ROBOT CLEANER AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME

• US 20160022107A1
• Filed: 06/08/2015
• Published: 01/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: KIM, Bongju, LEE, Sunghun, CHO, Ilsoo
• Granted Patent: US 9,782,050 B2
• Time in Patent Office: 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 2201/022 Recharging of batteries
• 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: G05D 1/0094 involving pointing a payload, e.g. camera, weapon, sensor, towards a fixed or moving target
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30261 Obstacle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/97 Determining parameters from multiple pictures depth or shape recovery from multiple images G06T7/55; stereo camera calibration G06T7/85
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/58 Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1966 Wireless systems, other than telephone systems, used to communicate with a camera
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 Mobile robot

Abstract

A method of controlling a robot cleaner includes recognizing information on a monitoring standby position by a robot cleaner, moving to the monitoring standby position at a monitoring start time by the robot cleaner, acquiring an image, by an image acquisition unit of the robot cleaner, at the monitoring standby position, determining whether an event has occurred, by the robot cleaner, based on the image acquired by the image acquisition unit, transmitting the image acquired by the image acquisition unit to an external remote terminal when it is determined that the event occurred.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a robot cleaner comprising:

recognizing information on a monitoring standby position, by a robot cleaner;

moving to the monitoring standby position at a monitoring start time, by the robot cleaner;

acquiring an image at the monitoring standby position, by an image acquisition unit of the robot cleaner;

determining whether an event has occurred, by the robot cleaner, based on the image acquired by the image acquisition unit; and

transmitting the image acquired by the image acquisition unit to an external remote terminal when it is determined that the event occurred.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein when the monitoring start time is a current time, the robot cleaner recognizes the information on the monitoring standby position and then moves to the monitoring standby position.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein when the monitoring start time is after a current time, the robot cleaner stands by an initial position and when the current time reaches the monitoring start time, the robot cleaner moves to the monitoring standby position.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the initial position is a position at which the robot cleaner is docked at a charging device.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a monitoring position determination command from the remote terminal;

moving to the monitoring standby position received from the external remote terminal;

activating the image acquisition unit;

transmitting the image acquired by the image acquisition unit to the external remote terminal; and

receiving a position determination command from the external remote terminal.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

returning to the charging device after receiving the position determination command from the external remote terminal.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the recognizing of information on a monitoring standby position, the robot cleaner retrieves a monitoring standby position stored in a cleaner memory.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the moving to the monitoring standby position comprises:

determining whether there is an obstacle at the monitoring standby position; and

moving to a changed monitoring standby position at which the obstacle is avoided, by the robot cleaner, if there is the obstacle at the monitoring standby position.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the moving to the monitoring standby position further comprises:

determining whether a distance between the monitoring standby position and the changed monitoring standby position is greater than a predetermined distance; and

transmitting a message to the external remote terminal regarding changing the monitoring standby position when the distance between the monitoring standby position and the changed monitoring standby position is greater than the predetermined distance.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining of whether an event has occurred comprises:

comparing, by the robot cleaner, a plurality of images to determine whether there is a difference between images; and

determining that the event occurred when there is the difference between the images.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein in the determining of whether an event has occurred, the robot cleaner divides the images into a plurality of pixels and determines whether there is a difference in the pixels.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting of the image acquired by the image acquisition unit comprises transmitting to the external remote terminal an image acquired after the event occurred.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting of the image acquired by the image acquisition unit comprises transmitting to the external remote terminal an image used for determining whether the event has occurred.

14. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a current time reaches a monitoring termination time, by the robot cleaner; and

deactivating the image acquisition unit when the current time reaches the monitoring termination time.

15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising returning to a charging device, by the robot cleaner, when the current time reaches the monitoring termination time.

16. The method according to claim 14, further comprising:

determining an amount of a battery charge before the current time reaches the monitoring termination time, by the robot cleaner; and

returning to the charging device for charging the battery, by the robot cleaner, before the current time reaches the monitoring termination time when the remaining amount is a reference amount or smaller.

17. The method according to claim 16, further comprising transmitting a monitoring termination notification message to the external remote terminal, by the robot cleaner, when the amount of the battery charge is the reference amount or smaller.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining of whether an event has occurred comprises:

acquiring a voice from a voice acquisition unit in the robot cleaner; and

determining whether the event occurred based on the voice acquired by the voice acquisition unit.

19. A robot cleaner comprising:

a robot cleaner main body;

an image acquisition unit in the robot cleaner main body;

a cleaner communication unit in the robot cleaner main body and communicating with an external remote terminal;

a cleaner memory to store an image acquired by the image acquisition unit; and

a cleaner controller to determine whether an event has occurred based on the image acquired by the image acquisition unit,

wherein the cleaner controller recognizes a monitoring start time and then directs the robot cleaner main body to move to a monitoring standby position when a current time reaches a monitoring start time,

determines whether the event occurred based on the image acquired by the image acquisition unit at the monitoring standby position, and

controls the cleaner communication unit to transmit the aquired image which is stored in the cleaner memory to the external remote terminal when it is determined that the event has occurred.

20. The robot cleaner according to claim 19, further comprising:

a voice acquisition unit installed in the robot cleaner main body,

wherein the cleaner controller additionally determines whether the event occurred based on a voice acquired by the voice acquisition unit.

21. A method for controlling a robot cleaner comprising:

recognizing information on a monitoring standby position, by a robot cleaner;

determining whether a movement condition that the robot cleaner moves to the monitoring standby position is satisfied;

moving to the monitoring standby position when the movement condition is satisfied;

acquiring an image at the monitoring standby position, by an image acquisition unit of the robot cleaner;

determining whether an event has occurred, by the robot cleaner, based on the image acquired by the image acquisition unit; and

transmitting to an external remote terminal the image acquired by the image acquisition unit when it is determined that the event occurred.