Yanmar Power Technology Co., Inc.

Toshiyuki Yokoue

Naohiro Hara

Yuichiro Dake

Tomoya Fukukawa

Yasuhiro Ueda

Akihiro Suzuki

Akihiro Nakahata

Isao Wakabayashi

Satoshi Minamiyama

A ship docking assistance device includes a position azimuth information acquisition unit; a LIDAR; a map generation updating unit; a high-point acquisition unit; and a position azimuth estimation unit. The LIDAR acquires point-group data three-dimensionally indicating the environment around a ship. The map generation updating unit generates a map around the ship based on the point-group data. The high-point acquisition unit acquires, from within the point-group data, a high point having a prescribed height or more. The position azimuth estimation unit estimates the position and the azimuth of the ship through matching between the position of the high point acquired by the high-point acquisition unit and the position of the high point in the map. The map generation updating unit updates the map by placing the point-group data in the map using, as references, the position and the azimuth of the ship estimated by the position azimuth estimation unit.

Ship docking assistance device

The present disclosure includes a radar configured to detect surrounding objects and terrain, and a LIDAR configured to detect the surrounding objects and terrain using a narrower detection range and a higher resolution than the radar. The disclosure also includes a first map, such as a wide-area map, generated based on information about the surrounding as detected by the radar, a second map, such as a high-resolution map, based on information about the surroundings as detected by the LIDAR, and a composite map that has the grid width of the first map and the grid width of the second map.

Map generation method and map generation device

A LiDAR included in this automatic docking device measures the distance to a surrounding object at each predetermined angle by irradiating the object with light and receiving the light reflected by the object. When a ship offshore is instructed to perform automatic docking, the ship navigates to some extent by automatic navigation based on satellite positioning, and is then switched to automatic navigation based on the LiDAR. Before switching to the automatic navigation based on the LiDAR, the LiDAR performs preparatory measurement for measuring the distance to an object around a docking position. In this preparatory measurement, a control unit controls to change, for example, the orientation of the ship such that light emitted from the LiDAR can be reflected by the object around the docking position and can be received by the LiDAR.

Automatic docking device

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Toshiyuki Yokoue