Autonomous mobile body and control method of same

A method of controlling movement of an autonomous mobile body configured to avoid an obstacle and move autonomously to a goal, the mobile body having a movement mechanism configured to translate in a horizontal plane and rotate around a vertical axis, the method causing the mobile body to perform the steps of:

• deriving a distance from the autonomous mobile body to an obstacle for each directional angle using an obstacle sensor;
• processing the autonomous mobile body with anisotropy;
• generating a translational potential of the mobile body and a rotational potential of the mobile body for avoiding interference with the obstacle, based on the distance from the autonomous mobile body to the obstacle at each directional angle;
• generating an amount of control relating to a translational direction and a translational velocity of the mobile body and an amount of control relating to a rotational direction and an angular velocity of the mobile body, based on the generated potentials;
• and
• combining the generated amounts of control and driving the movement mechanism.

An autonomous mobile body configured to avoid an obstacle and move autonomously to a goal, comprising:

• a platform vehicle having a movement mechanism configured to translate in a horizontal plane and rotate around a vertical axis;
• one or more extendible arms projecting from the mobile body;
• which result in a non-uniform shape temporally based on arms projections and retractions while in use;
• an obstacle sensor for deriving a distance to an obstacle for each directional angle;
• a potential generator for generating a translational potential of the mobile body and a rotational potential of the mobile body for avoiding interference with the obstacle, based on the distance from the autonomous mobile body to the obstacle at each directional angle;
• a control amount generator for generating an amount of control relating to a translational direction and a translational velocity of the mobile body and an amount of control relating to a rotational direction and an angular velocity of the mobile body, based on the generated potentials;
• a drive controller for combining the generated amounts of control and driving the movement mechanism;
• wherein the autonomous mobile body is processed as a body with anisotropy and said body includes a major axis and a minor axis;
• wherein the potentials are potential membership functions according to a fuzzy potential method, the translational potential membership function representing a degree of interference with the obstacle at each translational direction angle, and the rotational potential membership function representing a degree of interference with the obstacle at each rotational direction angle;
• wherein the control amount generator decides a translational velocity between a highest translational velocity and a lowest translational velocity, and decides an angular velocity between a highest angular velocity and a lowest angular velocity, based on values of the potential membership functions.