Patent ID: 8204679

Claim:
A mobile apparatus autonomously moving along a target path, comprising: a control device, the control device including: a first processing element which recognizes the mobile apparatus and its behavioral state and an object and its behavioral state, as a first spatial element and its behavioral state and a second spatial element and its behavioral state, respectively, in an element space; a second processing element which, based on a recognition result of the first processing element, recognizes whether there is presence/absence of a possibility of contact between the first spatial element and the second spatial element in the element space; and a third processing element which, based on the recognition result of the first processing element, sets a path that allows the first spatial element to prevent contact with the second spatial element in the element space as the target path, and, on a condition that the second processing element recognizes that there is the possibility of contact, sets a shift path that is tilted from the target path of a previous time by an angle responsive to a distance between the first spatial element and the second spatial element, and sets the target path of current time with an end point of the shift path as a start point of the target path of current time, wherein the second processing element recognizes an expanded second spatial element which corresponds to the second spatial element expanded intermittently or continuously in response to its behavioral state based on the recognition result of the first processing element, and the third processing element sets a path that allows the first spatial element to prevent contact with the expanded second spatial element as the target path and resets the shift path on a condition that the shift path crosses the expanded second spatial element.