes in position of the obstacle obtained from the sensor unit over a plurality of measurement cycles, wherein the travel direction of the obstacle is determined based on a moving average of weighted velocity values of the obstacle over the plurality of measurement cycles,

determine a still state of the obstacle,

detect that the obstacle has changed behavior of the obstacle if a current velocity vector of the obstacle from the preceding position to the current position is out of a predetermined range of an angle from the travel direction that is determined at the preceding position, and

when a change in the behavior of the obstacle is detected, calculate the velocity and the travel direction of the obstacle anew by not using, in subsequent computation of velocities and directions, travel data of the obstacle obtained before the position where the change has been detected and by starting computation of the velocities and the travel directions from the position where the change has been detected, wherein the travel direction of the obstacle calculated anew is determined based on a moving average of weighted velocity values of the obstacle over a plurality of measurement cycles.

2. The object recognition system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic control unit is further configured to:

determine a travel range in which an obstacle can travel from the position measured by the sensor unit in a present time, based on positional information of the obstacle obtained from the sensor unit; and

if an obstacle is detected in said travel range in the present time, determine that the obstacle detected at the present time is identical to the obstacle detected by the sensor unit.

3. The object recognition system according to claim 2, wherein the electronic control unit is further configured to determine that the obstacle is standing still if difference between the position of the obstacle measured by the sensor unit and position of the obstacle measured at a present time is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, based on the positional information of the obstacle obtained from the sensor unit.

4. The object recognition system according to claim 2, wherein the function of determining a travel range includes multiplying the velocity of the obstacle to a measurement time interval.

5. The object recognition system according to claim 4, wherein the autonomous mobile body is a humanoid robot and the obstacle is a human being.

6. The object recognition system according to claim 5, wherein the travel range is determined assuming that the velocity of the obstacle is from 0 km/h to 8 km/h.

7. The object recognition system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic control unit is further configured to determine that the obstacle has made a sudden change of direction if the position of the obstacle suddenly changes direction, at least in two measurement cycles, from the position at which the obstacle is located before the two measurement cycles.