CLEANER AND CONTROLLING METHOD OF THE SAME

• US 20120109376A1
• Filed: 10/25/2011
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: LEE, Seongsu, KIM, Yiebin, CHOE, Suuk, YI, Donghoon, BAEK, Seungmin
• Granted Patent: US 9,052,719 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/259
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0219 ensuring the processing of the whole working surface
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0227 using mechanical sensing means, e.g. for sensing treated area
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/024 in combination with a laser lasers per se H01S
• 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: G05D 1/0255 using acoustic signals, e.g. ultra-sonic singals sonar systems designed for anti-collision purposes G01S15/93
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0257 using a radar radar systems designed for anti-collision purposes between land vehicles or between land vehicle and fixed obstacles G01S13/931
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/027 comprising intertial navigation means, e.g. azimuth detector inertial navigation G01C21/16; inertial navigation combined with non-inertial navigation instruments G01C21/165
• 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

Disclosed are a robot cleaner and a method for controlling the same. The robot cleaner may prevent repeated executions of a cleaning operation by recognizing its position through an absolute position recognition unit, in a case that the cleaning operation is performed again after being forcibly stopped due to arbitrary causes. And, the robot cleaner may solve a position recognition error by a relative position recognition unit with using an image detection unit, and may effectively perform a cleaning operation based on a similarity between an image detected by the image detection unit and an image with respect to a cleaning region. This may improve the system efficiency and stability, and enhance a user'"'"'s convenience.

Claims

1. A robot cleaner, comprising:

a detection unit to detect structures within a cleaning region;

a storage unit to store information regarding the detected structures; and

a control unit to compare information regarding the structures detected by the detection unit after a stopped cleaning operation is restarted with structure information stored in the storage unit before the cleaning operation was stopped, and to initiate a cleaning operation with respect to the cleaning region by recognizing an absolute position of the robot cleaner based on the comparison.

2. The robot cleaner of claim 1, wherein the control unit determines whether the cleaning region is a cleaned region based the comparison.

3. The robot cleaner of claim 1, wherein the detection unit comprises an image detection unit to capture one or more images of one or more structures at an upper side or a front side of the robot cleaner.

4. The robot cleaner of claim 3, wherein the storage unit stores image information of the captured images.

5. The robot cleaner of claim 4, wherein the control unit extracts one or more feature points from image information of the images captured after the stopped cleaning operation was re-started, and wherein the control unit extracts one or more feature points from image information stored in the storage unit before the cleaning operation was stopped.

6. The robot cleaner of claim 5, wherein the feature points comprise feature point information including at least one of a position of the feature point, an orientation of the feature point and a descriptor of the feature point.

7. The robot cleaner of claim 6, wherein the control unit calculates one or more similarities between the one or more feature points from image information of the images captured after the stopped cleaning operation was restarted and the one or more feature points from image information stored in the storage unit before the cleaning operation was stopped, wherein the similarities are calculated based on the feature point information of the feature points, and wherein an absolute position of the robot cleaner is recognized based the calculated similarities.

8. A robot cleaner, comprising:

an image detection unit to capture images of structures within a cleaning region;

a storage unit to store image information regarding the captured images and to store information of a cleaned region and a non-cleaned region; and

a control unit to compare the image information stored in the storage unit before a cleaning operation was stopped with image information of images captured by the image detection unit after the stopped cleaning operation was restarted, and to initiate a cleaning operation with respect to the non-cleaned region based on the comparison.

9. The robot cleaner of claim 8, wherein the control unit comprises:

a feature point extraction module to extract feature points from the image information stored in the storage unit before the cleaning operation was stopped and from the image information of images captured by the image detection unit after the stopped cleaning operation was restarted;

a similarity calculation module to calculate a similarity between the feature points; and

a position recognition module to recognize a position of the robot cleaner based on the similarity calculation.

10. The robot cleaner of claim 9, wherein the control unit further comprises:

a region determination module to determine whether a cleaning region on a position recognized by the position recognition module is a non-cleaned region; and

a control module configured to initiate a cleaning operation with respect to the non-cleaned region based on a determination of the region determination module.

11. The robot cleaner of claim 9, wherein the feature points comprise feature point information including at least one of a position of the feature point, an orientation of the feature point and a descriptor of the feature point.

12. A method for controlling a robot cleaner, the method comprising:

detecting one or more structures within a cleaning region before a cleaning operation is stopped;

storing information regarding the detected structures;

detecting one or more structures within the cleaning region after the stopped cleaning operation is re-started;

comparing the information regarding the structures detected after the stopped cleaning operation is re-started with the stored structure information; and

recognizing an absolute position of the robot cleaner based the comparison.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising initiating a cleaning operation with respect to the cleaning region based on the absolute position of the robot cleaner.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining whether the cleaning region has been already cleaned based on the comparison, and wherein the cleaning operation is initiated based on the determination.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the steps of detecting one or more structures within a cleaning region includes capturing one or more images of the one or more structures at an upper side or a front side of the robot cleaner.

16. The method of claim 15, further extracting one or more feature points from image information of the images captured after the stopped cleaning operation is restarted and extracting one or more feature points from image information stored before the cleaning operation was stopped.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the feature points comprise feature point information including at least one of a position of the feature point, an orientation of the feature point and a descriptor of the feature point.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising calculating one or more similarities between the one or more feature points from the image information of the images captures after the stopped cleaning operation was restarted and the one or more feature points from the stored image information, wherein the similarities are calculated based on the feature point information.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the similarities are compared with each other in the comparing step.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein if the similarity is less than a predetermined value as a comparison result in the comparing step, then the robot cleaner is moved to another cleaning region to initiate the cleaning operation.