Dust detection method and apparatus for cleaning robot

• US 20050192707A1
• Filed: 01/06/2005
• Published: 09/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Inventors: Park, Jun-ho, Park, Dong-ryeol
• Granted Patent: US 7,920,941 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/259
• 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 9/281 the amount or condition of incoming dirt or dust
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2857 User input or output elements for control, e.g. buttons, switches or displays
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/30 Arrangement of illuminating devices
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0246 using a video camera in combination with image processing means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0272 comprising means for registering the travel distance, e.g. revolutions of wheels measuring distance traversed on the ground by vehicles, e.g. using odometers G01C22/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30

Abstract

A dust detection method and apparatus of a cleaning robot. The dust detection method involves acquiring a floor image as a current floor image of a predetermined place at a current location of the cleaning robot in the predetermined place; obtaining a difference image between the current floor image and a background image selected from a feature map consisting of a plurality of floor images of the predetermined place; and detecting a dusty area based on the difference image and adjusting a cleaning power of the cleaning robot.

Claims

1. A dust detection method of a cleaning robot, comprising:

acquiring a floor image as a current floor image of a predetermined place at a current location of the cleaning robot in the predetermined place;

obtaining a difference image between the current floor image and a background image selected from a feature map including a plurality of floor images of the predetermined place; and

detecting a dusty area based on the difference image and adjusting a cleaning power of the cleaning robot.

2. The dust detection method of claim 1, wherein the feature map is generated by causing the cleaning robot to remove dust and dirt on the floor of the predetermined place, acquiring floor images of the predetermined place, and storing, as a map, the acquired floor images and the respective locations of the cleaning robot provided by a localization system.

3. The dust detection method of claim 1, wherein, when the current floor image is identical to a previous floor image already stored in the feature map, that the identity of the current floor image with the previous floor image is displayed on the feature map, otherwise, the current floor image is stored in the feature map separately from the previous floor image.

4. The dust detection method of claim 1, wherein, in the acquiring, an illumination unit of the cleaning robot is turned on when acquiring the current floor image.

5. The dust detection method of claim 1, wherein, in the acquiring, a portion of the current floor image which needs to be processed is determined based on the speed of the cleaning robot.

6. The dust detection method of claim 1, wherein, when the plurality of floor images of the feature map have no patterns, one of the plurality of floor images is selected as the background image, otherwise, the obtaining includes:

performing template matching on the current floor image and each of the plurality of floor images of the feature map;

performing template matching on the current floor image and each of the plurality of floor images of the feature map;

comparing a maximum among similarities obtained as template matching results with a predetermined reference value; and

selecting one of the plurality of floor images of the feature map corresponding to the maximum similarity as the background image when the maximum similarity is larger than the predetermined reference value and setting the cleaning power of the cleaning robot to a maximum level when the maximum similarity is not larger than the predetermined reference value.

7. The dust detection method of claim 6, wherein in the selecting, when one of the plurality of floor images of the feature map is selected as the background image, a distance that the cleaning robot has moved is calculated based on the location of the background image in the feature map, and an error in the calculated distance that the cleaning robot moved is compensated for.

8. A computer-readable recording medium encoded with processing instructions for causing a processor to execute a dust detection method of a cleaning robot, the method comprising:

acquiring a floor image as a current floor image of a predetermined place at a current location of the cleaning robot in the predetermined place;

obtaining a difference image between the current floor image and a background image selected from a feature map including a plurality of floor images of the predetermined place; and

detecting a dusty area based on the difference image and adjusting a cleaning power of the cleaning robot.

9. A dust detection apparatus of a cleaning robot, comprising:

an image acquisition unit which acquires a floor image as a current floor image of a predetermined place at a current location of the cleaning robot in the predetermined place;

and

a control unit which obtains a difference image between the current floor image and a background image selected from among the plurality of floor images of a feature map having a plurality of floor images of the predetermined place, detects a dusty area based on the difference image, and adjusts the cleaning power of the cleaning robot.

10. The dust detection apparatus of claim 9, wherein the feature map is generated by causing the cleaning robot to remove dust and dirt on the floor of the predetermined place, acquire floor images of the predetermined place, and store, as a map, the acquired floor images and the respective locations of the cleaning robot provided by a localization system.

