Systems and methods for robotic behavior around moving bodies

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10016896-B2
Application number	US-201615199224-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 30, 2016
Priority date	Jun 30, 2016
Publication date	Jul 10, 2018
Grant date	Jul 10, 2018

Abstract

Systems and methods for detection of people are disclosed. In some exemplary implementations, a robot can have a plurality of sensor units. Each sensor unit can be configured to generate sensor data indicative of a portion of a moving body at a plurality of times. Based on at least the sensor data, the robot can determine that the moving body is a person by at least detecting the motion of the moving body and determining that the moving body has characteristics of a person. The robot can then perform an action based at least in part on the determination that the moving body is a person.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A robot comprising:
a first sensor configured to generate first sensor data indicative of a first portion of a moving body over a first plurality of times;
a second sensor configured to generate second sensor data indicative of a second portion of the moving body over a second plurality of times; and

a processor configured to execute computer readable instructions to:
detect motion of the moving body based at least on the first sensor data at a first time of the first plurality of times and the first sensor data at a second time of the first plurality of times;
determine that the moving body comprises a continuous form from at least the first sensor data and the second sensor data;
detect at least one characteristic of the moving body that is indicative of the moving body comprising a person from at least one of the first sensor data and the second sensor data, the at least one characteristic of the moving body corresponding to a gait pattern of the person, the gait pattern including at least one alternate swing between a first leg and a different second leg of the person;
identify the moving body as the person based at least on the detected at least one characteristic and the determination that the moving body comprises the continuous form; and
perform an action in response to the identification of the moving body as the person.

2. The robot of claim 1 , wherein the detection of motion of the moving body is based at least in part on a difference signal determined from the first sensor data at the first time and the first sensor data at the second time.

3. The robot of claim 1 , wherein the action comprises a stop action for the robot, the stop action configured to allow the moving body to pass.

4. The robot of claim 1 , wherein the robot further comprises a third sensor disposed on a rearward facing side of the robot, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer readable instructions in order to determine that the moving body comprises the person based at least on the moving body being detected by the third sensor.

5. The robot of claim 1 , wherein the first sensor comprises a light detection and ranging sensor.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon, the instructions being executable by a processing apparatus for detecting people, the instructions configured to, when executed by the processing apparatus, cause the processing apparatus to:
detect motion of a moving body based at least on a difference signal generated from sensor data generated from a plurality of sensors;
determine from the sensor data that the moving body has at least two points in a generally vertical plane, the generally vertical plane being such that a given point resides above another point of the at least two points;
identify the moving body as a person based at least in part on: (i) the detection of at least one characteristic indicative of the person, the at least one characteristic indicative of the person comprising a gait pattern, the gait pattern including one stationary leg and one swing leg, and (ii) the determination that the moving body has the at least two points in the generally vertical plane; and
execute an action for an autonomous robot in response to the identification of the moving body as the person.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the action for the autonomous robot comprises a stop action, the executed stop action configured to allow the moving body to pass the autonomous robot.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the instructions are configured to further cause the processing apparatus to:
detect a gait motion of legs of the moving body from the sensor data generated from the plurality of sensors;
identify the moving body as an animal based at least on the detected gait motion of legs of the moving body and a comparison of the detected gait motion of legs with information contained within a library, the library comprising information associated with both persons and animals; and
execute an action for the autonomous robot in response to the identification of the moving body as the animal.

9. A method for detecting a person with a robot, comprising:
receiving first sensor data indicative of a first portion of a moving body over a first plurality of times;
receiving second sensor data indicative of a second portion of the moving body over a second plurality of times;
detecting motion of the moving body based at least on the first sensor data at a first time of the first plurality of times and the first sensor data at a second time of the first plurality of times;
determining that the moving body comprises a continuous form from at least the first sensor data and the second sensor data;
detecting at least one characteristic of the moving body that is indicative of the moving body comprising a person from at least one of the first sensor data and the second sensor data, the at least one characteristic of the moving body corresponding to a gait pattern of the person, the gait pattern including at least one alternate swing between a first leg and a different second leg of the person;
identifying the moving body as the person based at least on the detected at least one characteristic and the determination that the moving body comprises the continuous form; and
performing an action in response to the identification of the moving body as the person.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the performing of the action comprises stopping the robot in order to allow the moving body to pass.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising determining that the moving body has a substantially column-like shape from the sensor data.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising generating sensor data from a plurality of sensors.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the detecting of the motion comprises determining if a difference signal determined from the first sensor data at a first time and the first sensor data at a second time is greater than a difference threshold.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the detected gait pattern comprises detecting one stationary leg and detecting one swinging leg of the person.

Assignees

• Brain Corp

Inventors

• Sinyavskiy Oleg
• Gabardos Borja Ibarz
• Passot Jean-Baptiste

Classifications

• B60W2554/4029

  Pedestrians · CPC title

• B60W2554/00

  Input parameters relating to objects · CPC title

• G05B2219/49141

  Detect near collision and slow, stop, inhibit movement tool · CPC title

• G05B19/4061

  Avoiding collision or forbidden zones · CPC title

• B60W30/09

  Taking automatic action to avoid collision, e.g. braking and steering · CPC title