JP2023075476A - personal mobility - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a personal mobility capable of controlling traveling according to an open/closed state of an umbrella.SOLUTION: A personal mobility 100 of the present invention includes: determination means that determines whether an umbrella 20 owned by an occupant is open or closed; decision means that, when it is determined that the umbrella 20 is open, decides a size of a vehicle body of a personal mobility in consideration of a size 20A of the umbrella as of when open; and control means that controls traveling on the basis of the decided size of the vehicle body. The size of the vehicle body is stipulated with, for example, a width W and height H. Accordingly, when the personal mobility 100 is autonomously driven, even if the umbrella is open, collision with an obstacle can be avoided.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6

Description

The present invention relates to personal mobility such as electric carts, electric wheelchairs, and senior carts.

When self-driving personal mobility vehicles, route barrier information (steps, slopes, slips) is displayed, and when the road ahead is congested with pedestrians, a leader can be set to follow the leader. is disclosed (for example, Patent Literatures 1 and 2).

JP 2018-112579 A JP 2019-215699 A

With personal mobility, as the range of movement and the frequency of use expand, there are opportunities to move outdoors with an umbrella in rainy or sunny weather. FIG. 1 illustrates a state in which a user (passenger) holds an umbrella 20 on a personal mobility device 10 . When an umbrella is put up on personal mobility 10, size 20A of umbrella 20 causes the area or volume of the body of personal mobility 10 to expand in a pseudo manner, which may cause unexpected contact. For example, as shown in FIG. 2(A), when the personal mobility 10 is automatically driven on the sidewalk 30, when the user points the umbrella 20, the size of the body of the personal mobility 10 changes when the umbrella 20 is held. spreads to a size of 20A in a pseudo manner. As a result, a contact or collision 50 may occur between the umbrella 20 and the wall 40 of the sidewalk 30 . Also, as shown in FIG. 2B, when the person 60 is approaching from the front, contact or collision 70 may occur between the umbrella 20 and the person 60.

Personal mobility vehicles are usually equipped with obstacle detection sensors to avoid collisions with obstacles during autonomous driving. When an obstacle is detected in the surroundings during automatic driving, travel control is performed to decelerate or stop depending on the distance from the obstacle.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are diagrams illustrating an example of travel control of a conventional personal mobility device 10. FIG. The personal mobility 10 sets a deceleration area 80 within a certain range from the own vehicle, and further sets a stop area 82 within a range narrower than the deceleration area 80 . As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, when an obstacle 90 is detected in front of the personal mobility 10 during automatic operation, when the distance to the obstacle 90 reaches the deceleration area 80, the personal mobility 10 is decelerated and reaches the stop area 82, the personal mobility 10 is stopped.

When the umbrella 20 is put up, the size 20A of the umbrella 20 artificially expands the size of the vehicle body. or stop. Especially when driving indoors (at the entrance, etc.), on slopes, on narrow roads with crowds, or when there is little space, the number of slowdowns and stops increases.

FIGS. 3(C) and 3(D) are examples of running when the deceleration areas 80A and 82A are expanded according to the umbrella size 20A. The deceleration area 80A and the stop area 82A are larger than the deceleration area 80 and the stop area 82 shown in FIG. 3(A). and stop appropriately. On the other hand, when the umbrella is not held, the deceleration area 80A and the stop area 82A remain expanded as shown in FIG. 3(D). Deceleration and stopping are performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve such conventional problems and to provide a personal mobility vehicle capable of running control according to the open/closed state of an umbrella.

The personal mobility according to the present invention includes an electric cart, an electric wheelchair, a senior cart, etc., and includes a determination means for determining whether the umbrella is opened or closed, and a determining means for determining the size of the vehicle body in consideration of the determined size; and control means for controlling traveling based on the determined size of the vehicle body.

