Komatsu Corporation

Osamu Yoshimi

Hiroyoshi Yamaguchi

Tetsuya Shinbo

Tatsuya Ariga

Seiichi Mizui

Object detector

A small-sized precision distance measuring apparatus. When a laser beam 1b reflected from an article is received on a photodetector array (30) through a lens array (20), the effective area of the photodetector array (30) is calculated on the basis of the output from the photodetectors, and the distance from the lens array (20) to the article 11 is calculated from the calculated area and the angle of view of the lenses constituting the lens array (20). If pixels (33a, 33b, 33c) of an image on a sensor array, corresponding to the coordinates of elements in the space (12), are determined on the basis of the positional relationship between the lenses (41a, 41b, 41c) of a lens array and photodetectors (51a, 51b, 51c) of the sensor array, the comparison of image information on the pixels (33a, 33b, 33c) can be made to determine the coordinate positions representing the profile of the article 11 from the coordinate positions of the space (12), thereby determining the distance to the article (11) and its shape. The measuring apparatus is used on a moving body, a robot or the like.

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Hiratsuka, Japan

Osamu Yoshimi