Mobile robot

• US 10,456,004 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2017
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Sung, Chulmo, Jun, Woochan
• Primary Examiner(s): Hail, Joseph J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Brady, Timothy Brian
• Application Number:
  US15/597,333
• Publication Number:
  US 20170332871A1
• Time in Patent Office: 895 Days
• Field of Search: 701 23, 701 28, 701301, 701 41, 701 45, 701 49, 700255, 700258, 700259
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/00 Machines for cleaning floors, carpets, furniture, walls, or wall coverings
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/33 having means for storing dirt
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4061 Steering means; Means for avoiding obstacles; Details related to the place where the driver is accommodated
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4066 Propulsion of the whole machine
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4069 Driving or transmission means for the cleaning tools
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/022 Recharging of batteries
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/04 Automatic control of the travelling movement; Automatic obstacle detection
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/06 Control of the cleaning action for autonomous devices; Automatic detection of the surface condition before, during or after cleaning
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 5/22 with rotary fans
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/00 Details or accessories of suction cleaners, e.g. mechanical means for controlling the suction or for effecting pulsating action; Storing devices specially adapted to suction cleaners or parts thereof; Carrying-vehicles specially adapted for suction cleaners
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2826 the condition of the floor
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2852 Elements for displacement of the vacuum cleaner or the accessories therefor, e.g. wheels, casters or nozzles
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2873 Docking units or charging stations for autonomous or robotic vacuum cleaners A47L2201/02
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2884 Details of arrangements of batteries or their installation
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/30 Arrangement of illuminating devices
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 5/007 mounted on wheels
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/00 Systems using the reflection or reradiation of electromagnetic waves other than radio waves, e.g. lidar systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/46 Indirect determination of position data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0231 : using optical position detecting means position-fixing by using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves, e.g. optical position detecting means G01S5/16
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/024 : in combination with a laser lasers per se H01S
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0246 : using a video camera in combination with image processing means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0248 : in combination with a laser lasers per se H01S
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 : using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 : Mobile robot

Abstract

A robot cleaner of the present disclosure comprises a main body configured to travel in a cleaning zone and to suction a foreign substance on a floor in the cleaning zone, an image sensor provided on the main body and configured to obtain an image of a predetermined area at a front side of the main body, a first light source provided on the main body and configured to emit a first pattern of light to a first sub-area of the predetermined area and a second light source provided on the main body at a position below the first light source and configured to emit a second pattern of light to a second sub-area of the predetermined area, the first sub-area being located lower than the second sub-area.

Claims

1. A mobile robot comprising:

a main body;

an image sensor provided on the main body and configured to captured an image of a predetermined area at a front side of the main body;

a first light source provided on the main body and configured to emit a first pattern of light to a first sub-area of the predetermined area; and

a second light source provided on the main body at a position below the first light source and configured to emit a second pattern of light to a second sub-area of the predetermined area, the first sub-area being located lower than the second sub-area,

wherein, when the main body is viewed from a lateral side while the main body is positioned on a horizontal floor;

a first path in which the first pattern of light is emitted and a second path in which the second pattern of light is emitted intersect each other,

a first point (d1), corresponding to vertically projecting a point where the first pattern of light and the second pattern of light intersect each other on to the horizontal floor, is located closer to the main body than a second point (d2) on the horizontal floor where the image is captured by the image sensor, and

a first distance between the second point (d2) and a third point (d3) at which the first pattern of light is emitted on to the horizontal floor is greater than a second distance between the first point (d1) and the second point (d2).

2. The mobile robot according to claim 1, wherein the image sensor is aligned to have an optical axis that is horizontally oriented and has a view angle ranging from 100 degrees to 110 degrees.

3. The mobile robot according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined area captured by the image sensor in the image includes a portion of a floor that is positioned 110 mm to 120 mm from the front side of the robot.

4. The mobile robot according to claim 1, wherein each of the first pattern of light and the second pattern of light includes a horizontal line segment.

5. The mobile robot according to claim 1, wherein the first pattern of light and the second pattern of light are different.

6. The robot according to claim 1, wherein the image sensor, the first light source, and the second light source are vertically aligned on the front side of the main body.

7. The mobile robot according to claim 1, wherein the first light source emits the first pattern of light at a first vertical emission angle associated with angular distance from a horizontal plane that corresponds to a second vertical emission angle at which the second light source emits the second pattern of light.

8. The mobile robot according to claim 7, wherein at least one of the first vertical emission angle or the second vertical emission angle ranges from 20 degrees to 30 degrees.

9. The mobile robot according to claim 1, wherein the image sensor is provided between the first light source and the second light source.

10. The mobile robot cleaner according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the first light source and the second light source includes a laser diode (LD) or a light-emitting diode (LED) to generate light and an optical pattern projection element (OPPE) to convert the light into the first or second patterns of light.

11. The mobile robot according to claim 1, wherein the image sensor, the first light source, and the second light source are positioned on a substrate coupled to the front side of the main body.

12. The mobile robot cleaner according to claim 11, wherein the substrate is a printed circuit board (PCB) or flexible PCB wiring.

13. A mobile robot comprising:

an image sensor configured to capture images of a predetermined area in front of the robot;

a first light source configured to emit a first pattern of light to a first sub-area of the predetermined area;

a second light source positioned below the first light source and configured to emit a second pattern of light to a second sub-area of the predetermined area that is above the first sub-area; and

a controller configured to;

activate the first light source to determine whether an obstacle is present in the predetermined area, and

selectively activate the second light source to determine a height of the obstacle based on determining that the obstacle is present in the predetermined area.

14. The mobile robot cleaner according to claim 13, wherein the controller is further configured to:

determine whether the obstacle is present in the predetermined area based on a location of a first optical pattern associated with the first pattern of light in an image captured by the image sensor, and

determine the height of the obstacle based on a location of a second optical pattern associated with the second pattern of light in another image captured by the image sensor.

15. The mobile robot according to claim 13, wherein the image sensor, the first light source, and the second light source are mounted to a frame on a front portion of the robot.

16. The mobile robot according to claim 13, wherein the image sensor is positioned lower than the first light source and the second light source.

17. The mobile robot according to claim 13, wherein the image sensor is positioned between the first light source and the second light source.

18. The mobile robot according to claim 17, wherein the first light source and the second light source are be positioned at an equal distance from the image sensor.