Nissan Motor Company Limited

Hiroshi Saitoh

Norimasa Kishi

Kazunori Noso

Kunihiko Kurami

A system for calculating a movement direction and position of a movable object such as an unmanned vehicle running within a factory and a method therefor are disclosed in which an image pick up camera such as a video camera photographs a background of the movable object to generate a background two-dimensional image. Positions of vanishing point and side ends of a passage on which the movable object is to move are derived from the background photographed two-dimensional image. The movement direction of the movable object is derived from the detected vanishing point. Distances of the movable object from both sides ends of the passage are derived on the basis of the detected vanishing point and positions of side ends of the passage. the movement direction and position of the movable object thus detected are used to control movement of the movable object. The vanishing point is detected on the basis of edge directions at all points constituting and edge on the background two-dimensional image.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Hiroshi Saitoh