In one aspect, the determination means determines the width and height of the vehicle body as the size of the vehicle body. In one aspect, the determination means determines the size of the vehicle body considering the position where the umbrella is placed. In one aspect, the determining means determines the position where the umbrella is held by identifying whether the umbrella is held with the right hand or with the left hand. In one aspect, the personal mobility further includes detection means for detecting an obstacle, and the control means controls traveling to avoid the obstacle detected by the detection means. In one aspect, the control means reduces the speed when the distance to the obstacle reaches a first value or less and the umbrella is opened more than the first value when it is determined that the umbrella is closed. The first value is large when it is determined that the In one aspect, the control means stops when the distance to the obstacle reaches a second value or less, and the umbrella is opened more than the second value when it is determined that the umbrella is closed. The second value is large when it is determined that

According to the present invention, the opening/closing of the umbrella is determined, and the size of the vehicle body is determined in consideration of the size when the umbrella is open.
Since the size is determined and the travel is controlled based on the determined size of the vehicle body, accurate travel control can be performed according to the open/closed state of the umbrella.

It is a figure which shows the state which opened the umbrella in personal mobility. It is a figure explaining the subject of the conventional personal mobility. FIGS. 3(A) and 3(B) are diagrams for explaining a running example of conventional personal mobility, and FIGS. 3(C) and 3(D) are diagrams for explaining problems of conventional personal mobility. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of personal mobility according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. It is a figure which shows the functional structure of the traveling control program which concerns on the Example of this invention. It is a figure explaining the detail of the umbrella opening-and-closing determination part and vehicle body size determination part which concern on the Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the operation|movement flow of the driving control program which concerns on the Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the driving|running example of the personal mobility which concerns on the Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the driving|running example of the personal mobility which concerns on the Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the driving|running example of the personal mobility which concerns on the Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the driving|running example of the personal mobility which concerns on the Example of this invention.

Personal mobility according to the present invention is a moving body such as an electric cart, an electric wheelchair, and a senior cart. Personal mobility vehicles can run on sidewalks in the same way as pedestrians, and detect obstacles using 3D positioning sensors such as LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), stereo cameras, depth cameras, etc. It has the ability to drive.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Personal mobility is a vehicle that runs using a battery as a power source, and is equipped with front wheels, rear wheels, a chair, a steering wheel, a seat, and the like, as shown in FIG. For example, a motor driven by a battery is connected to the rear wheels. In addition, a brake lever is attached to the steering wheel to brake the front and rear wheels, and by rotating the steering wheel, the front wheels can be steered. are allowed to ride on the pavement as well.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the personal mobility of this embodiment. Personal mobility 100 includes an obstacle detection unit 110 that detects obstacles, a position detection unit 120 that detects the position of the vehicle, an imaging camera 130, a storage unit 140, an output unit 150, a drive unit 160, and a control unit 170. be done. However, the configuration shown here is just an example, and the configuration is not necessarily limited to this configuration.

Obstacle detection unit 110 detects obstacles present in the traveling direction of personal mobility, and provides the detection result to control unit 170 . The obstacle detection unit 110 detects obstacles by, for example, a three-dimensional positioning sensor such as a LiDAR, a stereo camera, or a depth camera, although not particularly limited.

Position detection unit 120 is not particularly limited, but includes, for example, an antenna for receiving GPS signals and a processing circuit for calculating the current position of personal mobility 100 based on the received GPS signals. is provided to the control unit 170 .

Imaging camera 130 images the surroundings of personal mobility 100 and the seat, and provides image data of the imaged image to control unit 170 . The mounting position and the number of mounted cameras 130 are arbitrary.

Storage unit 140 stores information necessary for the operation of personal mobility 100 . In addition, when personal mobility 100 has a navigation function, road data, facility data, etc., can be stored, and application software and programs executed by control unit 170 can be stored.

For example, when the personal mobility 100 is equipped with a navigation function or a media playback function, the output unit 150 outputs audio and video on an in-vehicle display. The driving unit 160 drives the motor connected to the rear wheels of the personal mobility 100 under the control of the control unit 170, or drives the motor connected to the steering wheel, thereby enabling personal mobility during automatic driving. It controls the traveling direction and running speed of the mobility 100 to avoid collisions with obstacles.

Control unit 170 includes hardware and software for controlling the operation of personal mobility 100, and performs various controls by executing programs stored in ROM/RAM with a microprocessor, for example. In this embodiment, the control unit 170 determines whether the umbrella possessed by the user who gets on the personal mobility 100 is opened or closed, and executes a travel control program for controlling the travel of the personal mobility 100 based on the determination result.

