Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Kyung-shik Roh

Woong Kwon

Woo-sup Han

Young-Bo Shim

Ki-cheol Park

Sang-on Choi

Yeon-taek Oh

Shin Hyoung Kim

Suk-june Yoon

Soon-yong Park

Seung-Jae Lee

Ji-Min Kim

Sang-min Suh

Jong-Il Kim

Boldyrev Serguei

Sang-sik Yoon

No-san Kwak

An obstacle detecting unit includes a reflective mirror formed to reflect light which is incident from a front area and a lower portion of the front area below a central portion of the reflective mirror; a catadioptric lens disposed coaxially with the reflective mirror in an upper portion of the reflective mirror, the catadioptric lens on which light incident from the front area and an upper portion of the front area; and an image forming module disposed coaxially with the reflective mirror below the reflective mirror, the image forming module on which the light reflected by the reflective mirror is incident, wherein a through hole is formed in the central portion of the reflective mirror, and the light coming out of the catadioptric lens passes through the through hole and then is incident on the image forming module.

Lens assembly, obstacle detecting unit using the same, and moving robot having the same

An apparatus for returning of robot and a returning method thereof are provided, in which the apparatus for returning of robot includes a signal transmitter which is disposed on a charging station and transmits a single front signal and a plurality of distance signals including first, second and third distance signals, a signal receiver which is disposed on the robot and includes a plurality of receiving sensors to receive any one among the single front signal and one among the plurality of distance signals, and a controller which calculates an angle of the charging station by using one among the received single front signal and the plurality of received distance signals and controls the driving so that the robot can return to the charging station by using the calculated angle of the charging station.

Apparatus for returning of robot and returning method thereof

A method of controlling an intelligent system using an artificial mark and method for employing the same. The intelligent system includes: an image pickup unit which obtains an image taken for a driving place; a main control unit which calculates a projective invariant of an artificial mark detected from an image taken for a driving place and analyzes the position of the intelligent system using global location information of the detected artificial mark in the driving place obtained by the calculated projective invariant and location information between the intelligent system and the detected artificial mark; and a driving control unit which controls driving of the intelligent system according to the position information of the intelligent system analyzed in the main control unit.

Method of constructing artificial mark for autonomous driving, apparatus and method of determining position of intelligent system using artificial mark and intelligent system employing the same

A moving robot apparatus and a control system and method thereof. A current state variable (e.g., the current direction of the main body of the robot apparatus) may be estimated using current data output from a sensor part of the robot apparatus. Initially, it is determined whether the current data output from the sensor part satisfy a necessary condition. The necessary condition may be considered to be satisfied when the current data are unaffected by a disturbance or external interference (e.g., the earth's magnetic field.). Thereafter, a current sample value may be extracted from a previous sample value obtained from the sensor part. The previous sample value may relate to a previous state variable (e.g., a previous direction of the robot main body). A weight of the current data may be calculated based on the current sample value. A value of the weight may depend on whether the necessary condition is satisfied by the current data. The current state variable is then estimated based on the extracted current sample value and the calculated weight. A control of the directional movement of the robot main body may be provided based on the estimated current state variable. A control system may be provided to accurately estimate, using a probability distribution, the direction of the robot main body when it can not be determined whether or not an external disturbance is reflected in the data output from the sensor part.

Control system, moving robot apparatus having the control system, and a control method thereof

Provided is a method of using a rotational movement amount of a mobile device including obtaining images at two different points on a path along which the mobile device moves, searching for matching points with respect to the obtained images and obtaining an image coordinate value of each of the matching points, sensing linear movement of the mobile device and obtaining a linear movement amount using a result of sensing, and obtaining the rotational movement amount using the image coordinate values and the linear movement amount.

Method and apparatus for using rotational movement amount of mobile device and computer-readable recording medium for storing computer program

A landmark detection apparatus and method, the apparatus including a first detection unit that generates N first sample blocks in a first sampling region using a first weighted sampling method according to a first degree of dispersion, and that performs a first landmark detection by comparing a feature of each first sample block a feature of a landmark model, where the first sample region is set to the entirety of a current frame image; and a second detection unit that generates N second sample blocks in a second sampling region using a second weighted sampling method according to a second degree of dispersion, and that performs a second landmark detection by comparing a feature of each second sample block the feature of the landmark model, where the second sampling region is set to an area less than the entirety of the current frame image.

Landmark detection apparatus and method for intelligent system

A motion estimation method and system for a mobile body are provided. The method includes: obtaining magnetic field information from compass information of the mobile body; comparing the magnetic field of the mobile body with a predetermined value and determining whether a position of the mobile body belongs to a specific region according to the comparison result; and estimating a direction of the mobile body by determining whether a compass azimuth angle is used for direction estimation of the mobile body according to the determination result. The system, in which a gyro, odometers, and compasses are installed, comprises: a magnetic field calculator calculating the magnitudes of magnetic fields of the mobile body; a magnetic field comparator obtaining differences between the magnitudes of the magnetic fields and the magnitude of the geomagnetic field and comparing the differences with the first threshold value; a geomagnetic region determiner determining whether a position where the mobile body exists belongs to a region where the geomagnetism works according to the comparison result; and a moving direction estimator estimating a moving direction of the mobile body by determining whether or not to use azimuth angles of the compasses for direction estimation of the mobile body according to the determination result.

