ROBOT CLEANER AND REMOTE MONITORING SYSTEM USING THE SAME

• US 20110264305A1
• Filed: 04/25/2011
• Published: 10/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Seongsoo, Jang, Junho, Kim, Younggie, Choe, Suuk, Kim, Yiebin, Baek, Seungmin, Na, Sangik, Yi, Donghoon, Yoon, Jeongsuk
• Granted Patent: US 8,843,245 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/2
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0246 using a video camera in combination with image processing means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30

Abstract

A robot cleaner has a camera to generate an image of a cleaning area, a controller to prepare a cleaning map based on the image and to drive a robot cleaner, and a communicator to transmit the image and cleaning map to an external device and to receive a control command from the external device. The image and map may be transmitted over a local or wide area network, and the external device may be a computer, television, smart phone, portable phone, or other type of wireless access device.

Claims

1. A robot cleaner, comprising:

a camera to generate an image of a cleaning area;

a controller to prepare a cleaning map based on the image and to drive a robot cleaner; and

a communicator to transmit the image and cleaning map to an external device and to receive a control command from the external device.

2. The robot cleaner of claim 1, further comprising:

an image processor to compress the image and cleaning map.

3. The robot cleaner of claim 1, further comprising:

an authenticator to permit or block access to the external device.

4. The robot cleaner of claim 1, further comprising:

a detector to detect an obstacle; and

a location recognizer having at least one sensor to recognize a location of the robot cleaner, wherein the controller generates the cleaning map based on the detected obstacle and the location.

5. The robot cleaner of claim 4, further comprising:

a display to display at least one of the image, information corresponding to the obstacle, information corresponding to the location, authentication information on the external device, or the cleaning map.

6. The robot cleaner of claim 4, further comprising:

a storage unit to store at least one of the image, information corresponding to the obstacle, information corresponding to the location, authentication information on the external device, or the cleaning map.

7. The robot cleaner of claim 1, wherein the control command is to control the camera or movement or orientation of the robot cleaner.

8. A system, comprising:

a robot cleaner to generate an image of a cleaning area and to prepare a cleaning map based on the image; and

a wireless terminal to receive the image and cleaning map from the robot cleaner and to transmit a control command to the robot cleaner.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the robot cleaner comprises:

at least one camera to capture the image of the cleaning area;

a controller to generate the cleaning map from the image and to drive the robot cleaner; and

a communicator to transmit the image and cleaning map to the wireless terminal and to receive the control command from the wireless terminal.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the robot cleaner further comprises:

an image processor to compress the image and cleaning map.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the robot cleaner further comprises:

an authenticator to permit or block access to the external device.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the robot cleaner further comprises:

a detector to detect an obstacle; and

a location recognizer having at least one sensor to recognize a location of the robot cleaner, wherein the controller generates the cleaning map based on the detected obstacle and the location.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the wireless terminal device comprises:

a storage module to store a remote monitoring program;

a controller to implement the remote monitoring program and generate the control command; and

a communicator to receive the image and cleaning map from the robot cleaner and to transmit the control command to the robot cleaner.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the wireless terminal further comprises

a user interface to display the cleaning map or the image and to receive the control command.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the wireless terminal displays the image when a portion corresponding to a specific monitoring area in the cleaning map is selected while the cleaning map is displayed.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein the control command is to control the camera or movement or orientation of the robot cleaner.

17. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a wireless access device coupled between the robot cleaner and the wireless terminal or an external network.

18. The system of claim 8, wherein the wireless terminal includes a computer, a television, a smart phone, a portable phone, or a wireless access device coupled to the robot cleaner through an external network.

19. A method comprising:

generating an image of a cleaning area to be cleaned by a robot cleaner;

preparing a cleaning map based on the image;

establishing communication link between a wireless terminal and the robot cleaner; and

transmitting the image and cleaning map from the robot cleaner to the wireless terminal over the communication link.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

transmitting a request from the wireless terminal to the robot cleaner to receive the image and cleaning map.