Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Astemo Ltd.

Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd.

Kenjiro Yamamoto

Alex Masuo Kaneko

Akira Oshima

Ryoko Ichinose

Yukihiko Ono

Taiki Iimura

Masatsugu Kametani

Yoshitaka Hara

Taku Ninomiya

Shigenori Hayase

Hiroshi Ito

Osamu Yamada

Katsuhisa Ike

Takashi Sato

Mikio Tokuyama

Atsushi Hasegawa

Ai Masuda

Yasuhiro Gunji

Azusa Amino

Hitoshi Yamaguchi

Hideki Kubota

Masahiro Koyama

Taishi Ueda

Yuji Hosoda

Saku Egawa

Yusuke Hieida

Hiroaki Kitaoka

Takashi Tsubouchi

Shinya Ootsuji

Hiroki Kanayama

Jae Hoon Lee

Masahiro Ando, Deceased

Akihiko Miyadera

According to the present invention, a moving body capable of moving within a preset range of movement acquires an image from the environment surrounding the location of the moving body, and determines entry determination conditions for obtaining a result of an entry determination as to whether or not the moving body is allowed to enter a region identified by the location of the moving body and the image. A management terminal outputs the entry determination conditions and the image to an output device, and receives modification information relating to the entry determination conditions from an input device. A server uses the modification information received by the input device of the management terminal to perform learning, including updating of the entry determination conditions, thereby setting the movement range of the moving body, the movement of which is controlled in accordance with the entry determination result.

Moving range setting system and moving range setting method

Provided is a position estimation device capable of highly accurate position estimation. A position estimation deviceof the present invention is the position estimation devicewhich estimates a current position of a moving objectequipped with an imaging device, estimates the current position of the moving object, create a plurality of virtual positions based on the current position, creates virtual images at the plurality of virtual positions, respectively, compares the plurality of virtual images with an actual image to calculate a comparison error, calculates a weight based on at least one of information acquired by the imaging deviceand information of a current position error of the moving object, performs weighting on the comparison error using the weight, and corrects the current position based on the comparison error to be weighted.

Position estimating device

A multi-operation unit integration device having scale expandability and includes a plurality of operation units each of which includes a movable unit; and an integration module. The integration module includes an operation timing unit that gives operation timings of the plurality of operation units based on an operation instruction input from an outside, and the operation unit includes: a plurality of operation learning units that generate a control signal given to the movable unit according to an operation timing signal from the operation timing unit of the integration module; drive means for driving the movable unit of the operation unit according to the control signal; and a sensor that detects a state quantity of the movable unit driven by the drive means. An autonomous learning type robot device is configured using the multi-operation unit integration device as a control portion.

Multi-operation unit integration device, control method therefor, and autonomous learning type robot device

A position estimating device is provided with an image acquiring unit that acquires images around a moving body, a moving body movement amount estimating unit that estimates an amount of movement of the moving body based on the images, and a moving body position estimating unit that estimates the position of the moving body based on the estimated amount of movement. The moving body movement amount estimating unit includes a tracking unit that tracks a first feature point to a second feature point, a distance calculating unit that calculates the distance from the moving body to the second feature point, an azimuth estimating unit that estimates the azimuth of the moving body based on the distance from the moving body to the second feature point, and a movement amount estimating unit which estimates the amount of movement of the moving body based on the azimuth of the moving body.

Improvement in the accuracy of estimating the position of a mobile entity even while traveling or if there is an error in the calibration performed utilizing: a mobile entity; an imaging device provided in the mobile entity; and an information processing device for determining a first movement amount by which a detection point that is the same object has moved on the basis of a first image and a second image acquired by the imaging device and a second movement amount by which the mobile entity has moved while the first image and the second image were acquired, determining the accuracy of recognizing the detection point acquired by the imaging device on the basis of the first movement amount and the second movement amount, and estimating the position of the mobile entity on the basis of the accuracy of recognition and position information that pertains to the detection point.

Mobile entity position estimation device and position estimation method

A distance to an object is estimated with a monocular camera that estimates a distance from a moving object to feature points on an image from an imaging device mounted on the moving object. The distance estimator sets one or more feature points on the image acquired from the imaging device at a first timing and detects the feature point on the image acquired from the imaging device at a second timing. The distance estimator also determines the movement amount of the feature point on the image between the first timing and the second timing and determines the movement amount of the moving object between the first and second timings. The distance estimator then estimates the distance from the moving object to the feature point based on the movement amount on the image and the movement amount of the moving object between the first and second timings.

Distance estimation apparatus and method

An object of the invention is to provide a moving object capable of being calculated a movement amount with a low processing load and high accuracy even when a three-dimensional object which is stationary or moves appears in a camera image. The invention is directed to a moving object which includes an imaging device which captures an image of a road surface and an image processing unit which calculates a movement amount of the moving object based on an image captured by the imaging device, wherein the image processing unit extracts a plurality of first feature points from a first image captured at a first timing, extracts a plurality of second feature points from a second image captured at a second timing after the first timing, performs tracking on each of the plurality of first feature points to each of the plurality of second feature points, calculates a movement amount and a speed of each of the plurality of second feature points, and calculates a movement amount of the moving object based on a feature point having a speed within a predetermined range among the plurality of second feature points.

