Autonomous travelling apparatus, autonomous travel control method, and control program
AssigneeSharp Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorKohji Miyake
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An autonomous travelling vehicle that autonomously travels based on surrounding information includes an information processing unit that processes surrounding information obtained, a control unit that controls driving of the autonomous travelling vehicle based on the surrounding information, a surrounding information acquisition sensor that obtains surrounding information for the travelling direction of the car body, and a blind area determining unit that determines a blind area around the car body not covered by the surrounding information acquisition sensor. When the autonomous travelling vehicle travels in a blind area at the start of travel, the control unit controls the autonomous travelling vehicle so as to travel at a speed lower than a preset normal speed.
Claims19
An autonomous travelling apparatus having a detection device to obtain surrounding information and autonomously travelling based on the surrounding information, the autonomous travelling apparatus comprising:
- an information processing unit that processes surrounding information obtained by the detection device;
- a control unit that controls driving of the autonomous travelling apparatus based on the surrounding information;
- a travelling direction information detecting unit that functions as the detection device to obtain surrounding information for a travelling direction;
- and
- an undetectable area determining unit that determines an undetectable area not covered by the travelling direction information detecting unit at a start of travel,
- an apparatus position determining unit that determines whether a position of the autonomous travelling apparatus is in the undetectable area or not, wherein
- when the position of the autonomous travelling apparatus is in the undetectable area, the control unit controls the autonomous travelling apparatus so as to travel at a predetermined speed lower than a preset normal speed.
An autonomous travel control method for use with an autonomous travelling apparatus having a detection device to obtain surrounding information and autonomously travelling based on the surrounding information, the autonomous travel control method comprising:
- obtaining surrounding information for a travelling direction;
- processing the surrounding information obtained;
- controlling driving of the autonomous travelling apparatus based on the surrounding information;
- determining an undetectable area in which surrounding information is not obtained at a start of travel of the autonomous travelling apparatus;
- and
- determining whether a position of the autonomous travelling apparatus is in the undetectable area or not, wherein
- when the position of the autonomous travelling apparatus is in the undetectable area at a start of travel, the autonomous travelling apparatus is controlled so as to travel at a predetermined speed lower than a preset normal speed.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a control program causing operation of an autonomous travelling apparatus having a detection device to obtain surrounding information, an information processing unit to process the surrounding information obtained, and a control unit to control driving and autonomously travelling based on the surrounding information, the control program causing:
- the detection device to function to obtain surrounding information for a travelling direction;
- the information processing unit to function to determine an undetectable area which is not covered by the detection device at a start of travel of the autonomous travelling apparatus;
- an apparatus position determining unit that determines whether a position of the autonomous travelling apparatus is in the undetectable area or not;
- and
- the control unit to function to control the autonomous travelling apparatus so as to travel at a predetermined speed lower than a preset normal speed when the position of the autonomous travelling apparatus is in the undetectable area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.