Patent ID: 7277559

Claim:
A mobile apparatus comprising: a plurality of imaging devices, wherein the apparatus travels recognizing objects based on a plurality of images thereof captured by the imaging devices; a measurement device, wherein the device measures a current position and direction of the imaging devices; a map data storing section, wherein the section stores map data including at least registered information on positions of stationary objects that exist within a region where the apparatus travels; a recognized distance calculating section, wherein the section calculates a recognized distance for each pixel according to a parallax of pixels for the plurality of images; a reference distance calculating section, wherein the section calculates a reference distance from the imaging devices to a front border of each stationary object according to the current position and direction measured by the measurement device and the map data; a retracting section for determining a range of image processing, wherein the section compares the recognized distance of a pixel of each image with the reference distance corresponding thereto, thereby selecting a set of pixels to be processed so as to generate a retracted image; a detecting section for detecting the objects from the retracted image; a transport device; and a transport controller for controlling movement of the transport device according to information about the objects detected by the detecting section.