Self-moving robot

• US 10,609,862 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2015
• Issued: 04/07/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Positec Technology (China) Co., Ltd. (Positec Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: Positec Technology (China) Co., Ltd. (Positec Group Limited)
• Inventors: Wu, Xinyu, Fu, Ruiqing, Guo, Huiwen, Wu, Shuanglong, Shao, Yong, Sun, Gen
• Primary Examiner(s): Do, Truc M
• Application Number:
  US15/513,106
• Publication Number:
  US 20180125003A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,658 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A01D 2101/00 Lawn-mowers
• CPC Class Codes: A01D 34/00 Mowers combined with apparatus performing additional operations while mowing A01D37/00 - A01D41/00, A01D43/00; convertible to apparatus for purposes other than mowing or capable of performing operations other than mowing A01D42/00; Mowing apparatus of harvesters
• CPC Class Codes: A01D 34/008 for automated or remotely controlled operation
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2021/8466 Investigation of vegetal material, e.g. leaves, plants, fruits
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/86 Combinations of lidar systems with systems other than lidar, radar or sonar, e.g. with direction finders
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/89 for mapping or imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/2013 Plural light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/204 using secondary light emission, e.g. luminescence or fluorescence using different colours G03B33/00; if related to video signals H04N9/3197
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0242 using non-visible light signals, e.g. IR or UV signals
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0246 using a video camera in combination with image processing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/141 Control of illumination
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/431 Frequency domain transformation; Autocorrelation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/462 Salient features, e.g. scale invariant feature transforms [SIFT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/52 Scale-space analysis, e.g. wavelet analysis multi-scale boundary representations G06V10/42
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/54 relating to texture
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/56 relating to colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/10 Terrestrial scenes scenes under surveillance with static cameras G06V20/52; scenes perceived from the exterior of a vehicle G06V20/56; scenes perceived from the interior of a vehicle G06V20/59

Abstract

The invention discloses a self-moving robot, comprising a light emitter, emitting light in a specific wavelength range to the ground; an image capturing device, matched with the light emitter to receive the light in a specific wavelength range to form an image based on the light in a specific wavelength range; and the controller comprises a ground type recognizing module, which extracts features in the image to recognize the ground type in the image. By disposing the light emitter and the image capturing device which are matched to emit and receive the light in a specific wavelength range, an influence of the ambient light on the image is reduced, such that the self-moving robot can accurately recognize the ground type at every moment and in every location, even at night when there is no light source.

Claims

1. A self-moving robot, comprising

a shell,

a driving module, mounted on the shell and driving the shell to move relative to the ground;

a working module, mounted on the shell and executing a set working task; and

a controller, mounted on the shell and connected with and controlling the driving module and working module to work,

wherein the self-moving robot is characterized by further comprising a light emitter, emitting light in a specific wavelength range to the ground;

an image capturing device, matched with the light emitter to receive the light in the specific wavelength range to form an image based on the light in the specific wavelength range; and

the controller comprises a ground type recognizing module, which extracts features in the image to recognize the ground type in the image,

the self-moving robot characterized in that the self-moving robot is a gardening robot, the ground type recognizing module is a grassland recognizing module, and the ground type in the image recognized by the grassland recognizing module is grassland or non-grassland.

2. The self-moving robot according to claim 1, characterized in that the grassland recognizing module comprises at least one of a dispersion recognizing element, a frequency domain recognizing element and a texture recognizing element.

3. The self-moving robot according to claim 1, characterized in that the image capturing device comprises a light filter layer, which filters light outside the specific wavelength range.

4. The self-moving robot according to claim 1, characterized in that the light emitter is an invisible light emitter.

5. The self-moving robot according to claim 3, characterized in that the light emitter is an infrared light emitter, and the light filter layer is an infrared filter layer.

6. The self-moving robot according to claim 1, characterized in that the light emitter is a laser emitter.

7. The self-moving robot according to claim 6, characterized in that laser emitted from a light source of the laser emitter is emitted away from the self-moving robot from an opening, and a distance between the light source and the opening is larger than or equal to 3 cm.

8. The self-moving robot according to claim 1, characterized in that the light emitter comprises a line light source.

9. The self-moving robot according to claim 1, characterized in that the light emitter and the image capturing device face towards the same area to be recognized on the ground.

10. The self-moving robot according to claim 9, characterized in that the same area to be recognized is located on the ground in front of the shell.

11. The self-moving robot according to claim 1, characterized in that the width of a framing range of the image capturing device is larger than or equal to half of the width of the shell.

12. The self-moving robot according to claim 1, characterized in that a plurality of image capturing devices and/or light emitters are disposed.

13. The self-moving robot according to claim 1, characterized in that an isolating part is disposed between the image capturing device and/or the light emitter and the ground.

14. The self-moving robot according to claim 1, wherein the image capturing device has an exposure time smaller than 0.1 s.

15. The self-moving robot according to claim 1, characterized in that the controller further comprises a driving control element, which controls a driving direction of the driving module according to a recognized result of the ground type recognizing module.