Collision avoidance system and method for human commanded systems

Abstract

A method of implementing an optimal avoidance filter for interposing between a human operator issued movement commands and a corresponding machine control system of a movable machine, for the avoidance of collisions with objects. The method: includes inputting a detailed representation of objects in the vicinity of the movable machine; and formulating a hierarchical set of bounding boxes around the objects. The hierarchical set including refinement details depending on the current positional state of the movable machine, with objects closer to the machine having higher levels of refinement details. The method further includes utilizing the resultant hierarchical set as a set of constraints for a mixed integer optimization problem to determine any alterations to the issued movement commands so as to avoid collisions with any objects.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.