Mobile Body Travel Mode Control for Crowd-Aware User Following
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing mobile body control technologies for robots and self-propelled vehicles lack effective assistance in navigating crowded areas and ensuring user safety and usability, particularly in environments like amusement facilities, commercial spaces, and airports, where users may need reduced load burden, guidance, or ease of movement.
Innovation Solution
A mobile body control device equipped with processors and memory that acquires sensor information, sets control modes, and controls travel based on detected persons, shifting between traveling modes and a standby mode to avoid crowds and restricted areas, ensuring safe and efficient movement assistance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the mobile body travels together with the specific person in crowded areas, then the user assistance is improved, but the safety is compromised due to potential collisions with other persons
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile body dynamically switches between following mode and standby mode based on real-time detection of crowd density and user movement patterns. When a crowd is detected or the user stops moving, the system transitions from active following to standby position, eliminating collision risk while maintaining assistance capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors sensor information including captured images and user movement data to detect crowd presence and user behavior. This feedback loop enables the mobile body to adjust its traveling behavior in real-time, switching between following and standby modes to balance assistance provision with safety maintenance.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the mobile body maintains constant following distance from the user, then the user assistance is consistent, but the adaptability to different situations is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile body employs dynamic control modes that adjust the following behavior based on situational context. In open areas, the mobile body maintains consistent following distance for stable assistance. In crowded areas or when the user stops, it transitions to standby mode, providing adaptability while maintaining consistency in appropriate conditions.
3Ease of operation
If the mobile body enters restricted areas to follow the user, then the user assistance is improved, but the safety and rule compliance is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses sensor information and captured images to detect when the user approaches or enters a restricted area. Upon detecting such conditions, the mobile body receives feedback to switch from following mode to standby mode, preventing entry into restricted areas while maintaining rule compliance and assistance capability.
4Speed
If the mobile body continuously tracks the user's movement, then the responsiveness is improved, but the energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile body employs periodic monitoring of user movement and crowd conditions rather than continuous full-power operation. By switching between active following and standby modes based on detected conditions, the system maintains responsive user assistance while reducing energy consumption during standby periods when continuous tracking is unnecessary.
Data Source
AI summary
A mobile body control device acquires captured image for recognizing an object around a mobile body, sets one of a plurality of traveling modes, and controls traveling of the mobile body based on the set traveling mode and a result of detection of a specific person based on the captured image. The plurality of traveling modes includes a standby mode of standing by at a specific point until any one of the traveling modes is started or resumed. In a case where movement of the specific person or movement of the mobile body satisfies a predetermined criterion to wait while being away from the specific person, the device shifts from one of the traveling modes to the standby mode.