Abstract: A travelling vehicle includes a body including a small marker and a large marker, an imager, a pattern recognizer, and a state determiner. The large marker includes a display pattern including a first region, a second region with a lower reflectance than a reflectance of the first region, and a region where the small marker is located. The small marker has a display pattern including a third region with a lower reflectance than the reflectance of the first region and a fourth region with a lower reflectance than the reflectance of the third region and a lower reflectance than the reflectance of the second region.

Abstract: An overhead transport vehicle includes: a holding unit that is provided to be liftable and lowerable and configured to hold an article; a three-dimensional ranging sensor that has a detection range to include surroundings of a lower space formed directly below the article held by the holding unit; and a control device that is configured to determine presence or absence of an obstacle based on a detection result of the three-dimensional ranging sensor.

Abstract: A traveling vehicle travels along a traveling path and includes a main body, a traveler to allow a main body to travel along the traveling path, an LED array provided at the main body to switch a display manner according to a state of the traveling vehicle, an imager to capture an image of the LED array at a traveling vehicle located ahead of the traveling vehicle, and a controller configured or programmed to acquire a state of the traveling vehicle ahead based on the display manner captured by the imager, and to control the traveler of the traveling vehicle based on the acquired state.

Abstract: A method of recognizing a specific image includes detecting image features from the specific image and storing in a memory each of detected relevant image features, detecting relevant image features from an input image and selecting from the memory a portion corresponding to each of the detected relevant image features, generating a restoration image using portions selected in the selecting, and determining whether the generated restoration image matches with the input image by a matching process and recognizing that, when it is determined that the restoration image matches with the input image, the input image is the specific image.

Abstract: A main body portion of a traveling vehicle includes large area symbols and a small area symbol having an area smaller than an area of each of the large area symbols which each have a size that does not entirely fit within an image capturing range of an imager located on a following traveling vehicle at a position less than a predetermined distance from the traveling vehicle. The small area symbol has a size that entirely fits within the image capturing range of the imager located on the following traveling vehicle even if the distance between the traveling vehicle and the following traveling vehicle is less than the predetermined distance. A determiner determines that, when at least one of the entire large area symbols and the entire small area symbol is extracted from a captured image, a preceding traveling vehicle is present.

Abstract: A method of recognizing a specific image includes detecting image features from the specific image and storing in a memory each of detected relevant image features, detecting relevant image features from an input image and selecting from the memory a portion corresponding to each of the detected relevant image features, generating a restoration image using portions selected in the selecting, and determining whether the generated restoration image matches with the input image by a matching process and recognizing that, when it is determined that the restoration image matches with the input image, the input image is the specific image.

Abstract: A traveling vehicle travels along a traveling path and includes a main body, a traveler to allow a main body to travel along the traveling path, an LED array provided at the main body to switch a display manner according to a state of the traveling vehicle, an imager to capture an image of the LED array at a traveling vehicle located ahead of the traveling vehicle, and a controller configured or programmed to acquire a state of the traveling vehicle ahead based on the display manner captured by the imager, and to control the traveler of the traveling vehicle based on the acquired state.

Abstract: The invention relates to a blood purification system especially useful as an artificial kidney system. When the blood of the patient is purified by a filter, the volume of filtrate from the filter is measured accurately and the volume of a substitution fluid supplied to the patient is measured accurately. The blood is purified while the two volumes are being maintained in balance accurately.