Patent ID: 8736820

Claim:
Apparatus for distinguishing between ground and an obstacle for autonomous mobile vehicle, which comprises: an upper 2D laser radar installed on the front upper portion of the autonomous mobile vehicle arranged with predetermined orientation angle θ 1 with respect to the horizontal base plane of the vehicle, a lower 2D laser radar installed on the front lower portion of the autonomous mobile vehicle at the location vertically below the upper 2D laser radar with a predetermined vertical distance d offset and arranged in parallel with the horizontal base plane of the vehicle, and a processing unit installed on the autonomous mobile vehicle for carrying out predetermined data processing, the processing unit comprising a distance data receiving part which receives distance data r 1 to the object which is are detected by the upper 2D laser radar, and r 2 to the object which is detected by the lower 2D laser radar, an inclination calculating part which calculates actual inclination g of the detected object based on the distance data r 1 , r 2 received from the distance data receiving part, the orientation angle θ 1 and the vertical distance d offset , wherein g is calculated by the following formula: g=d v /d h ×100 where, d v =d offset −r 1 sin θ 1 , and d h =r 1 cos θ 1 −r 2 , where d v is the difference in vertical direction between the distance data r 1 to the detected object and distance data r 2 to the detected object, and where d h is the difference in horizontal direction between the distance data r 1 to the detected object and distance data r 2 to the detected object, a ground and obstacle determining part determines whether the detected object is ground or an obstacle by comparing the actual inclination of the detected object received from the inclination calculating part and the predetermined reference inclination, and generates a distance data for a virtual 2D laser radar which is assumed to be arranged on the same location as the lower 2D laser radar, and a transmitting part which transmits the distance data for the virtual 2D laser radar which is assumed to be arranged on the same location as the lower 2D laser radar, generated by the ground and obstacle determining part, to a collision avoiding processing unit of the autonomous mobile vehicle.