Mobile robot and control method
AssigneeThk Co., Ltd.
InventorsHitoshi Kitano, Takashi Naito
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mobile robot includes a driving unit which changes a moving velocity and a traveling direction, a detection unit which detects a plurality of detection objects disposed along a traveling path to a target point, and a control unit which acquires a distance and a direction to the detection object detected by the detection unit, calculates a traveling direction in which the distance to the detection object and the direction of the detection object satisfy a predetermined relationship, and controls the driving unit based on the calculated traveling direction.
Claims11
A mobile robot, comprising:
- a driving unit which changes a moving velocity and a traveling direction;
- a detection sensor which detects a distance to an object existing sideward when a traveling direction is defined as forward at a predetermined cycle;
- a detection unit which detects a plurality of detection objects disposed along a traveling path to a target point;
- and
- a processor connected to the driving unit, the detection sensor, and the detection unit, the processor executing instructions to
- acquire a distance and a direction to a detection object detected by the detection unit,
- calculate an angle indicating an inclination of a first travel direction with respect to the traveling path from a variation amount of the distance detected by the detection sensor in the predetermined cycle and a traveled distance in the predetermined cycle, wherein the first travel direction is a current travel direction of the mobile robot,
- calculate a second traveling direction from which the first travel direction is changed to keep the mobile robot at a constant distance with respect to a boundary of the traveling path based on the distance to the detection object and the direction of the detection object corrected by the angle, and
- control the driving unit to turn the mobile robot to the second direction.
A control method of a mobile robot including a driving unit which changes a moving velocity and a traveling direction, a detection unit which detects a plurality of detection objects disposed along a traveling path to a target point, and a detection sensor which detects a distance to an object existing sideward when a traveling direction is defined as forward, the method comprising the steps of:
- detecting a distance to the object existing sideward at a predetermined cycle by the detection sensor;
- acquiring a distance and a direction to a detection object detected by the detecting unit;
- calculating an angle indicating an inclination of a first travel direction with respect to the traveling path from a variation amount of the distance detected by the detection sensor in the predetermined cycle and a traveled distance in the predetermined cycle, wherein the first travel direction is a current travel direction of the mobile robot;
- calculating a second traveling direction from which the first travel direction is changed to keep the mobile robot at a constant distance with respect to a boundary of the traveling path based on the distance to the detection object and the direction of the detection object corrected by the angle;
- and
- controlling the driving unit to turn the mobile robot to the second direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.