Floor treatment machine and method for treating floor surfaces

• US 9,808,137 B2
• Filed: 12/27/2013
• Issued: 11/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BlueBotics SA
• Original Assignee: BlueBotics SA
• Inventors: Lamon, Pierre, Terrien, Grgoire, Jeannotat, Yannis, Flck, Roland
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Douglas
• Application Number:
  US14/141,657
• Publication Number:
  US 20140190514A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,411 Days
• 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 2201/04 Automatic control of the travelling movement; Automatic obstacle detection
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0219 ensuring the processing of the whole working surface
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/024 in combination with a laser lasers per se H01S

Abstract

A floor treatment machine is disclosed for treating floor surfaces and includes a housing, two drive wheels, at least one support wheel, a drive device, a controller, at least one scan sensor configured to ensure that distance measurements can be carried out in a substantially horizontal plane via a predetermined angular area, and a floor treatment device configured to ensure that the floor can be treated. In at least one embodiment, the controller encompasses a treatment mode, which guarantees a simple and reliable selection of a successful route by way of few driving and storing steps. The boundary of the floor surface is treated as an obstacle. To record the treated surface, starting and end points of route segments, which have been followed, and one of the states “completely treated” or “incompletely treated” for the end points as well as direction information is stored.

Claims

1. A floor treatment machine for treating floor surfaces, comprising:

a housing;

two drive wheels;

at least one support wheel;

a drive device;

a controller;

at least one obstacle-recognizing device; and

a floor treatment device, configured to ensure that the floor can be treated in a treatment area comprising a predetermined location relative to the wheels, and including a treatment width perpendicular to the driving direction, wherein the controller encompasses a treatment mode, the treatment mode being configured to ensure that a surface, which is to be treated, can be swept over by way of the treatment area of the treatment machine by groups of route sections, which run next to one another, wherein the position and orientation of the floor treatment machine in the floor coordinate system are provided by a position detection device, the treatment mode further being configured to

ensure that a treatment direction with a forwards and backwards orientation is determinable and that a current orientation of the treatment direction is one of the forwards and backwards orientation,

determine driving lines, which are spaced apart perpendicular to the treatment direction, wherein the distances are chosen such that, when driving in opposite directions on driving lines, which are located next to one another, the area between the driving lines is completely treated by the treatment area,

ensure that route segments on the driving lines are drivable from starting points to end points each in one driving direction, wherein the driving directions on adjacent driving lines are oriented in opposite direction,

determine the end points in that driving cannot be continued on the respective driving line due to an obstacle, which is detected by the obstacle recognition device,

store, in a route segment storage, the starting point and the end point of the route segment, which was followed, and for the end points, at least one of the states “

completely treated”

or “

incompletely treated” and

a direction information, at least in the case of “

incompletely treated”

, wherein it becomes clear from the direction information, in which orientation of the treatment direction incompletely treated areas are present, starting at the corresponding end point, and

ensure that a contour-following movement is triggered at the end point on a current driving line for finding a new starting point, that the contour-following movement starts in the current orientation of the treatment direction and that during the contour-following movement the floor treatment machine follows the obstacle until it encounters the current or a next driving line,

wherein

when encountering the current driving line, which was followed prior to the contour-following movement, on a route segment, which, according to the route segment storage, has not yet been followed, a new starting point is determined at that location and the driving direction of this driving line is chosen,

when encountering the next driving line on a route segment, which, according to the route segment storage, has not yet been followed, a new starting point is determined at that location and the driving direction of this adjacent driving line is chosen,

when encountering a driving line on a route segment, which, according to the route segment storage, has already been followed, the end of a group of route segments, which run next to one another, is determined, wherein the controller then looks for an end point comprising the state “

incompletely treated”

in the route segment storage and approaches it with a position search movement, so as to tackle a new group of route sections, which run next to one another, starting at this end point with the current orientation of the treatment direction being set according to the direction information stored for this end point, until no end point comprising the state “

incompletely treated”

is present any longer.

