Mobile Robot Environment Map Generation via Selective Plane Detection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional mobile robots require extensive calculation time to generate environment maps, limiting their high-speed movement due to the need for repeated plane detection across the entire three-dimensional position data set.
Innovation Solution
A method that selects specific three-dimensional position data for plane detection based on an old environment map and the robot's movement, reducing the amount of calculation needed by focusing on obstacle and unobserved areas, thereby generating a new environment map efficiently.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If plane detection is performed on the entire three-dimensional position data set every time a new data set is obtained, then complete environment map coverage is achieved, but the calculation time becomes excessively long
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the three-dimensional position data set into multiple regions based on the old environment map, identifying only specific regions (obstacle areas and unobserved areas) that require plane detection. This segmentation approach divides the comprehensive detection task into focused regional detections, reducing the overall calculation time while maintaining complete environment map coverage through selective processing of relevant segments.
2Measurement precision
If plane detection is performed on the entire three-dimensional position data set, then all areas are accurately recognized, but the amount of calculation increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and isolates only the necessary data portions (obstacle areas and unobserved areas) from the complete three-dimensional position data set for plane detection. By taking out only these specific regions that require processing, the system maintains accurate area recognition while significantly reducing the calculation load compared to processing the entire data set, thereby improving map generation speed.
3Speed
If the robot moves at high speed, then productivity is improved, but the environment map generation cannot keep up with the movement speed due to long calculation time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary classification of the three-dimensional position data set by comparing it with the old environment map before executing plane detection. This preliminary action identifies and marks the specific regions (obstacle areas and unobserved areas) that require processing, allowing the plane detection to be executed efficiently on pre-selected data. This approach enables the system to keep up with high-speed robot movement by reducing the waiting time for map generation through advance data preparation.
Data Source
AI summary
To reduce a calculation time required for generating an environment map in a mobile robot. A mobile robot (100) generates a three-dimensional position data set representing an external environment using measurement information obtained from a range sensor (10). Next, based on an old environment map which is the environment map generated in the past and an amount of movement of the mobile robot (100), at least three-dimensional position data belonging to an area determined as the obstacle area in the old environment map, and three-dimensional position data belonging to an unobserved area which is not included in the old environment map are selected as plane-detection target data from among three-dimensional position data included in the three-dimensional position data set. Then, plane detection is executed using the plane-detection target data. Then, the movable area and the obstacle area which are included in the plane-detection target data are recognized using the results of the plane detection. Lastly, a new environment map is generated by integrating the movable area and obstacle area, which are recognized using the results of the plane detection, with an area determined as the movable area in the old environment map.