Robot cleaner and control method thereof

• US 9,149,167 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2012
• Issued: 10/06/2015
• 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, Kim, Won Kuk, Chung, Woo Ram, Han, Kyu Sun, Song, Suk Hoon
• Primary Examiner(s): Olszewski, John R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Foster, Gerrad A
• Application Number:
  US13/404,674
• Publication Number:
  US 20130000675A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,320 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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, by a processor, a cleaning path to clean the territory about which cleaning will be performed;

if the cleaning path includes a zigzag traveling path including a straight part and a turnabout part, performing curved traveling of the robot cleaner in order to change the traveling direction of the robot cleaner without stopping,

wherein the performing of the curved traveling of the robot cleaner includes reducing a linear velocity of the robot cleaner to a predetermined linear velocity greater than zero and increasing an angular velocity of the robot cleaner while constantly maintaining the predetermined linear velocity.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. The control method according to claim 4, 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.

6. 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.

13. 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.

7. 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;

an obstacle sensing unit including an ultrasonic or an optical sensor to sense an obstacle located in the cleaning area; and

a control unit to control the travelling of the robot cleaner,

wherein if cleaning path includes a zigzag traveling path including a straight part and a turnabout part, to perform curved traveling of the robot cleaner in order to change the traveling direction of the robot cleaner without stopping,

wherein the curved traveling of the robot cleaner includes reducing a linear velocity of the robot cleaner to a predetermined linear velocity greater than zero and increasing an angular velocity of the robot cleaner while constantly maintaining the predetermined linear velocity.

8. The robot cleaner according to claim 7, 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.

9. The robot cleaner according to claim 7, 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.

10. The robot cleaner according to claim 7, 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.

11. The robot cleaner according to claim 7, 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.

12. 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, by a processor, a cleaning path to clean the territory about which cleaning will be performed;

if the cleaning path includes a zigzag traveling path including a straight part and a turnabout part, setting in advance the zigzag traveling path so as to allow the robot cleaner to execute curved traveling without stopping,

wherein the curved traveling of the robot cleaner includes reducing a linear velocity of the robot cleaner to a predetermined linear velocity greater than zero and increasing an angular velocity of the robot cleaner while constantly maintaining the predetermined linear velocity.

14. 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, the generating comprising;

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

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

wherein the change in linear velocity and angular velocity includes reducing the linear velocity of the robot cleaner to a predetermined linear velocity greater than zero and increasing the angular velocity of the robot cleaner while constantly maintaining the predetermined linear velocity.