A method of supporting collision avoidance for mobile robots in a smart space

The purpose of this study is to realize a system for supporting mobile robot’s traveling based on a VR (Virtual Reality) in a smart space that is capable of monitoring a real space. The VR in the system is a kind of platform collecting and sharing the information from sensors in the space. The system has provided to support robot’s avoidance moving object. ‘Obstacle recognition area’ is hypothetically provided a robot and any moving object as a rectangular parallelepiped using VR. The system supports to avoid a moving obstacle by calculating a path of the robot from information collected in the VR that the position relationship between the area in front of a robot and another area given ahead a moving obstacle. In addition, the system has provided to prevent a robot from colliding with wall and door. This can be achieved by watching a dangerous area around wall and door to consider the traveling direction of a robot with sensors installed in the space. This paper describes the system and experimental results performed with the system.