Patent ID: 8737692
Filing Date: 2014-05-27
Classification: G05D,G06K

Abstract:
1. A contact state estimating apparatus comprising: a distance measurement element which measures a distance to an actual object; a first arithmetic processing element configured to measure a coordinate value of each actual point located on a surface of the actual object in a reference coordinate system on a basis of the distance measured by the distance measurement element; a second arithmetic processing element configured to assume a position and a posture of a virtual object in a designated shape in the reference coordinate system, thereby assuming a coordinate value of each virtual point located on a surface of the virtual object and corresponding to each actual point; and a third arithmetic processing element configured to calculate total cost that is a total value of cost for each combination of the actual point and the virtual point in accordance with a cost function, the cost function having a coordinate value difference as a variable, the coordinate value difference being a difference between a coordinate value of each actual point in the reference coordinate system measured by the first arithmetic processing element and a coordinate value of each virtual point in the reference coordinate system assumed by the second arithmetic processing element, the coordinate value difference being defined as a positive value in the case where the virtual point exists inside the actual object and as a negative value in the case where the virtual point exists outside the actual object, the cost function having an absolute minimum or a local minimum at a predetermined balance value of zero or more and being defined as an increasing function in a definition area on a positive side of the balance value, wherein the second arithmetic processing element is configured to search for, as a contact state between a first object corresponding to the virtual object and a second object as the actual object, a combination of coordinate values of the virtual points in the reference coordinate system so that the total cost calculated by the third arithmetic processing element is brought closer to an absolute minimum or a local minimum.