Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Orc Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Shinichi Matsunaga

Nobuo Higaki

Yoshiaki Sakagami

Naoaki Sumida

Takahiro Oohashi

Naohide Ogawa

Takaaki Nagai

Yuichi Yoshida

Sachie Hashimoto

Katsumi Momose

Kazunori Kanai

Kimio Takahashi

Masaru Yamaga

A remote controller enables a user to manipulate behavior of a robot so that the robot does not stray away from a given area and also avoids contact with an object. If a route designated by the user satisfies a stable movement requirement, a first command signal is transmitted from the remote controller to the robot. By doing so, it is possible to move the robot according to the designated route. On the other hand, if the route designated by the user does not satisfy the stable movement requirement, the first command signal is not transmitted from the remote controller to the robot. Therefore, it is possible to stop the robot from moving according to the designated route, and further to avoid the situation where the robot strays away from the designated region, or comes into contact with the object.

Remote controller

A target route generation system which generates a target route for a robot (R) to travel along autonomously is provided with a route candidate generation element () which generates a plurality of travel route candidates to connect the terminating point and the starting point by connecting links stored at a link storing element (), state recognition elements (to) which recognize a state of the robot (R), and a route evaluation IC element () which evaluates a cost of a travel route candidate including therein an action point stored in an action point storing element () lower as the necessity for passing by the action point is higher in view of the state of the robot (R) recognized by the state recognition elements (to). According to the system, the robot can be made to travel through the action point with a high necessity in view of the state of the robot.

Target route generation system

A target route setting support system is equipped with a transiting area/starting-terminal point recognizing unit, a route candidate generating unit, and a determining unit. The transiting area/starting-terminal point recognizing unit recognizes a node or a link connecting nodes together designated by the user via a remote controller as a designated transiting area, the target position as a terminal point, and a departure position as a starting point. The route candidate generating unit generates a moving route candidate connecting the terminal point and the starting point so the designated transiting area is included at least in a part of the moving route candidate. The determining unit determines the level of a possibility of contact between the robot and an object in the case where the robot is made to move along the moving route candidate, and outputs the determination result via an output device.

Target route setting support system

The control apparatus for a movable robot comprises: environment information acquisition means (such as video cameraand microphone); a current position detecting means (); a map storage (); a control parameter storage () for storing control parameters adjusted to different environments; and control means () for determining a current position of the robot on the map data based on a signal from the current position detecting means, retrieving control parameters suitable for the current position from the parameter storage, and controlling the environment information acquisition means or actuators for moving the robot by using the retrieved control parameters.

Robot device control based on environment and position of a movable robot

To automate the work of recognizing a guest, check the appointment, notify a host of the arrival of the guest and conduct the guest to a designated place, a robot having a function to autonomously travel is equipped with camera/microphone for recognizing a guest at least according to image information. The system comprises management database adapted to communicate with the robot and equipped with an information database for identifying the recognized guest, and identifies the guest according to the information obtained from the camera/microphone and management database. The robot recognizes the guest from the image thereof, and the recognized guest is identified and verified by comparing the image of the visitor with the information contained in the database so that the robot can automatically conduct the guest to the designated meeting room according to the information of the appointment stored in the database.

Receptionist robot system

An apparatusfor controlling a movable robot recognizes the person to be followed up from an image taken by a camera C by an image processing portion, controls leg portions Rof a movable robot A so as to keep a prescribed interval between the movable robot A and the person by a portionfor detecting an action, and notify the degree of the distance between the movable robot A and the person to the person by a voice from a voice outputting portion

Apparatus, process, and program for controlling movable robot control

In a route generating system for an autonomous mobile robot, a plurality of nodes are designated within an area of movement of the robot and an edge is defined between a pair of nodes only if a distance from the one node to the other node is less than a threshold value and there is no obstacle on a line drawn between the one point and the other point. Because the route is generated from a collection of pre-defined edges which are free from obstacles and are selected so as to optimize the generated route, the robot is enabled to travel from the current position to the destination in a safe and optimum fashion. Furthermore, the edges are defined by connecting only those nodes that are relatively close to each other, the candidates of the edges for generating a route can be reduced to a small number and this reduces computational loads. Also, because the route can be selected in a relatively intelligent manner so as to optimize a certain criterion, a clumsy appearance in the movement of the robot can be avoided.

Route generating system for an autonomous mobile robot

An autonomous robot is controlled by the local robot information controller which is connected to a robot application network to which the transceiver to communicate with the autonomous robot is attached. The robot application network, a user LAN adaptive controller an information distribution manager and the third party information provider subsystem are linked with a public network. The information distribution manager acquires the information from the third party information provider subsystem on the schedule which is set by the user LAN adaptive controller. The local robot information controller receives the information distribution manager and convert it into the data that generates robot gestures. The robot performs actions in accordance to the gesture data received from the local robot information controller.

