Positioning system of sweeper and positioning method of the positioning system

• US 9,516,984 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2015
• Issued: 12/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cal-Comp Electronics & Communications Company Limited (Cal-Comp Electronics Public Company Limited), Kinpo Electronics Incorporated (Cal-Comp Electronics Public Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Cal-Comp Electronics & Communications Company Limited (Cal-Comp Electronics Public Company Limited), Kinpo Electronics Incorporated (Cal-Comp Electronics Public Company Limited)
• Inventors: Chang, Chuan-Wang, Chuang, Ming-Wei, Lin, Yu-Ta
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dunn, Alex C
• Application Number:
  US14/674,166
• Publication Number:
  US 20160198919A1
• Time in Patent Office: 623 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4011 Regulation of the cleaning machine by electric means; Control systems and remote control systems therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4066 Propulsion of the whole machine
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/04 Automatic control of the travelling movement; Automatic obstacle detection
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/12 using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/783 using amplitude comparison of signals derived from static detectors or detector systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0054 of actual mobile position, i.e. position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/16 using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0234 using optical markers or beacons optical beacons per se G01S1/70

Abstract

A positioning system comprises a sweeper and a positioning device arranged on a ceiling. The sweeper has a lighting component for emitting light. The positioning device at least has a height measuring unit and a plurality of light-sensitive units. The positioning device measures a vertical distance between the positioning device and a floor through the height measuring unit. The positioning device receives the light emitted from the emitting light of the sweeper through the light-sensitive units, and calculates an oblique distance between the positioning device and the sweeper based on different strengths of the light respectively received from each of the plurality of light-sensitive units. Therefore, the positioning device can calculates a parallel distance between the positioning device and the sweeper based on the vertical distance and the oblique distance, and further determines a related position of the sweeper opposite to the positioning device.

Claims

1. A positioning system, comprising:

a sweeper having a lighting component; and

a positioning device having a height measuring unit and a plurality of light-sensitive units and arranged on a ceiling, measuring a vertical distance between the positioning device and a floor through the height measuring unit, receiving light emitted from the lighting component through the plurality of light-sensitive units and calculating an oblique distance between the positioning device and the sweeper based on light strengths respectively received by each of the plurality of light-sensitive units, wherein the positioning device calculates a parallel distance between the positioning device and the sweeper based on the vertical distance and the oblique distance.

2. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein the oblique distance comprises a linear distance between the positioning device and the sweeper, and a direction of the sweeper opposite to the positioning device, and the positioning device calculates a related position of the sweeper opposite to the positioning device based on the direction and the parallel distance.

3. The positioning system of claim 2, wherein the sweeper comprises a wireless transmission module, the positioning device comprises a wireless transmission unit, and the positioning device transmits the related position to the sweeper through the wireless transmission module and the wireless transmission unit.

4. The positioning system of claim 2, wherein the sweeper comprises a shell, and the lighting component is arranged on a top face of the shell.

5. The positioning system of claim 4, wherein the lighting component is light emitting diode (LED), and if an amount of the lighting component is plural, the plurality of lighting components have same wavelength.

6. The positioning system of claim 5, wherein an amount of the sweeper is plural, and each lighting component of each sweeper respectively has different wavelength.

7. The positioning system of claim 5, wherein an amount of the sweeper is plural, and each lighting component of each sweeper respectively emits light in different frequency.

8. The positioning system of claim 2, wherein the positioning device further comprises:

a memory unit storing a calculating program; and

a processing unit electrically connected with the height measuring unit, the plurality of light-sensitive units and the memory unit, the processing unit calculating the vertical distance, the oblique distance, the parallel distance, the direction and the related position through executing the calculating program, wherein the calculating program calculates the parallel distance by executing a trigonometric conversion based on the vertical distance and the oblique distance.

9. The positioning system of claim 2, wherein the positioning device comprises a housing, the height measuring unit is arranged on a bottom of the housing and exposed out of the housing.

10. The positioning system of claim 9, wherein the height measuring unit is infrared transceiver, and the positioning device emits downward an infrared to the floor through the infrared transceiver to calculate the vertical distance based on reflection information.

11. The positioning system of claim 2, wherein the positioning device comprises a housing and at least one separating mechanism arranged on a side face of the housing, the separating mechanism separates multiple sensitive areas for the positioning device, the plurality of light-sensitive units are respectively arranged on the multiple sensitive areas, and an amount of the plurality of light-sensitive units is according to that of the multiple sensitive areas.

12. A positioning method of a positioning system, the positioning system comprising a sweeper having a lighting component and a positioning device having a height measuring unit and a plurality of light-sensitive units, wherein the positioning device being arranged on a ceiling, and the positioning method comprising:

a) measuring a vertical distance between the positioning device and a floor through the height measuring unit;

b) receiving light emitted from the lighting component through the plurality of light-sensitive units;

c) calculating an oblique distance between the positioning device and the sweeper through light strengths respectively received by each of the plurality of light-sensitive units; and

d) calculating a parallel distance between the positioning device and the sweeper based on the vertical distance and the oblique distance.

13. The positioning method of claim 12, wherein the oblique distance comprises a linear distance between the positioning device and the sweeper, and a direction of the sweeper opposite to the positioning device, and the positioning method further comprises a step e):

calculating a related position of the sweeper opposite to the positioning device based on the direction and the parallel distance.

14. The positioning method of claim 13, wherein further comprises a step f):

transmitting the related position from the positioning device to the sweeper.

15. The positioning method of claim 14, wherein further comprises a step g):

transmitting a working data from the positioning device to the sweeper, wherein the working data comprises finished tasks and unfinished tasks of the sweeper.

16. The positioning method of claim 13, wherein the positioning device comprises a housing and at least one separating mechanism arranged on a side face of the housing, the separating mechanism separates multiple sensitive areas for the positioning device, the plurality of light-sensitive units are respectively arranged on the multiple sensitive areas, and an amount of the plurality of light-sensitive units is according to that of the multiple sensitive areas.