Autonomous traveling body

• US 9,968,232 B2
• Filed: 04/16/2015
• Issued: 05/15/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Lifestyle Products & Services Corporation (Midea Group Co., Ltd)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Lifestyle Products & Services Corporation (Midea Group Co., Ltd)
• Inventors: Watanabe, Kota, Izawa, Hirokazu, Furuta, Kazuhiro, Marutani, Yuuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Tyler J
• Application Number:
  US15/305,055
• Publication Number:
  US 20170215672A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,125 Days
• Field of Search: 701 2, 701 23
• 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 9/009 Carrying-vehicles; Arrangements of trollies or wheels; Means for avoiding mechanical obstacles
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/0411 driven by electric motor
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/28 Installation of the electric equipment, e.g. adaptation or attachment to the suction cleaner; Controlling suction cleaners by electric means
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2826 the condition of the floor
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2852 Elements for displacement of the vacuum cleaner or the accessories therefor, e.g. wheels, casters or nozzles
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2857 User input or output elements for control, e.g. buttons, switches or displays
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2873 Docking units or charging stations for autonomous or robotic vacuum cleaners A47L2201/02
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2894 Details related to signal transmission in suction cleaners
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0011 associated with a remote control arrangement
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0022 characterised by the communication link data switching networks in general H04L12/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0094 involving pointing a payload, e.g. camera, weapon, sensor, towards a fixed or moving target
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0238 using obstacle or wall sensors G05D1/0246 and G05D1/0289 take precedence; lidar systems designed for anti-collision purposes G01S17/93

Abstract

A vacuum cleaner main body includes a main body case, a camera provided in the main body case and that can perform imaging at a given angle of view, a driving wheel that allows the main body case to travel, and a controller. The controller includes at least a traveling mode and an imaging mode. In the traveling mode, the controller controls the drive of the driving wheel to allow the main body case to travel autonomously. In the imaging mode, the controller controls the main body case to autonomously travel to a given imaging position so that the camera sequentially images still images in a plurality of adjacent directions at an angle equal to or smaller than the angle of view. The vacuum cleaner main body can securely image, with the camera, a wide range without any blind spots.

Claims

1. An autonomous traveling body, comprising:

a main body case;

an imaging unit that is provided in the main body case and that can perform imaging at a given angle of view;

a driving wheel that allows the main body case to travel;

a control unit that has at least a traveling mode in which drive of the driving wheel is controlled such that the main body case travels autonomously, including the main body case traveling autonomously to a given imaging position, and an imaging mode in which, while at the given imaging position, the imaging unit sequentially images still images in a plurality of adjacent directions at an angular interval equal to or smaller than the angle of view so that each of the still images has an overlapping part with an adjacent still image of the still images; and

a communication unit that transmits the still images and/or a combined image generated from the still image to a remote memory storage that is accessible to a user.

2. The autonomous traveling body according to claim 1, further comprising an obstacle detection unit that is provided in the main body case and that detects an obstacle, wherein the control unit sets, in the imaging mode, the imaging position of the imaging unit based on detection of an obstacle by the obstacle detection unit.

3. The autonomous traveling body according to claim 2, wherein

the obstacle detection unit is a range finding unit that detects the presence or absence of an obstacle by detecting a distance to the obstacle, and

the control unit sets, in the imaging mode, a position of the main body case around which no obstacle is detected within a certain distance by the range finding unit as the imaging position.

4. The autonomous traveling body according to claim 2, wherein the control unit sets, in the imaging mode, a position after moving by a given distance in a direction separated from an obstacle when detecting the obstacle by the obstacle detection unit as the imaging position.

5. The autonomous traveling body according to claim 2, wherein the control unit sets, in the imaging mode, a position at which the obstacle is detected by the obstacle detection unit as the imaging position, so that an opposite side from a side where the obstacle exists is imaged by the imaging unit.

6. The autonomous traveling body according to claim 1, further comprising a wireless communication unit that can perform wireless communication, wherein when a radio signal has been received by the wireless communication unit, the control unit sets, in the imaging mode, the imaging position based on a positional relation between an object having transmitted the radio signal and the main body case.

7. The autonomous traveling body according to claim 1, wherein the control unit can turn the main body case by controlling drive of the driving wheel.

8. The autonomous traveling body according to claim 1, wherein, in the imaging mode, the control unit sets the imaging unit to perform the sequentially imaging, at the given imaging position, of the still images so that, for each still image, at least half of the still image is the overlapping part that overlaps with the adjacent image.