JP2004118469A - Autonomous moving device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an autonomous moving device never giving uneasiness to a person located on a traveling route. <P>SOLUTION: This autonomous moving device has an obstacle detection means for detecting an obstacle present in a prescribed angle in the advancing direction, and autonomously moves to a destination while avoiding the obstacle detected by the obstacle detection means. This device further has a remarkable point display means for displaying the present remarkable point at least forward in the advancing direction. The remarkable point is indicated to the person located on the traveling route, whereby the effort required for the judgement of situation for making the person located on the traveling route determine the necessary following action is reduced. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an autonomous mobile device that autonomously moves while detecting and avoiding an obstacle to an input destination.
[0002]
[Prior art]
When detecting an obstacle located on the travel route and performing an avoidance operation, if the obstacle is a human, the obstacle also moves, and the moving direction can be grasped by the autonomous mobile device side. Because of the inability to do so, the direction of the avoidance action overlaps with the direction of movement of a human being as an obstacle, which may cause collision with an obstacle (human), and may cause the autonomous mobile device to enter a deadlock state. Sometimes.
[0003]
Also, on the human side, when the autonomous mobile device enters the avoidance operation, if it does not know in which direction it will move, it will be confused and stop and will not be able to move until the autonomous mobile device enters the avoidance operation There is.
[0004]
In view of these points, a display is provided on the autonomous mobile device, and an indication such as an operation to be performed (turn right, stop, or clear a passage) is displayed on the display, or an audio notification is issued. (Patent Document 1).
[0005]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-9-185412 [0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the above-mentioned publication, even if the operation direction is known by the display or the sound notification, if a human being recognized as an obstacle for the autonomous mobile device is considered as an obstacle, it is actually an autonomous mobile device. Because it is not possible to judge whether or not you are moving to avoid yourself because you are recognized, you must judge and execute your own actions to prevent collision with yourself while detecting the operation status of the autonomous mobile device all the time Labor is required.
[0007]
The present invention has been made in view of such a point, and an object of the present invention is to provide an autonomous system capable of reducing the labor required for determining the next action required for a person located on a traveling route. Providing mobile devices.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
Thus, the present invention comprises an obstacle detecting means for detecting an obstacle existing within a predetermined angle in the traveling direction, and an autonomous mobile apparatus which autonomously moves to a destination while avoiding the obstacle detected by the obstacle detecting means. The apparatus is characterized in that it has a point of interest display means for displaying the current point of interest at least forward in the traveling direction. By displaying the point of interest to a person located on the traveling route, the person can easily predict the movement of the autonomous mobile device.
[0009]
As the above-mentioned point-of-interest display means, it is possible to suitably use a head whose direction can be changed by right and left rotation drive or a display which performs a display imitating the movement of an eyeball.
[0010]
In addition, as the point of interest, it is preferable to use a direction in which the obstacle detection unit detects an obstacle, an obstacle detected by the obstacle detection unit, or a preset next movement target point.
[0011]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on an example of an embodiment. FIG. 2 shows an autonomous moving device according to the present invention, in which a traveling means including a plurality of drive wheels 21 and casters 22 driven by rotation is provided at a lower end. A laser radar 31 and an ultrasonic sensor 32 are provided on a front surface of the main body 1 provided on the vehicle, a contact sensor 35 is provided on a side surface, and a stop button 36 and a hand push button 37 are provided on a back surface. In the main body 1, a storage unit 50 that can be accessed by opening the storage door 38 on the back, a battery 51 as a power source, and a control box 52 containing a control circuit C for controlling the autonomous mobile device are provided. , A driving motor 53 for the driving wheels 21 and the like.
[0012]
Here, the laser radar 31 and the ultrasonic sensor 32 constitute an obstacle detecting means S for detecting an obstacle existing within a predetermined angle α in the traveling direction, and at the same time, acquire environment information for self-position recognition. It constitutes environment information acquisition means S '. As shown in FIG. 3, the ultrasonic sensor 32 used here has a detection area having a narrow angle and is arranged vertically and horizontally, and the size of the obstacle when there is an obstacle and the size of the obstacle in the vertical direction. The one that can detect the height is used.
[0013]
In addition, a head 4 whose direction is variable by rotating to the left and right is provided on the upper part of the main body 1. As shown in FIG. 4, the head 4 includes a rotary table 40 and a display 41 with a touch panel installed on the rotary table 40. The rotary table 40 is connected to a rotating motor via a gear 43 and a pinion 44. 45. The rotating table 40 is rotated by the forward / reverse rotation of the motor 45 to change the direction of the display 41. In this embodiment, the head 4 provided with the display 41 constitutes a point of interest display means. The head 4 is also provided with an audio switch 46, a speaker 47, and the like.
