History of Robotics Research and Development of Japan2012BusinessSingle-passenger Mobility-support Robot “ROPITS”

For the purpose of contributing to a future society with a high proportion of elderly people, Hitachi has developed a single-passenger robot "ROPITS(RObot for Personal Intelligent Transportation System)", which can autonomously navigate pedestrian space within communities to support the short-distance transportation of the elderly or those with walking difficulties[1][2]. (1) Highly accurate indoor / outdoor environment self-position estimation ROPITS creates a 3-dimensional geometric environment map using information gathered by various sensors mounted on ROPITS such as GPS sensor, laser range finder, gyro-sensor and encoder. And it estimates its position by matching the environment shape obtained by the laser range finder to the 3-dimensional geometric environment map. By fusion of the matching result and GPS sensor data, ROPITS can estimate its position with high accuracy even in locations such as under trees, near buildings and indoor where satellite radio cannot reach enough[3]. (2) Obstacle-avoidance technology by 3-dimensional environment sensing using combination of sensors ROPITS detects pedestrians or unevenness in the footpath using 3-dimensional geometric information measured by laser range finder and a stereo-camera. As a result, ROPITS can move smoothly on footpaths which may contain various sorts of obstacles, maintaining speed with keeping distance while avoiding obstacles in wide areas, dropping speed in narrow areas. (3) Stable movement using active suspension ROPITS equips the active suspension system which detects the body inclination and actuates each wheel up or down to keep the body balance horizontally. As a result, ROPITS moves stably on slopes or unevenness footpaths. (4) Autonomous locomotion to a location specified on a map of a portable information terminal ROPITS can move to a arbitrary point specified with the latitude and longitude of a map on the Reservation/ Operation Screen of a portable information terminal. People can call ROPITS from anywhere in the city and use it[4]. Hitachi has been participating in the Mobility Robot Experiment Special District in the City of Tsukuba, in Ibaraki prefecture since June in 2011. Through pilot tests conducted on real-world footpaths, more than 18km 3-dimensional geometric environment map of footpath has been created, and it has been confirmed that when the latitude and longitude of the destination was specified, ROPITS arrived at the position with an error margin of less than 1 meter.

搭乗型移動支援ロボット「ROPITS」と、携帯端末予約用画面の例 — Mobility support robot “ROPITS” & Portable Information Terminal Reservation Screen sample

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