FIG. 5 shows the functional configuration of the running control program. The travel control program 200 includes an umbrella identification section 210 , an umbrella open/close determination section 220 , a vehicle body size determination section 230 and a travel control section 240 .

The umbrella identification unit 210 identifies the umbrella possessed by the user from the image data captured by the mounted imaging camera 130 . Although the identification method is not particularly limited, for example, as shown in FIG. Umbrella identification unit 210 identifies the color and characteristics of umbrella 20 and the type of umbrella (folding umbrella or normal umbrella) by analyzing the image data, as shown in FIG. 6B. This identification result is provided to the umbrella opening/closing determination section 220 and the vehicle body size determination section 230 .

The umbrella open/close determination unit 220 determines whether the umbrella identified by the umbrella identification unit 210 is opened or closed. If the white umbrella is identified by the umbrella identification unit 210, it is determined whether the white umbrella is open or closed. Although the determination method is not particularly limited, for example, as shown in FIG. The opening/closing of the identified umbrella 20 is determined based on the obtained image data. This determination result is provided to vehicle body size determination unit 230 and travel control unit 240 .

When umbrella opening/closing determination unit 220 determines that the umbrella is open, vehicle body size determination unit 230 determines the vehicle size of personal mobility 100 (body size) in consideration of size 20A when the umbrella is open. to decide. As shown in FIG. 6B, if the length of the white umbrella identified by the umbrella identification unit 210 is 65 cm, the size of the umbrella when opened is 65 cm, and the blue folding umbrella is identified. When the umbrella is opened, for example, the length is tripled to 60 cm, which is the size when the umbrella is opened.

After determining the size 20A of the umbrella, the vehicle body size determination unit 230 determines the vehicle body size S of the personal mobility 100 based on the size 20A when the umbrella is opened, as shown in FIG. 6(D). Here, the body size S includes the width W and the height H of the personal mobility 100 considering the size 20A when the umbrella 20 is opened. In other words, the body size S is the size of the personal mobility 100 and the umbrella. 20A. Width W is the horizontal length of personal mobility 100 with respect to the center position in the horizontal direction, and height H is the vertical length of personal mobility 100 with respect to the vertical center position. You may make it the vehicle body size include the depth D as needed. If the depth D is included, the vehicle body size S is expressed as a rectangular parallelepiped space, and this space generally contains the personal mobility 100 and the umbrella size 20A.

Although the method for determining the width W and height H is not particularly limited, for example, a lookup table that defines the relationship between the size 20A when the umbrella is opened and the width W and height H is prepared, The width W and height H may be determined by referring to the table, or a formula defining the relationship between the size 20A of the umbrella and the width W and height H may be prepared and used. The width W and height H may be calculated. Alternatively, the width W and the height H may be calculated from image data captured by the imaging camera 130 .

The normal vehicle size when the umbrella is not opened is determined by the outer shape of the personal mobility 100, but the normal vehicle size includes the width Wa and the height Ha as when the umbrella is opened. can be anything. Also, the depth Da may be included as necessary. If the size 20A when the umbrella is put up protrudes from the outer shape of personal mobility 100, the relationships Wa<W, Ha<H, and Da<D can be established.

Travel control unit 240 controls travel of personal mobility 100 according to the size of the vehicle body determined by vehicle body size determination unit 230 . The travel control may be one that performs fully automatic driving, or may be semi-automatic driving that assists the user's driving. In one aspect, the travel control unit 240 calculates the travel direction and travel speed from the change in the position of the vehicle detected by the position detection unit 120, and controls travel while referring to the road data stored in the storage unit 140. Alternatively, the travel control unit 240 recognizes the road ahead captured by the imaging camera 130, and performs travel control to follow the recognized road. Under such travel control, when an obstacle is detected by the obstacle detection unit 110, the travel control unit 240 avoids the obstacle and performs travel control to avoid contact with the obstacle. If the umbrella is open, travel control is performed based on the vehicle body size S considering the size 20A when the umbrella is open so that the vehicle does not come into contact with the obstacle. That is, the vehicle position and traveling direction of the personal mobility 100 are controlled so that the width W and height H of the vehicle body shown in FIG. 6(D) do not come into contact with obstacles. A specific example of running by the running control unit 240 will be described later.