[0014]
As shown in FIG. 5, the control circuit C housed in the control box 52 includes the above-described obstacle detection means S and environment information acquisition means S ', as well as an encoder for obtaining travel information from the drive wheels 21. The driving information acquisition means SR is connected to the storage means M which stores the map information of the traveling area, and the self information is stored on the basis of the map information, the traveling information and the environment information obtained by the environment information acquiring means S '. Self-position recognizing means SR for recognizing a position, running route generating means CR for generating a running route to the destination based on map information when a destination is given through the display 41 with a touch panel, and running route generating means CR And a rotation control section H for controlling the rotation of the head 4 by the motor 45.
[0015]
The self-position recognizing means SR estimates the self-position (including the direction) on the map information from the running information while the autonomous mobile device is moving along the running route generated by the running route generating means CR. At the same time, the environment information such as the detected position of the wall is collated with the map information to verify whether there is an error in the self-position estimation value. If there is an error, the self-position is corrected.
[0016]
Further, when the obstacle detecting means S detects that an obstacle is present on the traveling route, the control circuit C corrects the traveling route so as to avoid the obstacle while referring to the map information. Is performed to avoid the obstacle, and after the obstacle is avoided, the vehicle is returned to the original traveling route. If there is no space to avoid the movement, stop at that location or at a position near the wall.
[0017]
In the autonomous mobile device performing such a movement, in the present invention, during autonomous traveling and when no obstacle is detected by the obstacle detection means, the control circuit C controls the rotation control unit H as shown in FIG. The head 4 is swung. This swinging operation is performed by reciprocating the head 4 within an angle range α (for example, 120 °) that substantially coincides with the obstacle detection area set within the predetermined angle α in the traveling direction by the obstacle detection means S. .
[0018]
Such a movement of the head 4 makes a viewer guess that the autonomous mobile device is moving while sensing the surroundings during the movement, and also senses the direction in which the head 4 is facing. Remind you that you are In other words, the head 4 constitutes a point of interest display means for displaying the current point of interest of the autonomous mobile device toward the front in the traveling direction. At this time, it is not necessary to synchronize the sensing direction by the obstacle detecting means (particularly the laser radar 31 performing the scanning operation) with the direction of the head 4 because the scanning operation is usually performed at a very high speed. Of course, it may be synchronized.
[0019]
Then, when the autonomous mobile device detects the obstacle 9 forward in the traveling direction as shown in FIG. 6 during the autonomous movement, the control circuit C turns the head 4 to the obstacle 9 through the rotation control unit H. Hold for a predetermined period of time. Alternatively, it is maintained until it approaches a distance at which it is necessary to shift to the obstacle 9 avoiding operation. Note that the obstacle detection operation is continuously performed on the entire detection area.
[0020]
By holding the state where the head 4 is directed to the obstacle 9, a person who sees that the obstacle 9 is the current point of interest (including a person who is recognized as the obstacle 9 by the autonomous mobile device) can be provided. It makes a guess and reminds that the autonomous mobile device has detected the obstacle 9. When the head 4 is pointed at the detected obstacle 9 for a certain time, the certain time is set in consideration of the time required for the above-mentioned recall, but may be variable according to a running place or a running state.
[0021]
Then, the autonomous mobile device performs a motion to avoid the obstacle in accordance with the detection of the obstacle 9, but if the operation shifts to this avoiding operation, the head 4 turns to the next moving target point as a point of interest. . Here, the movement target point is set to, for example, a corner to be turned on a traveling route (usually the shortest route) generated by the traveling route generating means CR when a destination is given, or a middle point thereof when a linear moving distance is long. The traveling route is a link between the moving target points.
[0022]
Now, as shown in FIG. 7, when the autonomous mobile device R moves from the starting point A to the destination B, the traveling route generating means CR sets the traveling target points C1 to C7 and generates a traveling route connecting these. When the control circuit C is traveling along the traveling route by sequentially calculating the traveling control target point M at predetermined time intervals, the obstacle 9 is found and the traveling control target point M is moved along the traveling route. The head 4 is directed to the next movement target point (C4 in the illustrated example) even if the head 4 is deviated from and enters the avoidance operation and changes its direction. In the figure, L indicates the direction in which the head 4 faces. After the avoidance, the vehicle returns to the original traveling route, and stops when there is not enough space to avoid the space, or at a position close to a wall.
