Method for controlling walk of robot, and robot

• US 10,466,708 B2
• Filed: 08/12/2015
• Issued: 11/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Midea Robozone Technology Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Jiangsu Midea Cleaning Appliances Co., Ltd. (Midea Group Co., Ltd)
• Inventors: Yu, Qinghao, Piao, Yongzhe, Shen, Qiang
• Primary Examiner(s): Dunn, Alex C
• Application Number:
  US15/120,437
• Publication Number:
  US 20170357266A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,546 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/24 Floor-sweeping machines, motor-driven
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4011 Regulation of the cleaning machine by electric means; Control systems and remote control systems therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/04 Automatic control of the travelling movement; Automatic obstacle detection
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/28 Installation of the electric equipment, e.g. adaptation or attachment to the suction cleaner; Controlling suction cleaners by electric means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/02 Control of position or course in two dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0219 ensuring the processing of the whole working surface
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30

Abstract

A method for controlling a walk of a robot and robot are provided. The method includes: controlling the robot to walk along walls of a room to obtain a structure and size of the room; dividing an area of the room into a plurality of regular sweeping areas and a plurality of irregular sweeping areas according to the structure and size of the room; controlling the robot to sweep the plurality of regular sweeping areas in a clip shaped sweeping walk mode; and controlling the robot to sweep each irregular sweeping area according to a size of each irregular sweeping area after sweeping the plurality of regular sweeping areas. The robot cleans the regular cleaning areas and the irregular cleaning areas separately, thus increasing a cleaning coverage rate, and effectively improving cleaning performance and user experiences.

Claims

1. A robot, comprising:

a body;

a control component, disposed on the body, and configured to;

control the robot to walk along walls of a room to obtain a structure and size of the room;

divide an area of the room into a plurality of regular sweeping areas and a plurality of irregular sweeping areas according to the structure and size of the room, wherein a size of the irregular sweeping area is less than a size of the regular sweeping area;

control the robot to sweep the plurality of regular sweeping areas in a clip shaped sweeping walk mode, wherein the clip shaped sweeping walk mode comprises a spiral walk mode for sweeping the regular sweeping area and an S-shaped walk mode for walking between different regular sweeping areas, or the clip shaped sweeping walk mode comprises a spiral walk mode for sweeping the regular sweeping area and a straight line walk mode for walking between different regular sweeping areas; and

control the robot to sweep each irregular sweeping area according to the size of each irregular sweeping area after sweeping the plurality of regular sweeping areas.

2. The robot according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of regular sweeping areas have a same size.

3. The robot according to claim 1, wherein the control component is further configured to:

judge whether a next sweeping area along a direction in which the robot is walking is the regular sweeping area after sweeping a current regular sweeping area, control the robot to move along the direction in which the robot is walking into the next sweeping area if it is judged as the regular sweeping area, and control the robot to turn the direction if it is judged not as the regular sweeping area.

4. The robot according to claim 1, wherein, a parameter of the clip shaped sweeping walk mode is determined according to a sweeping length of a rolling brush of the robot.

5. The robot according to claim 1, wherein the spiral walk mode comprises a diffusion sweeping walk mode and a contraction sweeping walk mode.

6. The robot according to claim 5, wherein a walk from a regular sweeping area swept according to the diffusion sweeping walk mode to a regular sweeping area swept according to the contraction sweeping walk mode is switched by the S-shaped walk mode, and

a walk from a regular sweeping area swept according to the contraction sweeping walk mode to a regular sweeping area swept according to the diffusion sweeping walk mode is switched by the straight line walk mode.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions that, when executed by a processor of a device, causes the device to perform a method for controlling a walk of a robot, wherein the method comprises:

controlling the robot to walk along walls of a room to obtain a structure and size of the room;

dividing an area of the room into a plurality of regular sweeping areas and a plurality of irregular sweeping areas according to the structure and size of the room, wherein a size of the irregular sweeping area is less than a size of the regular sweeping area;

controlling the robot to sweep the plurality of regular sweeping areas in a clip shaped sweeping walk mode, wherein the clip shaped sweeping walk mode comprises a spiral walk mode for sweeping the regular sweeping area and an S-shaped walk mode for walking between different regular sweeping areas, and the clip shaped sweeping walk mode comprises a spiral walk mode for sweeping the regular sweeping area and a straight line walk mode for walking between different regular sweeping areas; and

controlling the robot to sweep each irregular sweeping area according to the size of each irregular sweeping area after sweeping the plurality of regular sweeping areas.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 7, wherein the spiral walk mode comprises a diffusion sweeping walk mode and a contraction sweeping walk mode.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 8, wherein a walk from a regular sweeping area swept according to the diffusion sweeping walk mode to a regular sweeping area swept according to the contraction sweeping walk mode is switched by the S-shaped walk mode, and

a walk from a regular sweeping area swept according to the contraction sweeping walk mode to a regular sweeping area swept according to the diffusion sweeping walk mode is switched by the straight line walk mode.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 7, wherein the plurality of regular sweeping areas have a same size.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 7, wherein the method further comprises:

judging whether a next sweeping area along a direction in which the robot is walking is the regular sweeping area after sweeping a current regular sweeping area;

controlling the robot to move along the direction in which the robot is walking into the next sweeping area if it is judged as the regular sweeping area; and

controlling the robot to turn the direction if it is judged as the irregular sweeping area.