Crowd-Avoidance Cost Maps for Safer Mobile Path Planning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing path planning systems for mobile bodies do not effectively avoid crowds, which can compromise safety.
Innovation Solution
An information processing apparatus and method that generates a cost map indicating the risk of passing through regions using crowd information, allowing for path planning that avoids crowds by integrating data from various sources such as images, location information, and weather conditions to determine the safest flight paths.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If path planning is performed without crowd information, then the path planning system is simple, but the safety of mobile body navigation deteriorates due to inability to avoid crowds
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a cost map as an intermediary data structure that mediates between crowd information and path planning. The cost map generation unit creates a spatial representation where each region is assigned a cost value reflecting crowd risk, which then serves as input for the path planning unit. This intermediary allows the system to incorporate crowd avoidance functionality without directly complicating the core path planning algorithm.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the navigation problem into two independent modules: a cost map generation unit that processes crowd information and a path planning unit that uses the cost map. This segmentation allows each module to specialize in one function, improving overall system reliability while managing complexity through functional decomposition.
2Reliability
If crowd information is integrated into path planning, then crowd avoidance capability is improved, but the information processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary processing of crowd information by generating the cost map before actual path planning occurs. This preliminary action transforms raw crowd data into a pre-processed spatial cost representation, which reduces the information processing burden during real-time path planning and improves crowd avoidance capability through advance preparation.
3Measurement precision
If real-time crowd information is processed, then path planning accuracy is improved, but the processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by updating only the necessary portions of the cost map based on current crowd information rather than reprocessing all data. The cost map generation unit selectively processes regions affected by crowd movements, maintaining high path planning accuracy while reducing overall processing time through targeted updates rather than complete regeneration.
Data Source
AI summary
An information processing apparatus includes a Central Processing Unit (CPU) that detects a crowd based on images and location information, receives event information from a server, generates crowd information based on the detected crowd and the event information received from the server, and generates a cost map indicating a risk of passing through a region based on the crowd information.