Apparatus and method for duplexing sensor of mobile robot

1 . A fault-tolerant sensor duplexing apparatus implemented in a mobile robot to improve obstacle detection reliability, the apparatus comprising:

input circuitry including a plurality of sensors mounted to sense obstacles located in a vicinity of the mobile robot;

logic circuitry including a plurality of logic boards respectively corresponding to the plurality of sensors and configured to receive sensor data from the plurality of sensors;

a controller configured to define a plurality of predetermined duplexing areas by partitioning a surrounding area of the mobile robot into a plurality of duplexing areas, and to duplex sensors in units of the predetermined duplexing areas by assigning, to each predetermined duplex area, at least two of the plurality of sensors having overlapping fields of view; and

output circuitry configured to output a result according to a logical operation of the controller;

a driving device comprising a movement motor and configured to generate a driving force to drive the mobile robot, wherein the driving device receives the result from the output circuitry and controller,

wherein the controller is configured to, for each predetermined duplexing area, acquire obstacle information detected by the at least two sensors assigned to the predetermined duplexing area, and to determine whether the obstacle information detected by the at least two sensors assigned to the predetermined duplexing area match by using predetermined sensor error information,

wherein the predetermined sensor error information includes at least one condition or criterion used to determine whether the obstacle information detected by the at least two sensors assigned to the predetermined duplexing area are regarded as matching, and

wherein the controller is further configured to generate control information to control an operation of the mobile robot based on duplexed obstacle information obtained from obstacle information determined to be matching, and the output circuitry is configured to output the control information to the driving device to control the driving force of the movement motor and the operation of the mobile robot based on the duplexed obstacle information.

2 . The fault-tolerant sensor duplexing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the controller duplexes two sensors based on obstacle information detected by two sensors corresponding to the duplexing area.

3 . The fault-tolerant sensor duplexing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein when obstacle information detected by two sensors corresponding to the duplexing area match, the controller determines that duplexing of two sensors is successful and when obstacle information detected by two sensors corresponding to the duplexing area do not match, the controller determines that duplexing of two sensors has failed.

4 . The fault-tolerant sensor duplexing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the controller duplexes two sensors using obstacle information detected by two sensors based on the dynamic safety zone generated by two sensors corresponding to the duplexing area.

5 . The fault-tolerant sensor duplexing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein in the input circuitry, a first sensor is mounted at a front left side of the robot, a second sensor mounted at a front right side of the robot, a third sensor mounted at a rear left side of the robot, and a fourth sensor mounted at a rear right side of the robot,

the logic circuitry includes first logic circuitry corresponding to the first sensor, second logic circuitry corresponding to the second sensor, a third logic board corresponding to the third sensor, and a fourth logic board corresponding to the fourth sensor, and

the duplexing area includes a first duplexing area corresponding to the first sensor and the second sensor, a second duplexing area corresponding to the first sensor and the third sensor, a third duplexing area corresponding to the second sensor and the fourth sensor, and a fourth duplexing area corresponding to the third sensor and the fourth sensor.

6 . The fault-tolerant sensor duplexing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the mobile robot compares a coordinate of the sensor data for two sensor included in a predetermined duplexing area and the target detection coordinate and when the target detection coordinates of two sensors are not the same, determines that there is an abnormal sensor and transmits a correction coordinate signal to the abnormal sensor or corrects the abnormal sensor by synchronization with the normal sensor.

7 . The fault-tolerant sensor duplexing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein in the input circuitry, a first sensor is mounted at one left side of the robot and a second sensor is mounted at one right side of the robot,

in the logic circuitry, a first logic board corresponding to the first sensor and a second logic board corresponding to the second sensor are mounted, and

the first sensor and the second sensor correspond to the duplexing area.

8 . The fault-tolerant sensor duplexing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the logic board and the controller are integrally implemented and the logic board duplexes two sensors based on obstacle information detected by two sensors corresponding to the duplexing area.

9 . The fault-tolerant sensor duplexing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor mounted in the input circuitry is a LiDAR sensor.

10 . The fault-tolerant sensor duplexing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:

a duplex sensor operation determining circuitry which acquires sensor data for every duplexing target from the logic circuitry to determine a normal operation or an abnormal operation of the duplex sensor.

11 . The fault-tolerant sensor duplexing apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the duplex sensor operation determining circuitry reviews the reliability by comparing two sensor data acquired for every duplexing target and determines that the reliability review has been passed when two sensor data is the same, and determines that the reliability review has not been passed when two sensor data is different.

12 . The fault-tolerant sensor duplexing apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein the duplex sensor operation determining circuitry generates a defect diagnosis signal of an abnormal sensor which has not passed the reliability review by considering at least one of whether to collect data, whether a power is normally supplied, and whether a sensor transmitter/receiver normally operates.

13 . A sensor duplexing method for improving obstacle detection reliability in a mobile robot using a sensor duplexing apparatus including: input circuitry which includes a plurality of sensors mounted to sense obstacles located in a vicinity of the mobile robot, logic circuitry which includes a plurality of logic boards corresponding to the sensors, a controller, and output circuitry, the method comprising:

defining a plurality of predetermined duplexing areas by partitioning a surrounding area of the mobile robot into a plurality of duplexing areas;

assigning, to each predetermined duplexing area, at least two of the plurality of sensors having overlapping fields of view so that the at least two sensors correspond to the predetermined duplexing area;

storing predetermined sensor error information including at least one condition or criterion used to determine whether obstacle information detected by the at least two sensors assigned to each predetermined duplexing area are regarded as matching;

detecting obstacle information by means of each of the plurality of sensors;

acquiring, for each predetermined duplexing area, obstacle information detected by the at least two sensors assigned to the predetermined duplexing area;

determining, based on the predetermined sensor error information, whether the obstacle information detected by the at least two sensors assigned to the predetermined duplexing area match,

wherein when the obstacle information detected by the at least two sensors assigned to the predetermined duplexing area are determined to match, generating duplexed obstacle information and generating control information to control an operation of the mobile robot based on the duplexed obstacle information, and outputting the control information from the output circuitry; and

controlling the operation of the mobile robot by controlling a driving force of a motor of a driving device receiving the control information from the output circuitry based on the generated duplexed obstacle information.

14 . The sensor duplexing method according to claim 13 , wherein the duplexing is configured by:

duplexing the two sensors based on obstacle information detected by two sensors corresponding to the duplexing area.

15 . The sensor duplexing method according to claim 14 , wherein the duplexing is configured by determining that duplexing of two sensors is successful when obstacle information detected by two sensors corresponding to the duplexing area match, and determining that duplexing of two sensors has failed when obstacle information detected by two sensors corresponding to the duplexing area do not match.

16 . A computer program stored in a computer readable recording medium to allow a computer to execute the sensor duplexing method of a mobile robot according to claim 13 .