Autonomous Follower Control Using Target Foot Motion Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing autonomous moving apparatuses face challenges in accurately matching the movement or stop operations with a target person, often resulting in mismatched control during following operations, which can lead to inefficiencies and user inconvenience.
Innovation Solution
An autonomous moving apparatus equipped with a detection unit to detect the distance and shape of objects, including the motion of a target person's feet, and a control unit that adjusts movement or stop based on the detected foot motion, allowing for precise following, leading, or stopping modes without user intervention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If control for movement or stop is performed in accordance with the distance to the target person to be followed, then the autonomous moving apparatus can maintain a following distance, but it may execute control that does not match the operation of the target person
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the detection parameter from distance-based measurement to foot motion-based measurement. By detecting the motion state of the target person's feet (moving vs. stationary) rather than simply measuring distance, the system achieves more accurate matching of control actions with the target person's intended operation, resolving the contradiction between reliability and complexity.
2Ease of operation
If the apparatus uses lead-type input device through a lead, then operation can be performed from a distance, but the system requires variable or fixed length lead management
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the lead-type input device from the system. By removing the physical lead connection and replacing it with optical/detection-based foot motion sensing, the system maintains remote operation capability (ease of operation) while eliminating the complexity of lead management including variable or fixed length considerations.
3Measurement precision
If the apparatus detects object distance and shape, then it can identify the target person, but may increase processing time and computational load
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential detection information needed for control - the motion state of the feet (moving or stationary) - rather than processing complete object recognition data. This selective extraction maintains measurement precision for identification while significantly reducing processing time and computational load.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by detecting only the specific foot motion parameters necessary for control decisions, rather than performing complete object analysis. This partial detection approach achieves sufficient identification accuracy while minimizing processing time.
Data Source
AI summary
An autonomous moving apparatus includes: a detection unit that detects a distance to an object around the apparatus and a shape of the object; a moving unit that moves the apparatus so as to follow operation of a target person to be followed, which is detected by the detection unit; and a control unit that performs control for movement by the moving unit or stop in accordance with motion of each of two feet of the target person to be followed, which is detected by the detection unit.