Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America

Nippon Pillar Packing Co., Ltd.

Shuhei Matsui

Naoyuki Harada

Hideo Umetani

Takuya Yamaguchi

Yuta Shimotsuma

Kazunobu Konishi

Takahiro Yoneda

Masahiko Saito

Yohei Nakata

Kazuma Takeuchi

Osamu Suzuki

Kensuke Wakasugi

Masanao Ishijima

Yasuyuki Okunishi

Each of mechanical seal devicesof a rotary jointincludes a first shaft side seal ringand a second shaft side seal ringattached to a shaft body, and a first case side seal ringand a second case side seal ringattached to a case body. The first shaft side seal ringand the second shaft side seal ringhave contact surfacesandaxially facing each other and coming into contact with each other, and groovesandfor forming a second communication flow passageconnecting a second outer flow passageand a second inner flow passageare formed in both the contact surfacesand

Rotary joint

Various embodiments for controlling a state of an autonomous vehicle that is to meet a user are provided. A receiver receives location information indicating a current location of the user. A memory stores a plurality of states of the autonomous vehicle. Each of the states at least one of visually or audibly distinguishes the autonomous vehicle. A sensor senses an environment of the autonomous vehicle to obtain environment information. A distance from a place of meeting the user to the current location of the user is calculated based on the location information. A first state is selected in accordance with the environment information. The autonomous vehicle is caused to change from a second state to the first state when the distance from the place of meeting the user to the current location of the user becomes smaller than or equal to a predetermined distance.

Control device and control method

Each of the mechanical seal devices of a rotary joint includes a first shaft side seal ring attached to a shaft body and a first case slide seal ring attached to one side of the first shaft side seal ring as well as a second case side seal ring attached to a case body and a second shaft side seal ring attached to the second case side seal ring. A first communication flow passage is formed between a first sliding portion of the first seal rings and a second sliding portion of the second seal rings. A second communication flow passage is formed between the first sliding portion of a mechanical seal device disposed on one side in the axial direction and the second sliding portion of a mechanical seal device disposed on the other side in the axial direction in mechanical seal devices adjacent to each other.

An authentication method includes: receiving, from a terminal of a user, a user ID for identifying the user and a target vehicle ID for identifying a target vehicle that the user tries to authenticate; determining whether the target vehicle ID matches a reserved vehicle ID for identifying a reserved vehicle whose dispatch has been reserved by the user; in a case where the target vehicle ID matches the reserved vehicle ID, transmitting, to the target vehicle, an unlocking instruction to unlock a door of the target vehicle and causing the terminal to present a message indicating that the user is allowed to get on the target vehicle; and in a case where the target vehicle ID does not match the reserved vehicle ID, causing the terminal to present a message indicating that the target vehicle is not the reserved vehicle of the user.

Authentication method for authenticating that target vehicle is vehicle of which dispatch has been reserved in dispatch system, storage medium, server, and dispatch system

Various embodiments are provided for controlling an autonomous car. The embodiments acquire meeting information indicating a place of a meeting and a time of the meeting. A remaining time between the time of the meeting and a current time is calculated. A waiting time for waiting in a waiting place by the autonomous car and a traveling time for traveling to the place of the meeting by the autonomous car are determined. The waiting and traveling times are determined to minimize a total cost and to make a total time within the remaining time. The total cost includes a cost of the traveling and a cost of the waiting. The total time includes the waiting and traveling times. A route along which the autonomous car is to travel to the place of the meeting within the traveling time is determined.

Autonomous car, traveling controller, traveling control method, and storage medium storing control program

An information processing method includes: acquiring, from one or more first vehicles, manual driving information for each of the first vehicles; acquiring, from one or more second vehicles, automatic driving information for each of the second vehicles; calculating, for each area, a first value of a driving parameter correlated with a degree of difficulty in driving according to the manual driving information; calculating, for the each area, a second value of the driving parameter according to the automatic driving information; comparing the first value with the second value for the each area to determine at least one difficult area in which travel of a vehicle by automatic driving is difficult; and creating difficult area information.

Information processing method for determining difficult area in which travel of vehicle by automatic driving is difficult, information processing apparatus, system, and storage medium

A vehicle authentication method, a recording medium storing a program, a terminal device, and a vehicle authentication system which may raise security level on vehicle authentication by a user are provided. In the vehicle authentication method, the terminal device acquires a vehicle authenticator for authentication of a reserved vehicle, sends a reference vehicle a request for a vehicle authenticator for authentication of the reference vehicle, and determines whether the vehicle authenticators of the reference vehicle and the reserved vehicle coincide. Then a message that the reference vehicle is the reserved vehicle is displayed on the display unit upon determination that the vehicle authenticators of the reference vehicle and the reserved vehicle coincide. And a message that the reference vehicle is not the reserved vehicle is displayed on the display unit upon determination that the vehicle authenticators of the reference vehicle and the reserved vehicle do not coincide.

