Mobile apparatus, method for determining position, and non-transitory recording medium
A mobile apparatus includes circuitry to control the mobile apparatus to perform teaching travel and autonomous travel, generate; for each of nodes on a travel route independently for external sensors, calculation information for calculating a deviation between a node passed in the teaching travel and a point passed in the autonomous travel; store in the memory the calculation information in association with the node and the external sensor; calculate, for each node independently for the external sensors, the deviation based on the calculation information and a of the extern sensor value in the autonomous travel; determine, for each node independently for the external sensors, the calculated deviation as a position and posture of the node with reference to the position and posture of the mobile apparatus; integrate the positions and postures of the node determined independently for the external sensors; and control the mobile apparatus to autonomously travel.
1 . A mobile apparatus comprising:
circuitry configured to:
control the mobile apparatus to perform teaching travel and autonomous travel on a travel route, the teaching travel in which the mobile apparatus stores in a memory a position and posture of the mobile apparatus traveling on the travel route under control by a manual operation, the autonomous travel in which the mobile apparatus autonomously travels on the travel route;
generate, for each of nodes on the travel route independently for each of multiple external sensors, calculation information used for calculating a deviation between a node passed in the teaching travel and a point passed in the autonomous travel;
store in the memory the calculation information in association with the node and each of the multiple external sensors;
calculate, for each node independently for each of the multiple external sensors, the deviation based on the calculation information and a sensor value of each of the multiple external sensors obtained in the autonomous travel;
determine, for each node independently for each of the multiple external sensors, the calculated deviation as a position and posture of the node on the travel route with reference to the position and posture of the mobile apparatus;
integrate, for each node, the positions and postures of the node determined independently for each of the multiple external sensors; and
control the mobile apparatus to autonomously travel on the travel route based on the integrated position and posture of each node on the travel route.
2 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
one or more internal sensors to detect a travel amount and a travel direction of the mobile apparatus,
wherein the circuitry is configured to use a sensor value of the one or more internal sensors in generating the calculation information for each node on the travel route independently for each of the multiple external sensors.
3 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein:
the one or more internal sensors comprises at least one of an inertial measurement sensor, an encoder, a speed sensor, an accelerometer, or an angular velocity sensor.
4 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:
in integrating the positions and postures of each node with reference to the position and posture of the mobile apparatus determined independently for each of the multiple external sensors, the circuitry is configured to weight the positions and postures of each node based on reliability of the calculation information and reliability of respective sensor values of the multiple external sensors acquired in the autonomous travel.
5 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein:
the multiple external sensors include a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) sensor, and
the reliability is based at least in part on a positioning accuracy status of the GNSS sensor.
6 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein:
the multiple external sensors include a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor, and
the reliability is based at least in part on one of a LiDAR matching rate or a calculated amount of obstacles in the calculation information.
7 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:
the nodes on the travel route includes a first node and a second node subsequent to the first node,
in a case where the circuitry integrates the positions and postures of the first node determined independently for each of the multiple external sensors, the circuitry is configured to:
calculate a position and posture of the second node based on the integrated position and posture of the first node and relative position information between the first node and the second node included in the calculation information; and
calculate a travel route whose origin is the position and posture of the mobile apparatus at the first node.
8 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein:
the relative position information stored in the memory comprises a relative travel amount and a relative turning amount between the first node and the second node, the relative travel amount and the relative turning amount being acquired from one or more internal sensors during the teaching travel.
9 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
the multiple external sensors,
wherein the multiple external sensors are two or more of a global navigation satellite system (“GNSS”), a two-dimensional light detection and ranging sensor, and a camera that obtains range information.
10 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein;
the multiple external sensors include the GNSS as a first external sensor and the two-dimensional light detection and ranging sensor as a second external sensor,
the circuitry is configured to:
generate a position and posture in a GNSS coordinate system as the calculation information based on a sensor value of the first external sensor and generate a two-dimensional occupancy grid map as the calculation information based on sensor values of the second external sensor;
determine a deviation of the position and posture in the GNSS coordinate system based on the sensor value of the first external sensor in the autonomous travel from the position and posture of the GNSS coordinate system included in the calculation information as a first position and posture of the node with reference to the position and posture of the mobile apparatus;
compare the two-dimensional occupancy grid map with a scanning point cloud based on the sensor values of the second external sensor in the autonomous travel;
determine a deviation of the position and posture of the mobile apparatus from an origin of the two-dimensional occupancy grid map as a second position and posture of the node with reference to the position and posture of the mobile apparatus; and
integrate the first position and posture and the second position and posture.
