LOCAL OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE WALKING METHOD OF SELF-MOVING ROBOT

• US 20170075353A1
• Filed: 04/14/2015
• Published: 03/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ecovacs Robotics (Suzhou) Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Ecovacs Robotics (Suzhou) Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: TANG, Jinju
• Granted Patent: US 10,423,160 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 1/02 Power-driven machines or devices
• 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 11/4061 Steering means; Means for avoiding obstacles; Details related to the place where the driver is accommodated
• 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: G05D 1/02 Control of position or course in two dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0214 in accordance with safety or protection criteria, e.g. avoiding hazardous areas monitoring the location of vehicles within a certain area, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas, in traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/13
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0219 ensuring the processing of the whole working surface

Abstract

A local obstacle avoidance walking method of a self-moving robot, comprising: step 100: the self-moving robot walks in a first direction, and when an obstacle is detected, the self-moving robot translates for a displacement M1 in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and step 200: determining whether the self-moving robot is able to continue to walk in the first direction after the translation, if a result of the determination is positive, the self-moving robot continues to walk in the first direction, and if the result of the determination is negative, the self-moving robot acts according to a preset instruction. The method enables the robot to accurately avoid a local obstacle, provides a concise walking route, shortens the determination time, and improves the working efficiency of the self-moving robot.

Claims

1. An obstacle avoidance walking method of a self-moving robot, in a walking area of the self moving robot, a rectangular plane coordinate system is established with the horizontal direction as the X axis and the vertical direction as the Y axis, characterized in that, the method specifically comprises the following steps:

step 100;

the self-moving robot walks along the Y axis, when the self-moving robot walks forwardly along the Y axis and detects obstacle, it sets an obstacle point at the current position as an upside obstacle point and stores valid upside obstacle points as upside recorded points;

when the self-moving robot walks reversely along the Y axis and detects obstacle, it sets an obstacle point at the current position as a downside obstacle point and stores valid downside obstacle points as downside recorded points;

step 200;

according to storage sequence, the upside recorded points are classified into a current upside recorded point and previous upside recorded points, and the downside recorded points are classified into a current downside recorded point and previous downside recorded points;

step 300;

if the current obstacle point is the upside obstacle point, it is determined whether there is before the current upside obstacle point a previous upside recorded point the Y-axis coordinate of which is less than that of the current upside obstacle point; and

if the current obstacle point is the downside obstacle point, it is determined whether there is before the current downside obstacle point a previous downside recorded point, the Y-axis coordinate of which is larger than that of the current downside obstacle point;

step 400;

if the determination result is positive, the previous upside recorded point or the previous downside recorded point is a turning point, the self-moving robot walks along the X axis from the current obstacle point toward the turning point to the X-axis coordinate of the turning point, deletes the coordinate of the turning point, and returns to the step 100 after completing traversal walking in an area between the turning point and the current obstacle point; and

if the determination result is negative, the self-moving robot moves for a displacement M1 along the X axis;

step 500;

the self-moving robot walks along a direction opposite to the former Y-axis walking direction, and returns to the step 100;

step 600;

the step 100 to the step 500 are repeated until traversal walking in the walking area is completed.

2. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 1, characterized in that, the step 100 specifically further comprises:

if the Y-axis coordinate of the current upside obstacle point is different from that of each of the previous upside recorded points, the current upside obstacle point is the valid upside obstacle point; and

if the Y-axis coordinate of the current downside obstacle point is different from that of each of the previous downside recorded points, the current downside obstacle point is the valid downside obstacle point.

3. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 1, characterized in that, the step 100 specifically further comprises:

each of the upside obstacle points is the valid upside obstacle point; and

each of the downside obstacle points is the valid downside obstacle point.

4. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 3, characterized in that, the step 400 specifically further comprises:

if the determination result is positive, difference values of the X-axis coordinates of all of the upside recorded points or the downside recorded points that satisfy the determination condition from the X-axis coordinate of the current obstacle point are compared, and the upside recorded point or the downside recorded point having the largest difference value is taken as the turning point.

5. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 4, characterized in that, the step 400 specifically further comprises:

if the determination result is positive, the coordinates of all of the upside recorded points or the downside recorded points that satisfy the determination condition are deleted.

6. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 1, characterized in that, the step 400 specifically further comprises:

if the self-moving robot detects obstacle again before reaching the X axis coordinate of the turning point, the coordinate of the turning point is deleted and the method proceeds to the step 500.

7. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 1, characterized in that, in the step 400, the self-moving robot performs traversal walking in the area between the turning point and the current obstacle point in the same walking mode as it completes traversal walking in the walking area in the step 600.

8. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 1, characterized in that, after the step 400, further comprising:

step 410;

it is determined whether the self-moving robot can walk along the former Y-axis walking direction, if the determination result is positive, the self-moving robot walks along the former Y-axis walking direction and returns to the step 100; and

if the determination result is negative, the method proceeds to the step 500.

9. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 8, characterized in that, the determining of whether the self-moving robot can walk along the former Y-axis walking direction in the step 400 specifically comprises:

the self-moving robot firstly walks along the former Y-axis walking direction, if the self-moving robot does not detect obstacle after walking for a certain distance, it is determined that the self-moving robot can walk along the former Y-axis walking direction;

otherwise, it is determined that the self-moving robot cannot walk along the former Y-axis walking direction.

10. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 8, characterized in that, a side-looking sensor is provided on a side the self-moving robot, and the determining of whether the self-moving robot can walk along the former Y-axis walking direction in the step 400 specifically comprising:

according to a feedback signal of the side-looking sensor, the self-moving robot determines whether it can walk along the former Y-axis walking direction.

12. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 2, characterized in that, after the step 400, further comprising:

step 410;

it is determined whether the self-moving robot can walk along the former Y-axis walking direction, if the determination result is positive, the self-moving robot walks along the former Y-axis walking direction and returns to the step 100; and

if the determination result is negative, the method proceeds to the step 500.

13. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 3, characterized in that, after the step 400, further comprising:

step 410;

it is determined whether the self-moving robot can walk along the former Y-axis walking direction, if the determination result is positive, the self-moving robot walks along the former Y-axis walking direction and returns to the step 100; and

if the determination result is negative, the method proceeds to the step 500.

14. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 4, characterized in that, after the step 400, further comprising:

step 410;

it is determined whether the self-moving robot can walk along the former Y-axis walking direction, if the determination result is positive, the self-moving robot walks along the former Y-axis walking direction and returns to the step 100; and

if the determination result is negative, the method proceeds to the step 500.

15. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 5, characterized in that, after the step 400, further comprising:

step 410;

it is determined whether the self-moving robot can walk along the former Y-axis walking direction, if the determination result is positive, the self-moving robot walks along the former Y-axis walking direction and returns to the step 100; and

if the determination result is negative, the method proceeds to the step 500.

16. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 6, characterized in that, after the step 400, further comprising:

step 410;

it is determined whether the self-moving robot can walk along the former Y-axis walking direction, if the determination result is positive, the self-moving robot walks along the former Y-axis walking direction and returns to the step 100; and

if the determination result is negative, the method proceeds to the step 500.

17. The obstacle avoidance walking method of the self-moving robot of claim 7, characterized in that, after the step 400, further comprising:

step 410;

it is determined whether the self-moving robot can walk along the former Y-axis walking direction, if the determination result is positive, the self-moving robot walks along the former Y-axis walking direction and returns to the step 100; and

if the determination result is negative, the method proceeds to the step 500.

11. An obstacle avoidance walking method of a self-moving robot, in a walking area of the self-moving robot, a rectangular plane coordinate system is established with the horizontal direction as the X axis and the vertical direction as the Y axis, and walking along the direction of the X axis or the Y axis is a forward walking;

characterized in that, the method specifically comprises the following steps;

step 1000;

the self-moving robot walks along the Y axis, when the self-moving robot detects obstacle, the current position is set as an obstacle point and the coordinate of the current position is stored as a recorded point;

step 2000;

it is determined whether a recorded point, the Y-axis coordinate of which is within a numerical interval defined by the Y-axis coordinates of the current obstacle point and the previous obstacle point, has been stored previously;

step 3000;

if the determination result is positive, the recorded point is a turning point, and the self-moving robot walks along the X axis from the current obstacle point toward the turning point to the X-axis coordinate of the turning point, deletes the coordinate of the turning point, and the method returns to the step 1000 after performing traversal walking in an area between the turning point and the current obstacle point; and

if the determination result is negative, the self-moving robot shifts for a displacement M1 along the X axis;

step 4000;

the self-moving robot walks along a reverse direction opposite to the former Y-axis walking direction, and the method returns to the step 1000;

step 5000;

the step 1000 to the step 4000 are repeated until Y-axis traversal walking in the walking area is completed.