Apparatus and method of controlling traveling of automatic guided vehicle

1. A method of controlling traveling of an automatic guided vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving information, by a user interface of the automatic guided vehicle, about a start point and a target point from and to which the automatic guided vehicle is to move;

obtaining information, by a path generator of the automatic guided vehicle, about a shortest path between the start point and the target point;

obtaining sensor information, by a database of the automatic guided vehicle, at one or more points on the shortest path;

determining, by a travel direction determining processor of the automatic guided vehicle, a travel direction of the automatic guided vehicle by using current sensor information about the automatic guided vehicle at a current point and the sensor information at the one or more points on the shortest path;

controlling, by a controller of the automatic guided vehicle, the automatic guided vehicle to travel in the determined travel direction; and

ending the traveling if the current sensor information about the automatic guided vehicle that has traveled matches sensor information at the target point,

wherein the determining the travel direction of the automatic guided vehicle comprises:

obtaining the current sensor information of the automatic guided vehicle at the current point and sensor information at points around the current point from a database;

aligning the sensor information at the points around the current point that are obtained from the database, based on reference sensor information at a reference point among the points; and

calculating a first direction that is a relative direction of the automatic guided vehicle based on the aligned sensor information by using

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 where V i is a direction, from a first point to a second point of the points around the current point and ω i is a weight value that is inversely proportional to a distance between the current point of the automatic guided vehicle and each of the points around the current point.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sensor information comprises information about an image obtained by photographing a point where the automatic guided vehicle is positioned or a nearby area, and a direction and a movement distance of the automatic guided vehicle at the point.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising establishing the database by obtaining information about a plurality of paths between a plurality of points including the start point and the target point while the automatic guided vehicle travels between the plurality of points in advance, and obtaining sensor information at the plurality of points,

wherein the sensor information at the one or more points on the shortest path is included in the sensor information at the plurality of points.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

obtaining the sensor information by rotating the automatic guided vehicle;

searching for sensor information that matches sensor information at the start point from the database; and

determining a direction that is included in the matching sensor information as an initial travel direction of the automatic guided vehicle.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the obtaining information about the shortest path comprises searching for and obtaining information about the shortest path between the start point and the target point from the database.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the obtaining the sensor information comprises searching for and obtaining the sensor information at the one or more points on the shortest path from the database.

7. The method of claim 3 , wherein the determining the travel direction of the automatic guided vehicle further comprises:

calculating a second direction that is a relative direction of the automatic guided vehicle based on the reference sensor information; and

determining a direction that is obtained by summing the first direction and the second direction as the travel direction of the automatic guided vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the controlling the automatic guided vehicle to travel comprises enabling the automatic guided vehicle to travel at a set speed in the travel direction.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein if the sensor information about the automatic guided vehicle that has traveled and the sensor information at the target point do not match each other, the determining and the controlling are repeated.

10. An apparatus for controlling traveling of an automatic guided vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

a database configured to obtain information about paths between one point and other points while the automatic guided vehicle travels in advance, obtains sensor information at a plurality of points on the paths, and stores the sensor information;

a user interface configured to receive information about a start point and a target point from and to which the automatic guided vehicle is to move;

a path generator configured to search for and obtain a shortest path between the start point and the target point using the database;

a travel direction determining processor configured to search for and obtain sensor information at one or more points on the shortest path from the database, and determine a travel direction of the automatic guided vehicle by using current sensor information about the automatic guided vehicle at a current point and the sensor information at the one or more points on the shortest path;

a travel direction controller configured to control the automatic guided vehicle to travel in the travel direction; and

a controller configured to end the travel of the automatic guided vehicle, if the current sensor information about the traveling automatic guided vehicle matches sensor information at the target point,

wherein the travel direction determining processor comprises:

an obtaining unit configured to obtain the current sensor information of the automatic guided vehicle and sensor information at points around the current point from a database;

an alignment unit configured to align the sensor information at the points that are obtained from the database, based on reference sensor information at a reference point among the points; and

a first direction calculating unit configured to calculate a first direction that is a relative direction of the automatic guided vehicle based on the aligned sensor information by using

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 where V i is a direction, from a first point to a second point among the points around the current point and ω i is a weight value that is inversely proportional to a distance between the current point of the automatic guided vehicle and each of the points around the current point.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising an initial travel direction determining processor configured to obtain sensor information by rotating the automatic guided vehicle, search for sensor information that matches sensor information at the start point from the database, and determine a direction that is included in the matching sensor information as an initial travel direction of the automatic guided vehicle.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the travel direction controller is configured to control the automatic guided vehicle to travel at a set speed in the travel direction.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the sensor information comprises information about an image obtained by photographing a point where the automatic guided vehicle is positioned or a nearby area, and a direction and a movement distance of the automatic guided vehicle at the point.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the travel direction determining processor further comprises:

a second direction calculating unit configured to calculate a second direction that is a relative direction of the automatic guided vehicle based on the reference sensor information; and

a determining unit configured to determine a direction that is obtained by summing the first direction and the second direction as a travel direction of the automatic guided vehicle.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein if the sensor information about the automatic guided vehicle that has traveled does not to match the sensor information at the target point, the travel direction determining processor is configured to repeatedly determine the travel direction of the automatic guided vehicle using the current sensor information about the automatic guided vehicle at the current point and the sensor information at the one or more points on the shortest path, and the travel direction controller is configured to repeatedly control the automatic guided vehicle to travel in the determined travel direction.

16. A computer-readable recording medium having embodied thereon a program for executing a method of controlling traveling of an automatic guided vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving information about a start point and a target point from and to which the automatic guided vehicle is to move;

obtaining information about a shortest path between the start point and the target point;

obtaining sensor information at one or more points on the shortest path;

determining a travel direction of the automatic guided vehicle by using current sensor information about the automatic guided vehicle at a current point and the sensor information at the one or more points on the shortest path;

controlling the automatic guided vehicle to travel in the determined travel direction; and

ending the traveling if the current sensor information about the automatic guided vehicle that has traveled matches sensor information at the target point,

wherein the determining the travel direction of the automatic guided vehicle comprises:

obtaining the current sensor information of the automatic guided vehicle at the current point and sensor information at points around the current point from a database;

aligning the sensor information at the points around the current point that are obtained from the database, based on reference sensor information at a reference point among the points; and

calculating a first direction that is a relative direction of the automatic guided vehicle based on the aligned sensor information by using

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 where V i is a direction, from a first point to a second point of the points around the current point and ω i is a weight value that is inversely proportional to a distance between the current point of the automatic guided vehicle and each of the points around the current point.