CLEANING ROBOT AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE CLEANING ROBOT

• US 20170273527A1
• Filed: 09/24/2015
• Published: 09/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Han, Seong Joo, Hong, Jun Pyo
• Granted Patent: US 10,660,496 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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: A47L 9/2805 Parameters or conditions being sensed
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2852 Elements for displacement of the vacuum cleaner or the accessories therefor, e.g. wheels, casters or nozzles
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2857 User input or output elements for control, e.g. buttons, switches or displays
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 13/006 by means of a wireless system for controlling one or several manipulators
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 13/086 Proximity sensors
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 13/089 Determining the position of the robot with reference to its environment
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1664 characterised by motion, path, trajectory planning
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/005 with correlation of navigation data from several sources, e.g. map or contour matching G01C21/30 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/206 specially adapted for indoor navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0044 by providing the operator with a computer generated representation of the environment of the vehicle, e.g. virtual reality, maps maps used for automatic navigation G05D1/0274; flight directors G01C23/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

A cleaning robot is provided. The cleaning robot includes a sensor configured to sense obstacle information, and a controller configured to generate a map based on sensed values obtained by the sensor, analyze a structure of the generated map by detecting a region segmentation point from the map, and generate a map image based on an analysis result.

Claims

1. A cleaning robot comprising:

a sensor configured to sense obstacle information; and

a controller configured to generate a map based on sensed values obtained by the sensor, analyze a structure of the generated map by detecting a region segmentation point from the map, and generate a map image based on an analysis result.

2. The cleaning robot of claim 1, wherein the controller determines a plurality of segments included in the map by analyzing the structure of the map, substitutes each of the segments with a figure, and generates the map image by combining a plurality of figures corresponding to the plurality of segments.

3. The cleaning robot of claim 1, wherein the controller detects the region segmentation point based on a width of a section formed by one or more pixels.

4. The cleaning robot of claim 1, wherein the controller detects the region segmentation point based on a width of a section formed by one or more pixels displayed as not having an obstacle while moving a detection point along a frame edge from a branch node to a leaf node among a frame of the map along a frame edge.

5. The cleaning robot of claim 4, wherein while moving the detection, the controller detects the detection point as the region segmentation point when the one or more pixels displayed as not having the obstacle forms a section having a width less than a reference value.

6. The cleaning robot of claim 4, wherein while moving the detection point, when the one or more pixels displayed as not having the obstacle passes from the section having the width less than a reference value to a section having a width of the reference value or more, the controller detects a detection point corresponding to the section having the width less than the reference value as the region segmentation point.

7. The cleaning robot of claim 4, wherein the controller determines a width in at least one of a horizontal direction, a perpendicular direction, and an arbitrary angular direction of the one or more pixels as the width of the section based on a movement direction of the detection point.

8. The cleaning robot of claim 4, wherein the controller determines a width in at least one of a horizontal direction, a perpendicular direction, and an arbitrary angular direction of the one or more pixels as the width of the section based on the detection point.

9. The cleaning robot of claim 4, wherein the controller forms the frame of the map and moves the detection point outward from a center of the frame.

10. The cleaning robot of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises a structure analyzer that comprises a frame generator configured to form a frame of the map, an edge processor configured to remove an unnecessary edge of one or more edges included in the frame and distinguish a central node of the frame from another node, and a region segmentation point detector configured to detect the region segmentation point formed between the central node and the other nodes based on a processing result of the edge processor and the sensed values of the sensor.

11. The cleaning robot of claim 10, wherein when the region segmentation point is detected, the region segmentation point detector distinguishes one or more pixels formed toward the other nodes from the region segmentation point as one segment.

12. The cleaning robot of claim 10, further comprising a map processor configured to arrange an external shape of the map uniform.

13. The cleaning robot of claim 10, wherein the controller further comprises a region segmenter configured to determine a plurality of segments included in the map based on the structure of the map analyzed by the structure analyzer.

14. The cleaning robot of claim 13, wherein the controller further comprises a postprocessor configured to substitute each of the segments with a preset figure based on information with respect to the segments.

17. The cleaning robot of claim 1, wherein the controller detects a plan view corresponding to the generated map image and generates another map image based on the corresponding plan view.

15-16. -16. (canceled)

18-21. -21. (canceled)

22. A cleaning robot comprising a storage in which at least one program is stored and a controller configured to display a map image by executing the at least one program,

wherein the at least one program comprises commands for executing operations of:

receiving a map generation command input from a user;

receiving a map image from a main apparatus; and

displaying the map image,

wherein the map image comprises information on a region segmentation point and a segment generated based on a result of detecting an obstacle by the main apparatus.

23. The cleaning robot of claim 22, wherein the map image comprises a combination of preset figures.

25. The cleaning robot of claim 22, wherein the displaying of the map image comprises displaying a position of the main apparatus.

26. The cleaning robot of claim 22, wherein the at least one program further comprises a command for executing an operation of receiving a selection of a user about a random segment of a plurality of such segments displayed on the map image and moving the main apparatus to the selected segment.

24. (canceled)

27. A method of controlling a cleaning robot, comprising:

sensing obstacle information;

generating a map based on the sensed obstacle information;

analyzing a structure of the map by detecting a region segmentation point and a segment from the map; and

generating a map image based on the structure of the map.

28-29. -29. (canceled)