2. The floor treatment machine according to claim 1, wherein the treatment mode is configured to ensure that the state “

completely treated”

or “

incompletely treated”

, which is to be assigned to a current end point, is determinable by way of the distance from the current end point to the closest starting point on a driving line, which is located in the orientation, which is opposite to the current orientation of the treatment direction, directly next to the driving line comprising the current end point, and wherein the state “

incompletely treated”

is chosen in the case of a distance above a predetermined value.

3. The floor treatment machine according to claim 1, further comprising at least one scan sensor, configured to ensure that distance measurements can be carried out in a substantially horizontal plane via a predetermined angular area, and that the treatment mode ensures that obstacles can be detected via distance measurements from the scan sensor.

4. The floor treatment machine according to claim 3, wherein the floor treatment machine comprises the position detection device, wherein the controller is configured to ensure that, in a detection mode, the detection of positioning areas, which are assigned to the floor surface, is detectable in a floor coordinate system, which is assigned to the floor surface, from distance measurements from the scan sensor and driving information from the drive wheels, wherein line segments are determined in the floor coordinate system for detecting the positioning areas and the determined line segments represent measured distance points of the positioning areas comprising parameters of curve equations as sections of continuous lines, and

the controller is configured to ensure that, in the treatment mode, the position and the orientation of the floor treatment machine can be determined by the line segments, which are determined in the detection mode, and by way of the distance measurements from the scan sensor, which are detected for the current position, wherein route information from the two drive wheels can preferably also be used and all of the information is converted into a position and orientation determination with error estimation.

5. The floor treatment machine according to claim 3, wherein the scan sensor is arranged in front of the drive wheels substantially in the height area of the drive wheels.

6. The floor treatment machine according to claim 1, wherein the floor treatment machine comprises at least one of ultrasound sensors and infrared sensors, by which obstacles are detectable, wherein the treatment mode ensures that obstacles are detectable via measurements from the at least one of ultrasound sensors and infrared sensors.

7. The floor treatment machine according to claim 6, wherein the infrared sensors are oriented towards the floor so as to detect obstacles in the floor.

8. The floor treatment machine according to claim 1, wherein the floor treatment machine comprises at least one contact sensor and the treatment mode ensures that the obstacles are also detectable via measurements from the at least one contact sensor.

9. The floor treatment machine according to claim 8, wherein at least one deflection sensor is arranged between a chassis and a housing area, which is located in the front in driving direction.

10. The floor treatment machine according to claim 9, wherein the chassis is connected via a pivot connection to a bracket for holding the housing area and spring connections, which hold the housing area in a position of equilibrium, from which said housing area is deflected when coming into contact with an obstacle, are arranged between the bracket and the housing area, wherein at least one deflection sensor is arranged between the bracket and the housing area, which is located in the front, for detecting this deflection.

11. The floor treatment machine according to claim 1, wherein, in addition to the physical obstacles, the obstacles also comprise virtual obstacles, wherein the virtual obstacles are inputtable via the controller before starting the treatment mode and cannot be passed over in the treatment mode and thus have the same effect as physical obstacles.

12. The floor treatment machine according to claim 1, wherein the treatment direction and the driving lines are determined perpendicular to the treatment direction by positioning and orienting the floor treatment machine when starting the treatment mode, and wherein it is determined that the floor treatment machine stands so as to be oriented on a driving line and that the forwards orientation of the treatment direction runs perpendicular to the driving line so as to be oriented towards the right.

13. The floor treatment machine according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the effective expansion of the housing and the effective location of the treatment area relative to the wheels is considered and in light of the effective distance measurements to an obstacle allows passing by an obstacle as accurate as possible.

14. The floor treatment machine according to claim 1, wherein the floor treatment device is a cleaning device.

15. The floor treatment machine according to claim 14, wherein the cleaning device comprises at least one brush, a cleaning liquid supply and a suction arrangement.

