Moving robot and operating method for same

• US 8,676,380 B2
• Filed: 04/03/2008
• Issued: 03/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Rew, Ho Seon, Yoon, Jeong Suk, Jung, Young Gyu
• Primary Examiner(s): Jen, Ian
• Application Number:
  US12/594,451
• Publication Number:
  US 20100268385A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,175 Days
• Field of Search: 700/1, 700/245, 700/263, 355/132, 355/20, 355/28, 355/39, 355/46, 355/64, 355/79, 396/180, 396/252, 396/316, 396/317, 396/332, 396/354
• US Class Current: 700/259
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0225 involving docking at a fixed facility, e.g. base station or loading bay parking aids B62D15/027
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0253 extracting relative motion information from a plurality of images taken successively, e.g. visual odometry, optical flow determining position or orientation from images G06T7/70

Abstract

There are provided a moving robot and a method of operating the same. A bottom surface is photographed to sense a moving distance and a moving direction based on input image data. The amount of light radiated to photograph the bottom surface is sensed to feedback control the light emission degree of a light source unit. The light source unit is controlled when errors are generated in sensing the image data. Therefore, the sensing ratio of the photographed image is improved so that correctness of calculating the position of the moving robot is improved.

Claims

1. A moving robot configured to move along a support surface, the moving robot comprising:

a photographing unit provided on a bottom surface of the moving robot for photographing sequential images of the support surface using incident light;

at least one light source unit provided on the moving robot for radiating light onto a corresponding region of the support surface to be photographed by the photographing unit;

a controller configured to compare the sequential images captured by the photographing unit and to control the at least one light source unit based on a result of the comparison; and

a light source controller coupled to the at least one light source unit and configured to control a magnitude of current or voltage input from the at least one light source unit, and to control a radiation angle of light radiated from the at least one light source unit in response to a control command generated by the controller.

2. The moving robot of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to receive data from the photographing unit in units of pixels at predetermined time intervals, and to compare the received data to calculate a moving distance of the moving robot, and wherein the controller is further configured to adjust at least one setting of the at least one light source unit when the calculated moving distance is different from a reference distance.

3. The moving robot of claim 1, wherein the light source controller controls an amount of light emitted by the at least one light source unit in response to the control command of the controller.

4. The moving robot of claim 3, further comprising:

a distance measuring unit for measuring a distance to the support surface, wherein the light source controller controls the amount of light or the light radiation angle of the at least one light source unit based on the distance measured by the distance measuring unit.

5. The moving robot of claim 4, further comprising a lens controller for moving a lens included in the photographing unit back and forth, wherein the controller controls the lens controller to control a focus distance of the photographing unit based on the distance measured by the distance measuring unit.

6. The moving robot of claim 1, wherein the at least one light source unit comprises:

a first light source including a light emitting device to radiate light onto a corresponding region of the support surface to be photographed by the photographing unit; and

a second light source for radiating light onto the same region of the support surface as the first light source unit.

7. The moving robot of claim 6, wherein the at least one light source unit further comprises a light width controller for controlling a range in which light is emitted so that the emitted light reaches a predetermined region and is not diffused.

8. A method of operating a moving robot, the method comprising:

comparing image data captured by a photographing unit, provided on a bottom surface of the moving robot, over time and calculating a corresponding moving distance of the moving robot along a support surface;

controlling a light source for radiating light onto the support surface, comprising adjusting at least one setting of the light source when the image data captured by the photographing unit is unreadable and the corresponding moving distance along the support surface cannot be calculated, and then re-capturing the image data, wherein re-capturing the image data comprises;

measuring a distance to the support surface;

comparing the measured distance to a reference distance; and

controlling a radiation angle of light emitted by the light source when the measured distance is greater than the reference distance; and

comparing the image data re-captured by the photographing unit to calculate the moving distance.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein controlling a light source for radiating light onto the support surface further comprises:

increasing an amount of light radiated by the light source when the measured distance is larger than the reference distance.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising moving a lens provided on a front surface of the photographing unit back and forth based on the measured distance to control a focus distance.