Patent ID: 8239084

Claim:
A moving device that moves under an environment where a moving obstacle exists, comprising: external information acquiring means for acquiring external information; obstacle detecting means for detecting an external object in an absolute coordinate system from time-series information in which the external information acquired from the external information acquiring means and self information of the moving device are accumulated, and for extracting an obstacle that is an object possibly impeding the motion of the moving device from the time-series information; obstacle feature estimating means for estimating a feature of the obstacle, including a size, a shape or a shape change of the obstacle and a position and a motion pattern of the obstacle from the time-series information of the plurality of obstacles detected by the obstacle detecting means; collision predicting means for predicting possibility of collision with the obstacle from the feature of the obstacle and the self information and path information of the moving device; avoidance route planning means for calculating, in a case where collision with the obstacle is predicted, a through point that passes through right or left side or a surrounding area of the obstacle for avoiding the obstacle, and in a case where the possibility of collision is still predicted after passing the through point, further calculating a through point that passes through right or left side or a surrounding area of the obstacle for avoiding the obstacle, whereby planning a single or a plurality of avoidance routes that pass through one or more through points; and avoidance path generating means for adjusting the through point so as not to interfere with the obstacle, and generating a smooth avoidance path on which the moving device can travel.