FIG. 7 is a flow for explaining the operation of the running control program 200 of this embodiment. First, the umbrella identification unit 210 recognizes the umbrella held by the user when boarding based on the image data captured by the imaging camera 130 in front of the personal mobility 100 (S100), and identifies the color and size of the recognized umbrella. The height is identified (S110).

Next, the umbrella open/close determination unit 220 determines the opened/closed state of the identified umbrella based on the image data of the imaging camera 130 that captures the image of the user who has appeared (S120). When it is determined that the umbrella is open (S130), the vehicle body size determination unit 230 determines the expanded vehicle size S in consideration of the size 20A in which the umbrella is open (S140), and the travel control unit 240 , based on the extended vehicle body size S, travel control is performed so as not to come into contact with obstacles (S150). On the other hand, when it is determined that the umbrella is not open (S130), vehicle body size determination unit 230 determines the normal vehicle size of personal mobility 100 (S160), and travel control unit 240 determines the normal vehicle size that is not extended. Running control is performed according to the vehicle body size (S170).

Next, an example of running control according to the opening and closing of the umbrella according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 to 11. FIG. FIGS. 8A and 8B show a conventional running example when a wall 40 and a person 60 are detected by the obstacle detection section 110 and the imaging camera 130. FIG. When the user opens the umbrella, if the size 20A exceeds the body size of the personal mobility, contact 50 occurs between the umbrella 20 and the wall 40, or a collision occurs between the person 60 from the front and the umbrella 20. 70 can occur.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8(C), when the travel control unit 240 determines that the umbrella is opened, the expanded vehicle body size S considering the umbrella size 20A comes into contact with the wall 40. The travel of the personal mobility 100 is controlled so that it does not occur. As a result, a constant gap M is maintained between the umbrella 20 and the wall 40 . Further, as shown in FIG. 8D , the travel control unit 240 controls the travel of the personal mobility 100 so that the expanded vehicle body size S considering the size 20A of the umbrella does not contact the person 60 . As a result, a constant gap M is maintained between the umbrella 20 and the person 60. - 特許庁

FIG. 9(A) shows the deceleration area and the stop area when the conventional umbrella is put up, and FIG. 9(B) shows the deceleration area and the stop area when the conventional umbrella is not put up. As shown in FIG. 9A, when the umbrella is put up, the deceleration area 80A and the stop area 82A are expanded according to the umbrella size 20A, and control is performed to avoid collision with the obstacle 90. FIG. However, even when the umbrella is not held, as shown in FIG. 9B, the deceleration area 80A and the stop area 82A are the same size, so the detected obstacle 90 is at a sufficient distance. Unnecessary deceleration and stopping are performed without fail.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9C, the deceleration area 80A and the stop area 82A when the umbrella is put up are expanded according to the size of the umbrella 20A. Area 80 and stop area 82 are reduced to the normal body size of personal mobility 100 . Therefore, when the distance to the obstacle is sufficient, unnecessary deceleration and stopping as in the conventional art can be suppressed.

FIGS. 10A to 10D show examples of travel when a conventional personal mobility vehicle enters an elevator. Here, it is assumed that the size of the entrance of the elevator is smaller than the size 20A when the umbrella is put up, and larger than the width of the personal mobility. FIG. 10(A) shows a state in which the personal mobility device 10 proceeds to an elevator while the umbrella is being used during automatic driving assistance. As shown in FIG. 10(B), when the personal mobility device 10 reaches the elevator entrance, the user determines that the umbrella size 20A is larger than the elevator entrance, manually turns off the automatic driving assistance, The umbrella is closed as shown in FIG. 10(C), and then the automatic driving assistance is turned on again. As a result, the personal mobility 10 enters the elevator by automatic operation.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 10(E), the personal mobility 100 advances toward the elevator entrance, and as shown in FIG. 10(F), when the personal mobility 100 reaches the elevator entrance, The user determines that the umbrella size 20A is larger than the elevator entrance, and closes the umbrella as shown in FIG. 10(G). As a result, the body size of personal mobility 100 is reduced to a normal size, and personal mobility 100 enters the elevator as shown in FIG. 10(H).