16. A method for treating floor surfaces via a floor treatment machine including a housing, two drive wheels, at least one support wheel, a drive device, a controller, at least one obstacle-recognizing device and a floor treatment device, configured to ensure that the floor is treatable in a treatment area including a predetermined location relative to the wheels, and including a treatment width perpendicular to the driving direction, the method, in a treatment mode, comprising:

sweeping over a surface using the floor treatment machine by groups of route sections, which run next to one another, wherein position and orientation of the floor treatment machine in the floor coordinate system are provided by a position detection device,

the method, in the treatment mode, further comprising

determining a treatment direction with a forwards and backwards orientation and selecting a current orientation of the treatment direction from the forwards and backwards orientation,

determining driving lines, spaced apart perpendicular to the treatment direction, wherein the distances are chosen such that, when driving in opposite directions on driving lines, which are located next to one another, the area between the driving lines is completely treated by the treatment area,

driving route segments on the driving lines from starting points to end points each in one driving direction, wherein the driving directions on adjacent driving lines are oriented in opposite direction,

determining the end points in that driving cannot be continued on the respective driving line due to an obstacle, detected by an obstacle recognition device,

storing the starting point and the end point of the route segment, which was followed, in a route segment storage and for the end point, at least one of the states “

completely treated”

or “

incompletely treated” and

at least in the case of “

incompletely treated”

also a direction information is stored, wherein it becomes clear from the direction information, in which orientation of the treatment direction incompletely treated areas are present when starting at the corresponding end point,

triggering a contour-following movement at the end point on a current driving line for finding a new starting point by the floor treatment machine starting in the current orientation of the treatment direction and following the obstacle until it encounters the current or a next driving line, wherein

when encountering the current driving line, which was followed prior to the contour-following movement, on a route segment, which, according to the route segment storage, has not yet been followed a new starting point is determined at that location and the driving direction of this driving line is chosen,

when encountering the next driving line on a route segment, which, according to the route segment storage, has not yet been followed, a new starting point is determined at that location and the driving direction of this adjacent driving line is chosen, and

when encountering a driving line on a route segment, which, according to the route segment storage, has already been followed, the end of a group of route segments, which run next to one another, is determined, wherein the controller then looks for an end point comprising the state “

incompletely treated”

in the route segment storage and approaches with a position search movement, so as to tackle a new group of route sections, which run next to one another, starting at this end point with the current orientation of the treatment direction being set according to the direction information stored for this end point, until no end point comprising the state “

incompletely treated”

is present any longer.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the treatment mode is configured to determine the state “

completely treated”

or “

incompletely treated”

, which is to be assigned to a current end point, by way of the distance from the current end point to the closest starting point on a driving line, which is located in the orientation, which is opposite to the current orientation of the treatment direction, directly next to the driving line comprising the current end point, wherein the state “

incompletely treated”

is chosen in the case of a distance above a predetermined value.

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein the floor treatment machine comprises at least one scan sensor, configured to ensure that distance measurements can be carried out in a substantially horizontal plane via a predetermined angular area and wherein, in the treatment mode, the obstacles are detected via at least one of distance measurements from the scan sensor, via distance measurements from ultrasound sensors, via measurements form infrared sensors, via measurements from contact sensors and via virtual objects, input before the start of the treatment mode.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the position detection is carried out by the floor treatment machine, wherein

in a detection mode, the controller carries out the detection of positioning areas, which are assigned to the floor surface, in a floor coordinate system, which is assigned to the floor surface, from distance measurements from the scan sensor and driving information from the drive wheels, wherein line segments are determined in the floor coordinate system for detecting the positioning areas and the determined line segments represent measured distance points of the positioning areas comprising parameters of curve equations as sections of continuous lines, and

in the treatment mode, the controller determines the position and the orientation of the floor treatment machine by way of the line segments, which are determined in the detection mode, and by way of the distance measurements from the scan sensor, which are detected for the current position.

20. A computer program product, configured to perform the method of claim 16 when the computer program product is run on a program-controlled floor treatment machine.