Autonomously moving robot management system

A mobile apparatus is provided, which includes a plurality of imaging devices, a measurement device for measuring a current position and direction of the imaging devices, a map data storing section which stores map data including at least registered information on positions of stationary objects, a recognized distance calculating section which obtains a parallax for a plurality of images, a reference distance calculating section which calculates a reference distance from the imaging devices to a front border of each stationary object, a retracting section for determining a range of image processing, which selects a set of pixels to be processed so as to generate a retracted image, a detecting section for detecting objects from the retracted image, a transport device, and a transport controller for controlling movement of the transport device according to information about the objects detected by the detecting section.

Mobile apparatus

A position detection apparatus that is able to easily detect self-position during autonomous movement by a humanoid robot that moves by the use of legs or automobile. The position detection apparatus detects the position of a moving object, said position detection apparatus being provided with a brightness image acquisition device that acquires a brightness image of the forward field of view of the moving object, a distance image acquisition device having the same field of view as the brightness image acquisition device that acquires a distance image simultaneous to acquisition of a brightness image by the brightness image acquisition device, a characteristic point extraction device that extracts respective characteristic points from the brightness images of at least two consecutive frames, and a reference characteristic point selection device that calculates the amount of displacement of a position between two frames of a characteristic point extracted by the characteristic point extraction device based on a distance image, and selects a reference characteristic point for calculating self-position according to said amount of displacement.

Position detection apparatus, position detection method and position detection program

An apparatus for projection exposure which projects a pattern of a mask onto a work is provided. The apparatus has a base, a source of light, an optical system, a mask support mechanism, a work support mechanism and an alignment mechanism. The optical system constitutes light rays into projection light rays carrying image information of the mask, guiding the projection light rays through a predetermined optical path so that the projection light rays can be projected onto an exposure surface of the work. The optical system includes a projection optical system and an illumination optical system. The projection optical system is adapted to be disposed vertical relative to the base. The mask and work support mechanisms vertically support the mask and work relative to the base, respectively. In this way, the exposure surface of the work can coincide with an image forming plane in the optical path.

Apparatus and method for projection exposure

This image processing device comprises a distance image capture device which captures a distance image based upon three dimensional coordinate values obtained for various points upon object surfaces by a distance sensor; a plane detection device which detects planes from said three dimensional coordinate values upon said object surfaces obtained from said distance image; an edge detection device which detects edges from said distance image; a singular spot decision device which decides whether or not said edges include singular spots, according to whether or not the edges which have been detected by said edge detection device and the planes which have been detected by said plane detection device satisfy predetermined conditions; and a singular spot map storage device which stores said singular spots, based upon the results from said singular spot decision device.

Image processing device, singular spot detection method, and recording medium upon which singular spot detection program is recorded

The image processing device includes: a distance image capture device which captures a distance image based upon three dimensional coordinate values obtained, by measuring the distances to various points upon body surfaces in the forward visual field of a distance sensor, for those points upon those body surfaces; a straight line extraction device which obtains three dimensional coordinate values of two points from a viewpoint picture element in the distance image and a picture element which is separated by a predetermined distance from that viewpoint picture element, and which extracts a plurality of straight lines in a horizontal plane using two dimensional coordinate values by ignoring the vertical component among these three dimensional coordinate values; and a plane detection device which obtains points on the body surfaces which lie upon various straight lines which have been extracted by the straight line extraction device, and detects points which lie upon the same straight line as being upon the same vertical plane.

Image processing device, plane detection method, and recording medium upon which plane detection program is recorded

A road image display device for displaying an image of a road whereon a vehicle is travelling on a display screen by scrolling the road image at a specified speed as one would feel driving a vehicle thereon viewing the image from a fixed viewing point, which display device is provided with an input control section for inputting road design data concerning a straight line area, a clothoid curve (relaxed-curvature curve) area and a circular-arc area for a travelling road distance, and an electronic control unit for generating a road image representing a straight-line area, clothoid curve area and a circular-arc area according to the input road design data and which can easily generate any desired road image according to a free road design and more particularly can represent an image of a curved road portion by a curve having a relaxed curvature for joining a straight-line with a circle of a constant curvature.

Road image display device

An obstacle detecting apparatus is disclosed, with which obstacles can be reliably detected so that a self-controlled robot or vehicle can drive safely. The apparatus comprises a first section having a distance sensor, for measuring the distance of each measurement point of objects existing in a visual field of the distance sensor and obtaining a three-dimensional coordinate value for each measurement point, so as to generate a distance image; a second section for projecting each measurement point of the objects onto at least one of predetermined horizontal and vertical planes, where each plane is divided into grid cells, and the resolution of the divided grid cells is lower than the measurement resolution of the distance sensor; and calculating the number of the measurement points projected onto each grid cell in the relevant plane, and generating a three-dimensional histogram indicating the distribution of the measurement points in the grid cells, a third section for converting the histogram to binary data by comparing the histogram with a predetermined threshold value; and a fourth section for extracting one or more obstacles by performing a clustering operation on the binary data, and generating an obstacle map by which the positional relationship between the distance sensor and each obstacle is determined.

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Wako, Japan

Shinichi Matsunaga