[0023]
Regardless of the presence or absence of the obstacle 9, the head 4 may always face the next movement target point. Further, after passing through the side of the obstacle 9, the head 4 may be caused to perform the above-described swinging operation.
[0024]
In addition, although the head 4 having the display 41 is rotatable as the point of interest display means, as shown in FIG. A display imitating movement may be displayed, and a point of interest may be displayed in the direction of the eyeball. In addition, the direction in which the autonomous mobile device Any display can be used as long as it is possible to display such that it is inferred that the user is paying attention.
[0025]
Also, as in the conventional example, it is not impeded that the autonomous mobile device is provided with a function of notifying an operation to be performed. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, when turning, a voice notification “turn right (left)” is given, or as shown in FIG. 10, to alert a person on the traveling route to “ Sound notification such as "Running", "XX going", "Avoiding", "Arrival" is performed, and furthermore, as shown in FIG. It is a matter of course that a function of giving an instruction by voice may be provided, and as shown in FIG. 12, a direction indicator light 55 is provided, and the direction of the turn and the direction of the avoidance operation are indicated by the direction indicator light 55. You may make it. Further, the operation may be notified on the display 41.
[0026]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, the present invention includes an obstacle detection unit that detects an obstacle existing within a predetermined angle in the traveling direction, and moves to the destination autonomously while avoiding the obstacle detected by the obstacle detection unit. An autonomous mobile device that includes an attention point display means that displays the current point of interest at least in the forward direction in the traveling direction. In this way, it is possible to determine what the autonomous mobile device is currently paying attention to, and it is not easy to cause anxiety about the collision with itself, and it is easy to predict the movement of the autonomous mobile device. This autonomous mobile device reduces the labor of humans who are obstacles located on the traveling route, that is, the labor required for determining the next action to avoid collision with the autonomous mobile device. To make It can be.
[0027]
As the point of interest display means, using a head whose direction can be changed by right and left rotation drive or a display that displays a display imitating the movement of the eyeball, it is easy for a human to understand the point of interest of the autonomous mobile device. It becomes.
[0028]
Also, as a point of interest, when the direction in which an obstacle is detected by the obstacle detection means is used, a person who is located on the traveling route of the autonomous mobile device and is an obstacle can be considered as an autonomous vehicle. It is easy to determine that the device is detecting obstacles, and if an obstacle detected by the obstacle detection means is used as a point of interest, humans can recognize themselves as autonomous mobile devices. It is possible to easily determine that the movement has been performed, and when the next movement target point set in advance is used as the point of interest, the movement direction and the point of interest display means for avoiding the autonomous mobile device are displayed. The deviation from the point of interest can give a person the same feeling as when passing one another, and the anxiety of colliding at the time of passing can be eliminated from the human.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an operation explanatory diagram of an example of an embodiment of the present invention.
FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C are a front view, a rear view and a side view of the same.
3A is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 2A, and FIG. 3B is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 2A.
FIGS. 4A and 4B are a side view and a plan view of an example of a head.
FIG. 5 is a block circuit diagram of the same.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of another operation of the above.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of still another operation of the above.
FIGS. 8A, 8B, and 8C are front views of other examples.
FIG. 9 is an operation explanatory diagram of another operation.
FIG. 10 is an operation explanatory diagram of still another operation.
FIG. 11 is an operation explanatory diagram of another operation.
FIG. 12 is an operation explanatory diagram of still another operation.
[Explanation of symbols]
4 Head (point of interest display means)

Claims (6)

An autonomous mobile device that includes an obstacle detection unit that detects an obstacle existing within a predetermined angle in the traveling direction and that autonomously moves to a destination while avoiding the obstacle detected by the obstacle detection unit. An autonomous mobile device comprising a point of interest display means for displaying a point at least forward in the traveling direction. 2. The autonomous mobile device according to claim 1, wherein a head whose direction can be changed by right and left rotation drive is provided as an attention point display unit. 2. The autonomous mobile device according to claim 1, further comprising a display for performing a display imitating the movement of an eyeball, as a point of interest display means. The autonomous mobile device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a direction in which an obstacle is detected by the obstacle detection unit is set as a point of interest. The autonomous mobile device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein an obstacle detected by the obstacle detection unit is set as a point of interest. The autonomous mobile device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the target point is a preset next movement target point.

Images