CLEANING ROBOT, HOME MONITORING APPARATUS, AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE CLEANING ROBOT

• US 20140324271A1
• Filed: 04/18/2014
• Published: 10/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: OH, Hee Jin, KIM, Kyung Jae, MIN, Hyun Suk, SONG, Sung Geun, LEE, Chang Seok, LEE, Ho Yeon
• Granted Patent: US 9,436,186 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/28
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/04 Automatic control of the travelling movement; Automatic obstacle detection
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/00 Systems controlled by a computer G05B13/00, G05B19/00 take precedence; automatic controllers with particular characteristics G05B11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45098 Vacuum cleaning robot
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0246 using a video camera in combination with image processing means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0251 extracting 3D information from a plurality of images taken from different locations, e.g. stereo vision stereoscopic image analysis H04N13/00; depth recovery from images G06T7/593
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks

Abstract

A cleaning robot is provided. The cleaning robot includes a main body, a moving assembly to move the main body around a home, an imaging unit to obtain images around the main body, a controller to generate a map of the home using the obtained images, and a communication unit to transmit the generated map to a home monitoring apparatus. A procedure to match location and type information of electric devices to a two-Dimensional (2D) or three-Dimensional (3D) map of the home may be automated. As described above, the map of the home may be realistically generated by utilizing a map generated by the cleaning robot and inconvenience experienced by a user to manually register electric devices located in each room of the home may be solved by automatically registering the electric devices.

Claims

1. A cleaning robot comprising:

a main body;

a moving assembly configured to move the main body around a home;

an imaging unit configured to obtain images around the main body;

a controller configured to generate a map of the home using the obtained images; and

a communication unit configured to transmit the generated map to a home monitoring apparatus.

2. The cleaning robot according to claim 1, wherein the communication unit communicates with electric devices disposed near the main body to receive basic information from the electric devices and to transmit the received basic information to the controller.

3. The cleaning robot according to claim 1, wherein the controller performs image processing on the images and recognizes electric devices in the image-processed images.

4. The cleaning robot according to claim 1, wherein the imaging unit comprises a first image capturing unit and a second image capturing unit aligned at different locations of the main body.

5. The cleaning robot according to claim 4, wherein the first and second image capturing units respectively capture two-Dimensional (2D) images, and

wherein the controller performs image processing on the captured 2D images to obtain a three-Dimensional (3D) image, recognizes electric devices based on the obtained 3D image, and generates a map to which the recognized electric devices are matched.

6. The cleaning robot according to claim 4, wherein the first image capturing unit captures a 2D image while the second image capturing unit captures a 3D image, and

wherein the controller performs image processing on at least one of the 2D and 3D images to recognize electric devices, and generates a map by distinguishing rooms of the home based on the 3D image.

7. The cleaning robot according to claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to detect location information of electric devices if the electric devices are recognized, and matches the detected location information to the map.

8. The cleaning robot according to claim 7, further comprising:

a storage configured to store the location information of the electric devices using 3-axis values.

9. The cleaning robot according to claim 1, further comprising:

a cleaning tool configured to collect foreign substances on a floor of the home,

wherein the controller controls operations of the moving assembly and the cleaning tool if a current mode is a cleaning mode, recognizes an electric device of the home while performing cleaning, determines whether the recognized electric device is a new electric device or a pre-registered electric device, and updates the map upon determining that the recognized electric device is the new electric device.

10. The cleaning robot according to claim 9, further comprising:

a voice detector configured to detect voice,

wherein the controller controls the moving assembly to move to a location corresponding to the detected voice.

11. The cleaning robot according to claim 10, wherein the voice detector comprises a microphone array, and

wherein the controller recognizes a location corresponding to a voice detected by the microphone array.

12. The cleaning robot according to claim 11, wherein the controller recognizes the voice detected by the microphone array and determines a room designated by the recognized voice.

13. The cleaning robot according to claim 10, wherein the voice detector comprises one microphone, and

wherein the controller recognizes a voice detected by the microphone and determines a room designated by the recognized voice.

14. The cleaning robot according to claim 1, wherein the home monitoring apparatus is located at a charger station to supply power to the main body, and displays information about electric devices matched to the map of the home.

15. The cleaning robot according to claim 1, wherein the home monitoring apparatus is located at the main body, and displays information about electric devices matched to the map of the home.

16. The cleaning robot according to claim 1, wherein the communication unit communicates with the home monitoring apparatus located at the home separately from the main body.

17. A method for controlling a cleaning robot having a main body, a moving assembly to move the main body around a home, and an imaging unit to obtain images around the main body, the method comprising:

determining whether an operation command is a command to execute a map generating mode if the operation command is input;

operating and moving the moving assembly around the home if the operation command is a command to execute a map generating mode;

obtaining images around the main body while moving around the home;

generating a map of the home based on the obtained images;

recognizing electric devices disposed around the home by performing image processing on the obtained images;

matching the recognized electric devices to the generated map; and

transmitting the map to which the electric devices are matched, to a home monitoring apparatus.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the obtaining of the images comprises obtaining a plurality of two-Dimensional (2D) images.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the recognizing of the electric devices comprises:

generating a three-Dimensional (3D) image using the 2D images;

distinguishing rooms of the home using the generated 3D image; and

recognizing electric devices of each room.

20. The method according to claim 17, wherein the obtaining of the images comprises obtaining a 2D image and a 3D image.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the recognizing of the electric devices comprises:

distinguishing rooms of the home using the 3D image; and

recognizing electric devices of each room using at least one of the 2D and 3D images.

22. The method according to claim 17, further comprising:

determining whether basic information is received from at least one electric device, while moving around the home;

detecting location information of the electric device upon determining that the basic information is received from the electric device; and

matching the basic information and location information of the electric device to the map.

23. The method according to claim 17, further comprising:

operating and moving the moving assembly around the home to perform cleaning if the operation command is a command to execute a cleaning mode;

obtaining images around the main body while performing cleaning;

recognizing an electric device by performing image processing on the obtained images;

determining whether the recognized electric device is a new electric device;

detecting basic information and location information of the recognized electric device upon determining that the recognized electric device is a new electric device; and

updating the map by matching the detected basic information and location information of the electric device to the map.

24. The method according to claim 23, further comprising:

detecting location information of the recognized electric device upon determining that the recognized electric device is a pre-registered electric device;

determining whether the detected location information of the electric device is identical to pre-stored location information of the electric device; and

updating the map by re-storing the location information of the electric device as the detected location information if the detected location information is different from the pre-stored location information.

25. The method according to claim 24, further comprising re-transmitting the updated map to the home monitoring apparatus.

26. The method according to claim 23, wherein the recognizing of the electric device further comprises determining whether basic information is received from at least one electric device, while moving around the home.

27. A home monitoring apparatus comprising:

a communication unit configured to receive a map to which location information of electric devices disposed around a home is matched, from a cleaning robot, and to communicate with at least one of the electric devices;

a controller configured to control operation of the at least one of the electric devices based on the received map; and

a display unit configured to display the map and operation information of the electric devices.

28. The home monitoring apparatus according to claim 27, wherein the map comprises location information of electric devices of each room, and

wherein the controller controls power consumption of each room based on the location information of electric devices of the room.

29. The home monitoring apparatus according to claim 27, further comprising:

an input unit configured to receive information about an unregistered electric device.

30. The home monitoring apparatus according to claim 27, further comprising:

an input unit configured to receive operation information of the electric device,

wherein the controller controls operation of the electric device.