Moving object

The reliability of detection of the traveling lane can be improved even in a case where an image capturing environment changes. The lane detection device includes a first image capturing device which is fixed to a moving body and periodically captures a first image under a predetermined first image capturing condition, a second image capturing device which is fixed to the moving body and periodically captures a second image under a second image capturing condition different from the predetermined first image capturing condition, and an operation device, regarding a traveling lane on which the moving body travels, which detects a first boundary line of the traveling lane on the first image, detects a second boundary line of the traveling lane on the second image, and estimates the position of the first boundary line on the first image based on a position of the second boundary line on the second image under a predetermined execution condition.

Lane detection device and lane detection method

The present invention addresses the problem of achieving an autonomous mobile system that is provided with a means for safe two-way traffic or overtaking if the crossing or approach of travel paths arises with respect to another party such as a pedestrian, bicycle or the like during autonomous travel over a designated reference path in an environment in which mobile obstacles such as pedestrians, bicycles and the like moving in free directions are present in public or in a facility. To solve this problem, in the present invention, it is necessary before an approach to induce circumstances such that mutual motion is defined and to obtain defining information of the movement of the other party, thereby maintaining uniform circumstances when passing nearby such that no large changes in course are performed. Consequently, if the crossing or approach of travel paths arises with respect to another party such as a pedestrian, bicycle or the like, the autonomous mobile system behaves in a manner easy to predict by the other party in order to induce circumstances such that the movement of the other party is defined, and after obtaining the defining information of the movement of the other party, maintains uniform circumstances when passing nearby such that no large changes in course are performed, thereby achieving safe and secure two-way traffic and overtaking.

Autonomous mobile system

Landmark recognition can handle various landmarks with a low processing load and high reliability. Provided are a database, a segmentation processor, a pattern extraction processor, and a database comparison processor. The database stores landmark extraction information associated with landmark determination condition information, the landmark extraction information identifying a region including a landmark of an image, and allowing right-opposite positioning of the landmark, the landmark determination condition information used for determining landmark pattern information as the landmark. The segmentation processor sets a plurality of segmentation lines with respect to the region including the landmark of the image in a direction parallel to the landmark from a direction right opposite to the landmark, and determines a distance between intersections of the segmentation lines and a boundary of the landmark. The pattern extraction processor obtains the landmark pattern information that represents a characteristic of the pattern of the landmark as numerical value information in response to the distance between the intersections determined for each of the plurality of segmentation lines. The database comparison processor compares the landmark pattern information extracted in the pattern extraction processor with the landmark determination condition information registered in the database to identify the kind of the landmark.

Landmark recognition device and landmark recognition method using a database storing landmark extraction information

An environment information acquisition unit acquires a signal state of a traffic light. A self-position estimation unit estimates a self-position of the autonomous moving object. A traveling route decision unit calculates a first time necessary to move along a first route from the self-position to an end point of a crosswalk and a second time necessary to move along a second route from the self-point to a start point of the crosswalk in a case in which the signal state is changed from blue to red on the crosswalk after a predetermined time or in a case in which the signal state is changed from blue to red, and selects a route corresponding to a time smaller between the first time and the second time. A vehicle control unit controls autonomous movement of the autonomous moving object so that the autonomous moving object moves along the selected route.

Autonomous moving object

An autonomous moving device includes a database that stores information on which objects are necessary to avoid and which are not necessary to avoid. When the autonomous object travels, an object detection unit detects an object on the road by using a sensor; a collation unit collates the detected object on a road surface with an object stored in the database; a determination input unit receives an input of an operator regarding whether or not to avoid the object where there is no data which is the same as or similar to the object in the database as a result of collation which is performed by the collation unit; and an operation generation unit commands the next operation of the moving object, based on the result of collation which is performed by the collation unit and the determination unit.

Autonomous moving device

An object of the present invention is to provide an autonomous moving device or the like that estimates a self position based on an arrangement of landmarks in surrounding environment while suppressing the influence by external disturbances. In order to achieve the object described above, an external disturbance factor which becomes an external disturbance and a landmark used for the self position estimation when estimating a self position from an image captured by a wide angle camera are extracted, the landmark which is not affected by the external disturbance factor is selected from an image captured by the standard camera capable of controlling a posture using the extracted information, the posture of the standard camera is controlled so as to track the selected landmark, and the self position is estimated based on the arrangement of the landmarks captured by the tracking-controlled standard camera.

Autonomous moving device and self position estimation method

Provided are: a use-assisting tool for an autonomous mobile device that enhances convenience for a user of the autonomous mobile device; an operation management center; an operation system; and an autonomous mobile device. The use-assisting tool for an autonomous mobile device provides assistance for using the autonomous mobile device, which travels autonomously along a route to a destination, and is characterized by: being provided with a communication means that communicates with an operation management center, an input means, and a display means; a destination to be visited using the autonomous mobile device being input by means of the input means; and the display means displaying cooperation information established at the destination that is transmitted from the operation management center. The cooperation information established at the destination includes information regarding securing a mobility means at the destination and establishing a reservation at the destination.

Use-assisting tool for autonomous mobile device, operation management center, operation system, and autonomous mobile device

The invention is intended to be able to generate map data even if a location not suited for identification of a matching position exists. A map data creation device creates map data, the map data being used for autonomous movement by a vehicle (), a vehicle () and/or other vehicles (), based on a relative position of the vehicle () which exists around the vehicle (), relative to the vehicle (), the relative position being measured by the vehicle (), and object shape data of an object which exists around the vehicle (), the object shape being measured by the vehicle (). Moreover, the relative position of the vehicle () relative to the vehicle () is calculated based on the object shape data measured by the vehicle ().

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Tokyo, Japan

Kenjiro Yamamoto