Motion estimation method and system for mobile body

A method for constructing an artificial mark for autonomous driving of an intelligent system, an apparatus and method for determining the location of an intelligent system using the artificial mark, and an intelligent system employing the same. The apparatus and method for determining the location of an intelligent system includes a projective invariant calculator which calculates a projective invariant of an artificial mark detected from an image taken for a driving place; a search unit which stores a database of indices according to a combination of colors of polygons included in the artificial mark, projective invariants of the artificial marks, and global location information of the artificial marks in the driving place, and searches the database by the calculated projective invariant for obtaining the global location information of the detected artificial mark; and a position information analyzer which analyzes the position of the intelligent system by using the global location information of the detected artificial mark and location information between the intelligent system and the detected artificial mark.

Provided are an apparatus and method of calibrating azimuth of a mobile device. The apparatus includes: a motor; a magnetic field measuring unit disposed in the mobile device and measuring magnetic field data indicating magnitudes of a magnetic field in different directions while being rotated by the motor; and a controller driving the motor, generating a calibration table indicating a correspondence between an actual magnetic field trajectory formed by the magnetic field data and a theoretical magnetic field trajectory and calibrating azimuth of the mobile device using the calibration table.

Apparatus and method of calibrating azimuth of mobile device

A method and apparatus for detecting a free fall of an electronic device. The method includes: sensing a falling acceleration of the electronic device using an acceleration sensor; determining whether the sensed falling acceleration is less than a predetermined threshold; when the sensed falling acceleration is less than the predetermined threshold, determining whether the falling acceleration is a statistical constant, which has a statistical significance, and is maintained for a predetermined time; and when the falling acceleration is a statistical constant and maintained for a predetermined time, determining that the electronic device falls freely. Accordingly, it is possible to exactly detect a free fall of an electronic device, irrespective of an error of the acceleration of gravity generated when a falling acceleration of the electronic device is measured, due to ambient conditions, e.g., a temperature change and a rotation acceleration generated when the electronic device rotates.

Method and apparatus for detecting free fall of electronic device

Provided is a method of generating a magnetic field map including obtaining magnetic field information, the magnetic field information being information on a magnetic field affecting a mobile body, for each position of the mobile body, and building a magnetic field map based on the magnetic field information for each position of the mobile body. The pose of a mobile body can be statistically checked by the probability obtained using the difference between the magnetic field information observed from the magnetic field map and the actually measured magnetic field information. Although the pose of the mobile body is estimated using a camera that is sensitive to an illumination state where the mobile body is placed, the pose of the mobile body can be relatively accurately checked using the magnetic field map obtained in a situation regardless of illumination, with being less affected by the illumination state where the mobile body is placed. Thus, the pose of the mobile body can be checked with reliability.

Method and apparatus for generating magnetic field map and method and apparatus for checking pose of mobile body using the magnetic field map

There are provided a method and apparatus for determining a geomagnetic field by using a compass and a method and apparatus for determining an azimuth angle of a moving object using the method and apparatus for determining a geomagnetic field. The method of determining a geomagnetic field by using a compass includes defining an allowable magnetic field range used to determine a valid geomagnetic region; calculating a magnitude of a magnetic field in a geomagnetic-field validity test region by using a compass; and if the magnitude of the magnetic field is within the allowable magnetic field range, determining that the geomagnetic-field validity test region is the valid geomagnetic region, and if not, determining that there is applied an external magnetic field disturbance. Accordingly, since an error of an azimuth angle of the compass due to an external magnetic field disturbance can be determined, it is possible to accurately detect a valid azimuth angle of the compass. In addition, since an allowable magnetic field range is determined based on a variation of magnetic field detected by a compass rather than a conventional method that simply compares a magnetic field and a geomagnetic field, it is possible to accurately determine the geomagnetic field.

Method and apparatus for determining a geomagnetic field by using a compass and method and apparatus for determining an azimuth angle of a moving object using the same

Provided a method and apparatus for using a magnetic field. The method includes: measuring and storing magnetic field data indicating magnitudes of a magnetic field in different directions at each time by rotating sensors over a space; and checking whether a disturbance of the magnetic field exists, using curve fitting parameters such as amplitude and offset of at least one of magnetic field trajectories formed by the stored magnetic field data.

Method and apparatus for using magnetic field

Provided are an apparatus and method of calibrating azimuth of a mobile device. The apparatus includes: a magnetic field measuring unit having a plurality of magnetic sensors aligned in a constant angle interval on the mobile device and measuring magnetic field data indicating magnitudes of a magnetic field in different directions; and a controller generating a calibration table indicating a correspondence between an actual magnetic field trajectory formed by the magnetic field data and a theoretical magnetic field trajectory and calibrating azimuth of the mobile device using the calibration table.

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Seongnam-si, South Korea

Kyung-shik Roh