Vehicle authentication method, recording medium storing program, terminal device, and vehicle authentication system

An apparatus is mounted on a vehicle that is autonomously driven and that is used for passenger transportation. The apparatus includes: a processor; and a memory storing thereon a computer program. When executed by the processor, the program causes the processor to perform operations including: selecting a target person who is at least one of humans who are present around the vehicle and are detected using sensing information about surroundings of the vehicle; acquiring a first state indicating a state of the selected target person; acquiring a second state indicating a state of the vehicle changing a speed setting of the vehicle in accordance with the first state and the second state; and controlling traveling of the vehicle at a speed indicated by the speed setting.

Vehicle control apparatus, vehicle control method, and recording medium

An autonomous driving vehicle includes a main vehicle part, a processor, and a memory storing thereon a computer program, which when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform operations. The operations include detecting a gesture made, to try to stop the main vehicle part, by a person present near a road on which the main vehicle part is running, determining whether there is a passenger in the main vehicle part, and controlling autonomous driving of the main vehicle part. In a case where it is determined that there is no passenger in the main vehicle part, when a person making the gesture is detected, the controlling controls the main vehicle part to stop near the person.

Autonomous driving vehicle, method of stopping autonomous driving vehicle, and recording medium

An information processing method includes the following executed by a computer: obtaining first attribute information that indicates an attribute of a first user concerning an internal space of a moving body, and vacancy information of at least one moving body; generating presentation information for a second user using the first attribute information and the vacancy information, the presentation information indicating, in accordance with the attribute of the first user, at least one of a vacant moving body and vacant seats among the at least one moving body; and causing a presentation apparatus to present the presentation information.

Information processing method

A vehicle that is remotely operable by an operator is provided. The vehicle includes a communication circuit that receives a vehicle operation signal including an accelerator input value based on a first operation performed by the operator, a steering angle sensor that measures a steering angle of the vehicle, a speed sensor that measures a speed of the vehicle, and a processor. The processor corrects the accelerator input value such that when the absolute value of an angular measure of the steering angle is greater than or equal to a predetermined angular measure and the speed is greater than zero, the accelerator input value is corrected so as to reduce the speed to a value that is less than when the absolute value of the angular measure of the steering angle is less than the first predetermined angular measure and the speed is greater than zero.

Vehicle, vehicle control method, vehicle remote operation apparatus, and vehicle remote operation method

An information processing method enhancing running efficiency of a passenger transportation vehicle is provided. The information processing method includes acquiring first stop position information indicating a first desired stop position of a first user riding a vehicle and tolerable range information indicating a gap range from the first desired stop position, which the first user tolerates, acquiring second stop position information indicating a second desired stop position of a second user riding the vehicle, deciding the second route based on the first stop position information, tolerable range information, and second stop position information, transmitting an inquiry of whether the second route is approved to an apparatus controlled by the first user, or assigning a benefit or the cost to the first user in a case of receiving a response indicating that the second route is approved or not approved from the apparatus.

Information processing method, information processing system, and recording medium storing program

A mapping method includes: acquiring first map information created in advance, including information about a surrounding area of a mobile robot; acquiring second map information including information about the surrounding area by a sensor of the mobile robot; receiving third map information including information about the surrounding area from an environmental sensor node; (i) in the third map information, if a place exists in which an amount of change over time is equal to or greater than a certain threshold value, removing information about the place in each of the first and the second map information corresponding to that place, or alternatively, increasing the variance of information about the place in each of the first and the second map information corresponding to that place; and (ii) creating map information using the first and the second map information subjected to the removal or the variance increase.

Mapping method, localization method, robot system, and robot

There is provided a map production method to be performed by a mobile robot which moves in a first region and includes a first sensor and a second sensor. The map production method includes acquiring first information from the first sensor, acquiring second information from the second sensor, acquiring third information from a third sensor provided in the first region, acquiring fourth information indicating a detection region of the second sensor calculated from the first information and the second information, acquiring fifth information indicating a detection region of the third sensor calculated from the third information, and updating map information of the first region for a third region, including a first object, if a the second region overlaps with the third region is judged to be present from the fourth information and the fifth information.

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Osaka, Japan

Shuhei Matsui