The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 28, 1992
Filed:
Jun. 19, 1990
Yutaka Kanayama, Goleta, CA (US);
Shinko Electric Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Sogo Security Services Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A method of planning paths for autonomous carrier vehicles, such as a mobile robots, capable of planning curved paths consisting of cubic spirals smoother than those planned by conventional path planning methods. The path planned by the method of the invention is defined by one or two of cubic spirals with curvature expressed by a quadratic function of distance measured along the cubic spiral with zero curvatures at its opposite ends. The path is designed so that curvatures at the junctions are zero and the integral of the square of the derivative of curvature function between the opposite ends of the path is minimized. The mobile robot is able to travel very smoothly across the junctions when the integral of the square of the derivative of curvature is minimized.