System for guiding a driverless vehicle
First Claim
1. A method for guiding a driverless vehicle along a guideline which is detected on a surface by an optical sensor having a plurality of light receiving elements, each of said elements being operable to detect the amount of light reflected from a different region of said surface and to generate a signal in response thereto, said method comprising the steps of:
- measuring a plurality of values representing the amount of light received by each of said plurality light receiving elements,comparing the measured value associated with each of said plurality of light receiving elements with a value representing the amount of light received by one or more neighboring light receiving elements,selecting a smoothed value associated with each light receiving elements based upon the comparison of measured values,assigning a weighted value associated with each light receiving element based upon the relative position of said light receiving element;
calculating the location of the guideline based on said smoothed value and said weighted value associated with each light receiving element,whereby said vehicle is guided along said surface in accordance with the calculated location of the guideline.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A driverless vehicle is guided along a guideline which is detected on a floor by an optical sensor having a plurality of light receiving elements. A value representing the amount of light received by each of the light receiving elements is composed with a value representing the amount of light received by one or more neighbouring light receiving elements and smoothed to an appropriately large value so that the detection of the guideline may be based on the smoothed value.
37 Citations
8 Claims
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1. A method for guiding a driverless vehicle along a guideline which is detected on a surface by an optical sensor having a plurality of light receiving elements, each of said elements being operable to detect the amount of light reflected from a different region of said surface and to generate a signal in response thereto, said method comprising the steps of:
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measuring a plurality of values representing the amount of light received by each of said plurality light receiving elements, comparing the measured value associated with each of said plurality of light receiving elements with a value representing the amount of light received by one or more neighboring light receiving elements, selecting a smoothed value associated with each light receiving elements based upon the comparison of measured values, assigning a weighted value associated with each light receiving element based upon the relative position of said light receiving element; calculating the location of the guideline based on said smoothed value and said weighted value associated with each light receiving element, whereby said vehicle is guided along said surface in accordance with the calculated location of the guideline. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A system for guiding a vehicle along a surface having a light reflecting guide line, said system comprising:
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a plurality of sensor elements associated with said vehicle, each of said sensor elements being operable to detect the amount of light reflected from a different region of said surface and to generate a signal in response thereto, said signal having a value corresponding to the amount of light reflected by said region; first comparison means for comparing the value of signals generated by adjacent sensor elements; selection means for selecting a smoothed value associated with each sensor element based upon the comparison of values made by said first comparison means; weighting means for assigning a weighted value associated with each sensor element based upon the relative position of said sensor element; calculation means for calculating the location of the guide line based upon the smoothed value and the weighted value associated with each sensor element; whereby said vehicle is guided along said surface in accordance with the location of the guide line calculated by said calculated means. - View Dependent Claims (6, 8)
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7. A method for guiding a vehicle along a surface having a light-reflecting guideline, said vehicle having a plurality of sensor elements associated therewith, said method comprising the steps of:
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detecting the amount of light reflected from a plurality of different regions of said surface and generating a corresponding plurality of signals in response thereto, each of said signals having a value corresponding to the amount of light reflected by one of said different regions, comparing the value of signals generated by adjacent sensor elements; selecting a smoothed value associated with each sensor element based upon the comparison of values; assigning a weighted value associated with each sensor element based upon the relative position of said sensor element; calculating the location of the guideline based upon the smoothed value and the weighted value associated with each sensor element; whereby said vehicle is guided along said surface in accordance with the calculated location of the guideline.
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Specification