Autonomous moving body, control program of autonomous moving body, method of controlling autonomous moving body, and system server for controlling autonomous moving body from remote place

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020363802-A1
Application number	US-202016844004-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 9, 2020
Priority date	May 13, 2019
Publication date	Nov 19, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

An autonomous moving body includes: a determination unit configured to determine that the autonomous moving body has arrived at a waiting area on a current floor before the autonomous moving body gets on a car of the elevator; an orientation adjustment unit configured to adjust, when the determination unit determines that the autonomous moving body has arrived at the waiting area, an orientation of the autonomous moving body based on an exiting direction from the car on a destination floor; and a movement controller configured to cause, when the car arrives, the autonomous moving body to enter the car while maintaining the orientation adjusted by the orientation adjustment unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An autonomous moving body configured to autonomously move between floors using an elevator installed in a facility, the autonomous moving body comprising:
a determination unit configured to determine that the autonomous moving body has arrived at a waiting area on a current floor before the autonomous moving body gets on a car of the elevator; an orientation adjustment unit configured to adjust, when the determination unit determines that the autonomous moving body has arrived at the waiting area, an orientation of the autonomous moving body based on an exiting direction from the car on a destination floor; and a movement controller configured to cause, when the car arrives, the autonomous moving body to enter the car while maintaining the orientation adjusted by the orientation adjustment unit.

2 . The autonomous moving body according to claim 1 , wherein the orientation adjustment unit causes the autonomous moving body to turn and adjusts the orientation of the autonomous moving body in such a way that the exiting direction corresponds to a front side of the autonomous moving body.

3 . The autonomous moving body according to claim 1 , wherein the orientation adjustment unit causes the autonomous moving body to turn and adjusts the orientation of the autonomous moving body based on an arrangement of an environmental sensor provided in the autonomous moving body.

4 . The autonomous moving body according to claim 1 , wherein the orientation adjustment unit causes the autonomous moving body to turn and adjusts the orientation of the autonomous moving body based on an arrangement of a display panel provided in the autonomous moving body.

5 . The autonomous moving body according to claim 1 , wherein the orientation adjustment unit causes the autonomous moving body to turn and adjusts the orientation of the autonomous moving body based on a shape of a housing of the autonomous moving body.

6 . The autonomous moving body according to claim 1 , wherein the movement controller sets, after the autonomous moving body enters the car, a position at which a rear part of the autonomous moving body is opposed to a wall surface of the car as a destination and causes the autonomous moving body to move.

7 . The autonomous moving body according to claim 1 , wherein, when the car is an asymmetric space when the car is seen from a door, the movement controller sets, after the autonomous moving body enters the car, a side of the car on which there is a wide space when the car is seen from the door as a destination and causes the autonomous moving body to move.

8 . The autonomous moving body according to claim 1 , wherein the movement controller sets, after the autonomous moving body enters the car, a position at which a camera provided in the autonomous moving body to acquire environmental information is able to capture images of a range wider than a predetermined reference range as a destination and causes the autonomous moving body to move.

9 . The autonomous moving body according to claim 1 , wherein the orientation adjustment unit does not adjust the orientation of the autonomous moving body when an obstacle is detected inside a predetermined range from an outer frame of the autonomous moving body.

10 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a control program of an autonomous moving body configured to autonomously move between floors using an elevator installed in a facility, the control program causing a computer to execute the following steps:
a determination step for determining that the autonomous moving body has arrived at a waiting area on a current floor before the autonomous moving body gets on a car of the elevator; an orientation adjustment step for adjusting, when it is determined in the determination step that the autonomous moving body has arrived at the waiting area, an orientation of the autonomous moving body based on an exiting direction from the car on a destination floor; and an entering step for entering, when the car arrives, the car while maintaining the orientation adjusted in the orientation adjustment step.

11 . A method of controlling an autonomous moving body that autonomously moves between floors using an elevator installed in a facility, the method comprising:
a determination step for determining that the autonomous moving body has arrived at a waiting area on a current floor before the autonomous moving body gets on a car of the elevator; an orientation adjustment step for adjusting, when it is determined in the determination step that the autonomous moving body has arrived at the waiting area, an orientation of the autonomous moving body based on an exiting direction from the car on a destination floor; and an entering step for entering, when the car arrives, the car while maintaining the orientation adjusted in the orientation adjustment step.

12 . A system server for controlling an autonomous moving body that autonomously moves between floors using an elevator installed in a facility from a remote place, the system server comprising:
a determination unit configured to determine that the autonomous moving body has arrived at a waiting area on a current floor before the autonomous moving body gets on a car of the elevator based on environmental sensor information of the autonomous moving body received from the autonomous moving body; an adjustment instruction unit configured to transmit, to the autonomous moving body, when the determination unit determines that the autonomous moving body has arrived at the waiting area, an adjustment instruction for adjusting an orientation of the autonomous moving body based on an exiting direction from the car on a destination floor; and a movement instruction unit configured to transmit, when the car arrives, a movement instruction for causing the autonomous moving body to enter the car while maintaining the orientation adjusted by an instruction from the adjustment instruction unit to the autonomous moving body.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Takai Tomohisa
• Yamaguchi Yuhei
• Toyoshima Satoshi
• Watanabe Yuta
• Honda Mikio
• Oda Shiro
• Taira Tetsuya
• Otsuki Nobuhisa

Classifications

• G05D1/622

  Obstacle avoidance (predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision of road vehicles B60W30/08) · CPC title

• G05D1/243

  Means capturing signals occurring naturally from the environment, e.g. ambient optical, acoustic, gravitational or magnetic signals (using passive navigation aids external to the vehicle G05D1/244; using signals from positioning sensors located off-board the vehicle G05D1/249) · CPC title

• B66B11/006 Primary

  Applications of loading and unloading equipment for lifts associated with buildings (of general application B65G; for paternoster lifts B65G17/00; for mine lifts B66B17/14) · CPC title

• B25J9/1676

  Avoiding collision or forbidden zones · CPC title

• B25J9/1666

  Avoiding collision or forbidden zones · CPC title