With conventional travel control, the user had to manually turn off/on the automatic driving assist to prevent the umbrella from contacting the entrance of the elevator. In the running control of the example, since the vehicle body size S is automatically reduced, there is no need to turn off/on the automatic driving assist, and user convenience can be improved.

Next, a modified example of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 11(A) shows an example of running in fine weather without an umbrella, in which the personal mobility device 10 runs while maintaining a constant distance M from the wall 40 . FIGS. 11B and 11C are examples of conventional driving, and the personal mobility device 10 does not consider the umbrella. can cause contact 50 to occur. Also, contact 70 may occur between the person 60 on the right side and the umbrella 20 when the user holds up the umbrella with the right hand.

In this modification, the umbrella identification unit 210 identifies whether the umbrella is held by the user's left hand or right hand. This identification result is provided to the vehicle body size determination section 230, and when it is determined that the umbrella is opened, the vehicle body size determination section 230 considers the umbrella size 20A according to the right hand or left hand where the umbrella is held. Offset the center position of the car body size. That is, when the umbrella is held with the left hand, the center position of the vehicle body size considering the umbrella size 20A is offset to the left from the center of the personal mobility by a predetermined offset amount, and the umbrella is held with the right hand. In this case, the center position of the vehicle body size considering the umbrella size 20A is offset to the left from the center of the personal mobility.

As a result, as shown in FIG. 11(E), when the user holds the umbrella with the left hand, the traveling control unit 240 controls traveling so that the expanded vehicle body size does not come into contact with the wall 40. Since the center of the size is offset to the left, a more precisely constant gap M is maintained with the wall 40 . Also, as shown in FIG. 11(F), when the user puts up the umbrella with the right hand, the traveling control unit 240 controls traveling so that the expanded body size does not come into contact with the person 60. Because the center of size is offset to the right, a more precisely constant gap M is maintained with the person 60 .

As described above, according to this embodiment, since the center position of the vehicle body size is changed according to the position where the umbrella is held, the vehicle body size can be determined more accurately according to the size of the umbrella. In the above example, the position of the umbrella is determined by identifying the left and right hands holding the umbrella. You may make it determine the position which the umbrella is pointing by.

In the above embodiment, an example was shown in which the umbrella comes into contact with a horizontal wall or a person. Avoid contact with objects. Also, the umbrella is not limited to a rain umbrella, and may be a parasol that is used when the weather is fine.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to specific embodiments, and various modifications, Change is possible.

10: electric cart 20: umbrella 30: sidewalk 40: wall 50, 70: contact (collision) 60: person 100: personal mobility 110: obstacle detection unit 120: position detection unit 130: imaging camera 140: storage unit 150: output Unit 160: Driving unit 170: Control unit

Claims (7)

Personal mobility including electric carts, electric wheelchairs, senior carts, etc.
Determination means for determining whether the umbrella is opened or closed;
determining means for determining the size of the vehicle body considering the size of the opened umbrella when it is determined that the umbrella is open;
a control means for controlling traveling based on the determined size of the vehicle body;
personal mobility including; 2. The personal mobility according to claim 1, wherein said determination means determines the width and height of the vehicle body as the size of the vehicle body. 3. The personal mobility according to claim 1, wherein said determining means determines the size of the vehicle body in consideration of the position where the umbrella is placed. 4. The personal mobility according to claim 3, wherein the determination means determines the position where the umbrella is held by identifying whether the umbrella is held with the right hand or with the left hand. The personal mobility further comprises detection means for detecting obstacles,
5. The personal mobility according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said control means controls traveling so as to avoid obstacles detected by said detection means. The control means reduces the speed when the distance to the obstacle reaches a first value or less,
6. Personal mobility according to claim 5, wherein the first value when the umbrella is determined to be open is greater than the first value when the umbrella is determined to be closed. The control means stops when the distance to the obstacle reaches a second value or less;
6. Personal mobility according to claim 5, wherein the second value when the umbrella is determined to be open is greater than the second value when the umbrella is determined to be closed.

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