ROBOT CLEANER AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF

• US 20130000675A1
• Filed: 02/24/2012
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: HONG, Jun Pyo, SHIN, Dong Min, LEE, Jun Hwa, LEE, Dong Hun, CHUNG, Woo Ram, KIM, Won Kuk, HAN, Kyu Sun, SONG, Suk Hoon
• Granted Patent: US 9,149,167 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 134/18
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/00 Robotic cleaning machines, i.e. with automatic control of the travelling movement or the cleaning operation
• 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 9/009 Carrying-vehicles; Arrangements of trollies or wheels; Means for avoiding mechanical obstacles
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 11/0085 Cleaning
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 5/00 Manipulators mounted on wheels or on carriages B25J1/00 takes precedence; programme-controlled manipulators B25J9/00 ; vehicle aspects B60, B62, e.g. remote-controlled steering for motor vehicles B62D1/24; control of position of vehicles G05D1/00
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/0003 Home robots, i.e. small robots for domestic use
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1664 characterised by motion, path, trajectory planning
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0223 involving speed control of the vehicle vehicle fittings for automatically controlling, i.e. preventing speed from exceeding an arbitrarily established velocity or maintaining speed at a particular velocity, as selected by the vehicle operator B60K31/00
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 Mobile robot

Abstract

A robot cleaner which does not stop to change a traveling direction thereof, and a control method thereof includes setting a territory about which cleaning will be performed based on position data acquired during traveling about a cleaning area, predetermining a cleaning path to clean the territory about which cleaning will be performed, and if the cleaning path includes a zigzag traveling path, changing the traveling direction of the robot cleaner by executing curved traveling of the robot cleaner during traveling along the zigzag traveling path, thus decreasing the time required to clean an area during a change of the traveling direction of the robot cleaner.

Claims

1. A control method of a robot cleaner comprising:

setting a territory about which cleaning will be performed based on position data acquired during traveling about a cleaning area;

predetermining a cleaning path to clean the territory about which cleaning will be performed; and

if the cleaning path includes a zigzag traveling path, changing the traveling direction of the robot cleaner by executing curved traveling of the robot cleaner without stopping during traveling along the zigzag traveling path.

2. The control method according to claim 1, further comprising, if an obstacle is sensed during traveling along the cleaning path, allowing the robot cleaner to travel around the obstacle using a wall following method and, when the robot cleaner reaches a scheduled traveling line during traveling using the wall following method, allowing the robot cleaner to move along the traveling line.

3. The control method according to claim 1, further comprising:

storing a cleaned region during traveling about the cleaning area; and

if the robot cleaner executes curved traveling around the cleaned region, setting a traveling section such that a region of curved traveling overlaps with the cleaned region.

4. The control method according to claim 1, wherein the setting of the territory about which cleaning will be performed based on the position data acquired during traveling about the cleaning area includes storing data regarding an initial position where traveling of the robot cleaner begins and positions where the traveling direction of the robot cleaner is changed during traveling about the cleaning area, and setting the territory about which cleaning will be performed based on the initial position and the positions where the traveling direction of the robot cleaner is changed.

5. The control method according to claim 1, further comprising dividing the territory about which cleaning will be performed into cleaning blocks having a designated size.

6. The control method according to claim 5, wherein the cleaning blocks include information regarding a first indicator indicating presence of an obstacle, a second indicator indicating completion of cleaning of a block, and a third indicator indicating completion of cleaning of one line including a current block and the lower lines.

7. The control method according to claim 1, further comprising extracting a plurality of feature points from the surrounding environment around the cleaning area, and generating a feature map using the plurality of feature points.

8. The control method according to claim 1, wherein the change of the traveling direction of the robot cleaner by executing curved traveling of the robot cleaner includes reducing moving velocity of the robot cleaner to a designated velocity during movement of the robot cleaner along a straight path part of the zigzag traveling path, and controlling rotating velocity of the robot cleaner, while constantly maintaining the reduced moving velocity, so as to execute curved traveling of the robot cleaner.

9. The control method according to claim 1, wherein the change of the traveling direction of the robot cleaner by executing curved traveling of the robot cleaner includes controlling rotating velocity of the robot cleaner simultaneously with controlling moving velocity of the robot cleaner during movement of the robot cleaner along the zigzag traveling path, so as to execute curved traveling of the robot cleaner without stopping.

18. At least one non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that control at least one processor to implement the method of claim 1.

10. A robot cleaner comprising:

an input unit to select a cleaning mode using a path map;

a path map generation unit to set a territory about which cleaning will be performed based on position data acquired during traveling about a cleaning area and to predetermine a cleaning path to clean the territory about which cleaning will be performed, if the cleaning mode using the path map is selected; and

a control unit to control curved traveling of the robot cleaner without stopping to change the traveling direction of the robot cleaner during movement along a zigzag traveling path, if the cleaning path includes the zigzag traveling path.

11. The robot cleaner according to claim 10, further comprising an obstacle sensing unit including an ultrasonic sensor or an optical sensor to sense an obstacle located in the cleaning area.

12. The robot cleaner according to claim 11, wherein:

if the obstacle sensing unit senses the obstacle during movement along the cleaning path, the obstacle sensing unit transmits information regarding sensing of the obstacle to the control unit; and

if the control unit receives the information regarding sensing of the obstacle, the control unit allows the robot cleaner to travel around the obstacle using a wall following method and, when the robot cleaner reaches a scheduled traveling line during traveling using the wall following method, allows the robot cleaner to move along the traveling line.

13. The robot cleaner according to claim 10, wherein the path map generation unit stores data regarding an initial position where traveling of the robot cleaner is started and positions where the traveling direction of the robot cleaner is changed during traveling about the cleaning area, and sets the territory about which cleaning will be performed based on the initial position and the positions where the traveling direction of the robot cleaner is changed.

14. The robot cleaner according to claim 10, further comprising a feature map generation unit to extract a plurality of feature points from the surrounding environment around the cleaning area and to generate a feature map using the plurality of feature points.

15. The robot cleaner according to claim 10, further comprising a position measurement unit including at least one of an encoder connected to drive wheels of the robot cleaner to sense rotating velocity of the robot cleaner, a gyro sensor to measure a direction angle of the robot cleaner using rotation inertia, and an acceleration sensor to measure acceleration of the robot cleaner.

16. The robot cleaner according to claim 10, further comprising a memory to store the path map, information regarding the obstacle sensed during movement along the path map, and information regarding whether or not respective cleaning of cleaning blocks has been completed.

17. A control method of a robot cleaner comprising:

setting a territory about which cleaning will be performed based on position data acquired during traveling about a cleaning area;

predetermining a cleaning path to clean the territory about which cleaning will be performed; and

if the cleaning path includes a zigzag traveling path, setting in advance the path so as to allow the robot cleaner to execute curved traveling without stopping at positions of the zigzag traveling path where the traveling direction of the robot cleaner is changed.

19. A method of controlling travel of a robot cleaner, the method comprising:

generating, by a processor, a travel path map to provide direction control for the robot cleaner to clean an area;

determining where direction changes are required in the travel path map; and

generating a curved travel path to change the direction of travel where direction changes were determined to be required.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein generating the curved travel path to change the direction of travel where direction changes were determined to be required comprises:

determining a position along the travel path where the robot cleaner begins to follow the curved travel path; and

determining a change in linear velocity and angular velocity required to control the movement of the robot cleaner along the curved travel path,

wherein the linear velocity remains greater than zero as the robot cleaner moves along the curved travel path.