11. The dust detection apparatus of claim 9, wherein, when the current floor image is identical to a previous floor image already stored in the feature map, the identity of the current floor image with the previous floor image is displayed on the feature map, otherwise, the current floor image is stored in the feature map separately from the previous floor image.

12. The dust detection apparatus of claim 9, wherein, when the plurality of floor images of the feature map have no figures, the control unit selects one of the plurality of floor images is selected as the background image, otherwise, the control unit performs template matching on the current floor image and each of the plurality of floor images of the feature map, comparing a maximum among similarities obtained as template matching results with a predetermined reference value, and selects one of the plurality of floor images of the feature map corresponding to the maximum similarity as the background image when the maximum similarity is larger than the predetermined reference value and sets the cleaning power of the cleaning robot to a maximum level when the maximum similarity is not larger than the predetermined reference value.

13. The dust detection apparatus of claim 12, wherein, when one of the plurality of floor images of the feature map is selected as the background image, the control unit calculates a distance that the cleaning robot moved based on the location of the background image in the feature map and compensates for an error in the calculated distance that the cleaning robot has moved.

14. The dust detection apparatus of claim 9, further comprising an illumination unit which is turned on when the image acquisition unit acquires the current floor image.

15. The dust detection apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a memory which stores the feature map.

16. A cleaning robot, comprising:

an image acquisition unit acquires floor images of a predetermined place in which the cleaning robot moves while performing a cleaning process;

an image processing unit which performs treatments on the acquired floor image; and

a control unit which obtains a obtain difference images between the acquired floor images and a plurality of floor images of a feature map, detects an area with the use of the difference images, and adjusts the cleaning power of the cleaning robot.

17. The cleaning robot of claim 16, wherein the image acquisition unit may be a camera with a wide angle or super-wide angle lens (e.g., a fisheye lens).

18. The cleaning robot of claim 17, wherein the treatments include distortion compensation and pre-treatment processes.

19. The cleaning robot of claim 16, wherein the control unit adjusts the cleaning power based on the size of the area that requires cleaning.

20. The cleaning robot of claim 16, further comprises an illumination unit which is turned on by the control unit when the image acquisition unit acquires floor images.

21. The cleaning robot of claim 16, further comprises a memory which stores a plurality of floor images of the predetermined place and the respective locations of the cleaning robot in the predetermined place as the feature map.

22. The cleaning robot of claim 16, further comprising an odometry unit which determines a distance that the cleaning robot has moved.

23. The cleaning robot of claim 22, wherein the odometry unit is an encoder.

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

loading a feature map;

detecting a dusty area;

adjusting the cleaning power of the cleaning robot to a calculated cleaning power;

determining whether the dusty area is larger than one grid, which is a maximum cleaning area of the cleaning robot in any location;

moving the cleaning robot to a grid nearest to a current location, when the dusty area is determined to be larger than one grid, modifying an existing cleaning path, performs a cleaning operation in the nearest grid, and upon completing the cleaning operation, returning to the current location;

performing a cleaning operation by following an existing cleaning path when the dusty area is smaller than one grid, displaying grids which have already been cleaned and other grids which are yet to be cleaned by the cleaning robot; and

judging whether the cleaning robot has completed its cleaning operation in all grids zones and, when the cleaning robot has not yet completed its cleaning operation in all grids repeating the detecting, adjusting, determining, moving, performing, and judging.

25. A computer-readable recording medium encoded with processing instructions for causing a processor to execute a method of controlling a cleaning robot, the method comprising:

loading a feature map;

detecting a dusty area;

adjusting the cleaning power of the cleaning robot to a calculated cleaning power;

determining whether the dusty area is larger than one grid, which is a maximum cleaning area of the cleaning robot in any location;

moving the cleaning robot to a grid nearest to a current location, when the dusty area is determined to be larger than one grid, modifying an existing cleaning path, performs a cleaning operation in the nearest grid, and upon completing the cleaning operation, returning to the current location;

performing a cleaning operation by following an existing cleaning path when the dusty area is smaller than one grid, displaying grids which have already been cleaned and other grids which are yet to be cleaned by the cleaning robot; and

judging whether the cleaning robot has completed its cleaning operation in all grids zones and, when the cleaning robot has not yet completed its cleaning operation in all grids repeating the detecting, adjusting, determining, moving, performing, and judging.