ROBOT CLEANER AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME

• US 20120232738A1
• Filed: 11/16/2010
• Published: 09/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Jeon, Hyeongshin
• Granted Patent: US 8,880,271 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/25
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/04 Automatic control of the travelling movement; Automatic obstacle detection
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/009 Carrying-vehicles; Arrangements of trollies or wheels; Means for avoiding mechanical obstacles
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0219 ensuring the processing of the whole working surface
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0255 using acoustic signals, e.g. ultra-sonic singals sonar systems designed for anti-collision purposes G01S15/93
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30

Abstract

Disclosed are a robot cleaner and a method for controlling the same. The robot cleaner and method of the present invention involve dividing the whole area to be cleaned into sub-areas, and easily calculating a full path using travel paths in the sub-areas and connection points between sub-areas, and in the event the whole area to be cleaned is extended or an area which has not been cleaned is found, do not involve regenerating the whole map for cleaning, but rather easily updating the full path using the pre-stored travel path in the sub-areas and the connection points between sub-areas.

Claims

1. A robot cleaner comprising:

a driving unit to drive at least one wheel to move the robot cleaner;

a control unit to divide an area to be cleaned into a plurality of sub-areas so as to calculate a full path based on connection points between the sub-areas or based on a travel path within each sub-area and the connection points, and control the driving unit; and

a storage unit to store the travel path within each sub-area, the connection points between the sub-areas, and the full path.

2. The robot cleaner of claim 1, wherein the control unit calculates the full path by connecting the connection points, and controls the robot cleaner to travel or perform cleaning along the full path.

3. The robot cleaner of claim 1, wherein the control unit calculates the full path by connecting the travel paths within the sub-areas via the connection points and controls the robot cleaner to travel or perform cleaning along the full path.

4. The robot cleaner of claim 1, wherein the control unit generates a travel path from connection points with sub-areas adjacent to an extended area to be cleaned among the sub-areas stored in the sub-areas when the area to be cleaned extends.

5. The robot cleaner of claim 1, wherein the control unit comprises:

a connection point generating module to generate the connection points between the plurality of sub-areas; and

a full path calculating module to calculate the full path by connecting the connection points.

6. The robot cleaner of claim 5, wherein the full path calculating module linearly connects the connection points to calculate the full path.

7. The robot cleaner of claim 5, wherein the control unit further comprises:

a travel path generating module to generate travel paths within the plurality of sub-areas,

wherein the full path calculating module connects the sub-areas using the travel paths and the connection points so as to calculate the full path.

8. The robot cleaner of claim 7, wherein the control unit further comprises:

an area dividing module to divide the area to be cleaned into the plurality of sub-areas.

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

an obstacle detection unit to detect an obstacle within the area to be cleaned;

a position recognition unit having at least one sensor to recognize a position of the robot cleaner;

a power source unit having a rechargeable power supply element to supply power into the robot cleaner;

an input unit having at least one button to directly receive an input of a control command; and

an output unit to output information related to at least one of the travel paths within the sub-areas, the connection points between the sub-areas and the full path.

10. A method for controlling a robot cleaner comprising:

searching for an area to be cleaned;

dividing the area to be cleaned into a plurality of sub-areas;

generating travel paths within the sub-areas, respectively;

generating connection points between the sub-areas;

storing sub-area information including the travel paths within the sub-areas and the connection points between the sub-areas; and

calculating a full path based on the connection points, or based on the travel paths within the sub-areas and the connection points.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the calculating of the full path comprises:

calculating the full path by connecting the connection points.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the calculating of the full path comprises:

calculating the full path by connecting the travel paths within the sub-areas via the connection points.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

storing the calculated full path.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

generating a travel path within an extended area to be cleaned when the area to be cleaned extends; and

adding the travel path within the extended area to be cleaned to the stored full path.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

searching for sub-areas adjacent to the extended area to be cleaned,

wherein the generating of the travel path within the extended area to be cleaned is performed to generate the travel path within the extended area to be cleaned from the connection points with the adjacent sub-areas.