Patent · US Active

System, method and apparatus for unsupervised adaptation of the perception of an autonomous mower

US8958939B2 · kind B2 · utility

33Cited by

1References

20Claims

0Family size

Assignee

Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH · DE

Inventors

Nils Einecke · Offenbach, DE
Mathias Franzius · Offenbach am Main, DE

Key dates

Filing date	Jan 10, 2013
Grant date	Feb 17, 2015
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Feb 16, 2033

Classification

Technology area (CPC A)Human Necessities
CPC primaryA01D34/04
WIPO fieldOther special machines
WIPO sectorMechanical engineering

Abstract

The present invention presents a method and system for an autonomous mower attached with a camera, wherein the control of the parameters of the camera and the control of the mower movement and grass detection are optimized holistically during operation. The present invention mitigates the camera sensing limits by adapting the movement speed of the mower. Furthermore, the camera control optimizes the visibility of grass by using the grass mask of a grass segmentation to calculate updated exposure, gain and aperture values only from grass pixels. The grass segmentation tracks changes in the grass color that are caused by illumination differences. Optionally, the system is equipped with a head light used to further improve the camera signal quality in conjunction with the control of the camera parameters and the movement speed of the mower.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.