Autonomously moving robot

• US 7,684,894 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2004
• Issued: 03/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Fujii, Hiroyuki, Kitano, Yukihiko, Sakai, Tatsuo, Nakahara, Tomoharu, Yamane, Tsuyoshi, Kitano, Hitoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Kim T
• Application Number:
  US10/549,110
• Publication Number:
  US 20060184274A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,202 Days
• Field of Search: 700245-247, 700/255, 700257-259, 701300-302, 701/200, 701209-210
• US Class Current: 700/245
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0246 using a video camera in combination with image processing means

Abstract

An autonomously moving robot that drives while evading an obstacle by an environment information acquisitioner. The information acquisitioner includes an imager that takes an image of a circumference on a driving route, an image recognition processor that extracts an area having a property relating to a region of a human body, a ranger that measures a range and an orientation to an object existing in the circumference on the driving route, a range information analyzer that obtains a shape of the object, and an environment recognizer that recognizes the environment information on the driving route. The environment recognizer compares the area extracted in the image recognition processor with the object recognized in the range information analyzer, and recognizes the object as a person when both of them agree with each other.

Claims

1. An autonomously moving robot that drives while evading obstacles, comprising:

a memory to memorize map information of a driving domain and various parameters for driving;

an input instruction receiver to input a destination and a command for moving;

a route determiner to form a driving route to the destination;

an environmental information acquisitioner to acquire environmental information on the driving route including an object becoming an obstacle;

a driver to drive the autonomously moving robot;

a self-location recognition sensor to recognize a self-location on a basis of information provided by the environmental information acquisitioner and the map information; and

a driving controller to control the driver to arrive at the destination while evading obstacles and recognizing the self-location, wherein the environmental information acquisitioner further comprises;

an imaging apparatus that takes an environmental image on the driving route;

an image recognition processor to extract an edge image from the taken environmental image, and to evaluate a degree of circularity of the edge image by arithmetically processing the shape of the edge image, and if the evaluated degree of circularity is larger than a predetermined threshold value, the image recognition processor extracts an area including the evaluated edge image from the environmental image as a candidate region including a human head;

a ranging apparatus to detect an object existing in an environment on the driving route, and to measure a distance range and an orientation of the object;

a range information analyzer to arithmetically process the measured distance range and the orientation of the object to obtain a width of the object related to an angle region where collected data of the measured distance range and the orientation is generally constant, wherein the object is recognized based on the obtained width being within predetermined values; and

an environment recognizer to perform recognition processing by comparing information based on an orientation in actual space of the candidate region including the human head extracted by the image recognition processor with information based on an orientation of the object having the width that is within the predetermined values recognized by the range information analyzer, and wherein when the compared information is consistent with one another, the environment recognizer outputs the information of the distance range and the orientation of the object as an environmental information on a person on the driving route to the driving controller.

2. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 1, wherein the image recognition processor arithmetically processes an image data with respect to the orientation of the object obtained by the range information analyzer, and the environment recognizer performs recognition processes with respect to a portion of the image data corresponding to the orientation of the object.

3. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 1, wherein the ranging apparatus performs ranging with respect to an area extracted by the image recognition processor, and the environment recognizer performs recognition processing with respect to a portion corresponding to the orientation of the extracted area.

4. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 1, wherein the ranging apparatus is comprised of a laser-radar which measures a range to an obstacle by scanning a plane parallel to a driving road surface at a previously set angle.

5. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 1, wherein the range information analyzer recognizes an object as a candidate of a person when a width of the object obtained by arithmetically processing the range data is in a previously established region.

6. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 1, wherein the range information analyzing means recognizes an object as a candidate of a person when a measured distance range to the object is not coincided with a distance range to an object on a memorized map.

7. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 1, wherein the imaging apparatus is a camera mounted on the autonomously moving robot, and coordinates of an image taken by the camera can be converted to a standard coordinates system of the autonomously moving robot.

8. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 1, wherein the image recognition processor includes at least a specific color area detecting unit to detect a specific color area from a photographed image data and a shape characteristic processing unit to arithmetically process a shape of the specific color area detected by the specific color area detecting unit, and recognizes the specific color area as a candidate of a person when the detected specific color area satisfies predetermined shape characteristic conditions.

9. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 1, wherein the environment recognizer calculates a ratio of a planar dimension of an area of a color of human skin detected in the image with respect to a planar dimension of an area of a color of human skin at a range previously established from the autonomously moving robot to a person, and judges whether the detected person awakes the autonomously moving robot or not by comparing the ratio with a threshold value previously established.

10. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 1, wherein the driving controller controls the driver to stop when an object recognized as a person exists in a moving direction of the autonomously moving robot and within a range previously established, to evade an obstacle if the obstacle exists, and to proceed the driving if no obstacle exists when the object recognized as a person does not exist in the moving direction of the autonomously moving robot.

11. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 1, wherein the driving controller controls the driver to evade an object recognized as a person based on a predetermined range when the object recognized as a person exists in a moving direction of the autonomously moving robot.

12. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 1, wherein the driving control means controls the driving means in a moving speed corresponding to a range or a range and an angle when the object recognized as a person exists in a range previously established.

13. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 9, wherein the driving controller controls the driver to approach the object recognized as the person when it is possible to judge that the person detected activates the autonomously moving robot, and not to approach to the person detected more than the range previously established.

14. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 1, wherein the driving controller takes an attention attracting action to a person when the autonomously moving robot passes near the person detected.

15. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 1, wherein the image information acquisition means acquisitioner (SIC) photographs a person detected and memorizes its image in the memory.

16. The autonomously moving robot described in claim 1, wherein the image information acquisitioner (SIC) photographs a person detected and transmits the image to a remote station.