11 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein:
the circuitry is further configured to compare the two-dimensional occupancy grid map with the scanning point cloud by finding a transformation that maximizes a match score between the scanning point cloud and the two-dimensional occupancy grid map.
12 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
the multiple external sensors,
wherein the multiple external sensors are two or more of a global navigation satellite system (“GNSS”), a three-dimensional light detection and ranging sensor, and a camera that obtains range information.
13 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein;
the multiple external sensors include the GNSS as a first external sensor and the three-dimensional light detection and ranging sensor as a second external sensor, and
the circuitry is further configured to:
generate a position and posture in a GNSS coordinate system as the calculation information based on a sensor value of the first external sensor and generate a three-dimensional point cloud map as the calculation information based on sensor values of the second external sensor;
determine a deviation of the position and posture in the GNSS coordinate system based on the sensor value of the first external sensor in the autonomous travel from the position and posture of the GNSS coordinate system included in the calculation information as a first position and posture of the node with reference to the position and posture of the mobile apparatus;
compare the three-dimensional point cloud map with a scanning point cloud based on the sensor values of the second external sensor in the autonomous travel;
determine a deviation of the position and posture of the mobile apparatus from an origin of the three-dimensional point cloud map as a second position and posture of the node with reference to the position and posture of the mobile apparatus; and
integrate the first position and posture and the second position and posture.
14 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein:
the circuitry is further configured to compare the three-dimensional point cloud map with the scanning point cloud using a Normal Distributions Transform (NDT) matching algorithm.
15 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein:
the three-dimensional point cloud map generated as the calculation information is pre-processed to remove ground plane data.
16 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:
the travel route is stored as a topological map comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, and
the calculation information is stored in association with each of the plurality of nodes.
17 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:
the manual operation is received from an operator at a remote control site via a communication network.
18 . The mobile apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the circuitry comprises:
manual-operation processing circuitry configured to control the mobile apparatus during the teaching travel, and
separate autonomous travel circuitry configured to control the mobile apparatus during the autonomous travel.
19 . A method for determining a position of a mobile apparatus, the method comprising:
controlling the mobile apparatus to perform teaching travel in which the mobile apparatus stores in a memory a position and posture of the mobile apparatus traveling on a travel route under control by a manual operation;
generating, for each of nodes on the travel route independently for each of multiple external sensors, calculation information used for calculating a deviation between a node passed in the teaching travel and a point passed in autonomous travel, the autonomous travel being travel in which the mobile apparatus autonomously travels on the travel route;
storing in the memory the calculation information in association with the node and each of the multiple external sensors;
calculating, for each node independently for each of the multiple external sensors, the deviation based on the calculation information and a sensor value of each of the multiple external sensors obtained in the autonomous travel;
determining, for each node independently for each of the multiple external sensors, the calculated deviation as a position and posture of the node on the travel route with reference to the position and posture of the mobile apparatus;
integrating, for each node, the positions and postures of the node determined independently for each of the multiple external sensors; and
controlling the mobile apparatus to autonomously travel on the travel route based on the integrated position and posture of each node on the travel route.
20 . A non-transitory recording medium storing a plurality of program codes which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform a method, the method comprising:
controlling a mobile apparatus to perform teaching travel in which the mobile apparatus stores in a memory a position and posture of the mobile apparatus traveling on a travel route under control by a manual operation;
generating, for each of nodes on the travel route independently for each of multiple external sensors, calculation information used for calculating a deviation between a node passed in the teaching travel and a point passed in autonomous travel, the autonomous travel being travel in which the mobile apparatus autonomously travels on the travel route;
storing in the memory the calculation information in association with the node and each of the multiple external sensors;
calculating, for each node independently for each of the multiple external sensors, the deviation based on the calculation information and a sensor value of each of the multiple external sensors obtained in the autonomous travel;
determining, for each node independently for each of the multiple external sensors, the calculated deviation as a position and posture of the node on the travel route with reference to the position and posture of the mobile apparatus;
integrating, for each node, the positions and postures of the node determined independently for each of the multiple external sensors; and
controlling the mobile apparatus to autonomously travel on the travel route based on the integrated position and posture of each node on the travel route.