PURPOSE: To prevent erroneous function due to intrusion of dust or water by fixing an ultrasonic element while directing downward with a recess for preventing the reverberation of ultrasonic wave being provided in the rear of a reflecting means and to allow the movement of a robot while avoiding nearby obstacles.
CONSTITUTION: An ultrasonic sensor 13 is fixed while directing downward and a transmission means 17 radiates ultrasonic wave while directing the detecting direction upward through a reflecting means 14. The ultrasonic wave reflects on an obstacle back to the receiving means 18 of the sensor 13 through the reflecting means 14. An antireverberation means 15 having a recess in the rear of the reflecting means 14 returns back the ultrasonic wave transmitted from the transmission means 17 from the rear side of the reflecting means 14 thus damping the reflection wave entering into the receiving means 18. Since the SN ratio is enhanced for the reverberant receiving wave and the receiving wave from the obstacle to allow detection of nearby obstacle, a nearby obstacle, e.g. a chair or the leg of a desk, is detected by the sensor 13 and the robot body 10 can move while avoiding the obstacle.
KIMURA MASAHIRO
KOBAYASHI YASUMICHI
YABUUCHI HIDETAKA
OGAWA MITSUYASU
FUJIWARA TOSHIAKI
EGUCHI OSAMU
TAKAGI YOSHIFUMI
ISHIBASHI TAKAFUMI
KUROKI YOSHITAKA
