JPH04295323A - Vacuum cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a vaccum cleaner with high operability by remote controlling the same by the use of a remote control having an angular velocity sensor built therein. CONSTITUTION:An angular velocity sensor 6 built in a remote controlled transmitter 1 detects the angular volocity in the movement of human's hands in the left, right and vertical directions and the rotation of a wrist. An angle obtained by a signal processor 4 is subjected to multiplex process and then sent out by an electric wave signal transmitting circuit 8. A signal received by an electric wave signal receiving circuit 10 in a vacuum cleaner body 2 is decoded by a signal processor 11 and an arm controlling motor 13 is driven through a cleaner controlling driver 12 so that a suction device 3 is moved left, right, back and forth or rotated. Also, a travelling motor 15 and steering motor 18 are controlled through a travelling system driver 14 so that the vacuum cleaner body follows the moving suction device 3 automatically in the position and direction.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to remote control of vacuum cleaners.

0002

[Prior technology] A "cleaning robot" that can replace conventional household vacuum cleaners and perform unmanned cleaning without human intervention.
Many ideas have been devised. An example of this "cleaning robot" is shown in FIG. In FIG. 6, 19 is a gyroscope that detects the direction of the "cleaning robot", 20 is an ultrasonic sensor that detects obstacles such as walls and pillars, 21 is a touch sensor that detects collisions, 22 is a robot controller, and 3 is a suction 23 is a rotating pad, 15 is a travel motor, and 24 is a battery.

A block diagram of this "cleaning robot" is shown in FIG.
Shown below. In FIG. 7, 14 is a traveling system driver, 25 is a cleaning tool driver, 18 is a steering motor, 26 is a pad rotation motor, and 17 is a suction motor. Further, the robot controller 22 is configured to perform cleaning while moving around on its own according to a cleaning pattern input in advance and room shape data, bypassing obstacles and estimating its own position based on input from various sensors. Met.

0004

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, although the conventional configuration described above has the feature that it can be cleaned without human intervention, it does not have the ability to distinguish between areas with a lot of dirt and areas with a little dirt, However, the problem was that it was not possible to thoroughly clean under the chairs, desks, etc.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and aims to provide a vacuum cleaner that can perform detailed cleaning by remote control and has excellent operability.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problem] In order to solve this problem, the vacuum cleaner of the present invention has a receiving means and a plurality of drive sources controlled by the signals received by the receiving means, and is self-propellable. It consists of a vacuum cleaner body and a remote control transmitter with built-in transmitting means for outputting signals to control the respective drive sources of the vacuum cleaner body. A vibrating angular velocity sensor that outputs a signal is connected to an azimuth detecting means that detects the direction of the remote control transmitter based on the signal from the vibrating angular velocity sensor, and the vacuum cleaner is operated in accordance with the azimuth of the remote control transmitter. It is configured to control the traveling direction of the machine body.

[0007]

[Operation] With this configuration, a vacuum cleaner with good operability can be realized without the need for a person to directly touch the vacuum cleaner body, and with the angular velocity sensor built into the remote control transmitter.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a vacuum cleaner according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, the structure and principle of a tuning fork vibrating angular velocity sensor connected to a remote control transmitter for operating the vacuum cleaner main body of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the configuration of the above-mentioned tuning fork structure vibration type angular velocity sensor. The first vibration unit 109 is composed of four piezoelectric bimorphs, and the driving element 101 and the first sensing element 103 are orthogonally joined at the joint 105, and the monitor element 102 and the second sensing element 104 are joined at the joint 10.
It has a tuning fork structure in which the second vibration unit 110 orthogonally connected at 6 is connected by a connecting plate 107, and this connecting plate 107 is supported at one point by a support rod 108.

When a sinusoidal voltage signal is applied to the drive element 101 configured as described above, the first vibration unit 109 starts to vibrate due to the inverse piezoelectric effect, and the second vibration unit 110 also starts to vibrate due to the tuning fork vibration. . Therefore, the charge generated on the surface of the monitor element 102 due to the piezoelectric effect of the monitor element 102 is proportional to the sinusoidal voltage signal applied to the drive element 101. By detecting the charge generated in the monitor element 102 and controlling the sinusoidal voltage signal applied to the drive element 101 so that the charge has a constant amplitude, stable tuning fork vibration can be obtained.

The mechanism by which the tuning fork vibrating angular velocity sensor constructed as described above generates an output proportional to the angular velocity will be explained below with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the tuning fork structure vibration type angular velocity sensor shown in FIG. , the first detection element 103 has "Coriolis force"
occurs. This "Coriolis force" is perpendicular to the speed υ and has a magnitude of 2mυω. (m is the equivalent mass of the tip of the first sensing element 103) Also, since the first sensing element 103 is vibrating like a tuning fork, if it is vibrating at a speed υ at a certain point, then the second sensing element 103 is vibrating at a speed υ. The sensing element 104 vibrates at a speed of -υ, and the "Coriolis force" is -2 mυω. Therefore, the first and second sensing elements 103 and 104 deform each other in the direction in which the "Coriolis force" acts as shown in FIG. occurs. Here, υ is the motion caused by tuning fork vibration, and if the tuning fork vibration is υ = a・sinω0t a: amplitude of tuning fork vibration ω0: period of tuning fork vibration, then "Coriolis force" is Fc = a・ω・sinω0t, which is proportional to the angular velocity ω and the tuning fork amplitude a, and becomes a force that deforms the first and second sensing elements 103 and 104 in the planar direction.

[0014] Therefore, the first and second sensing elements 103,
The surface charge Q of the sensor 104 is Q∝a・ω・sinω0t, and if the tuning fork amplitude a is controlled to be constant, then the surface charge Q generated on the first and second sensing elements 103 and 104 becomes Q∝ω・sinω0t. The amount of charge Q is obtained as an output proportional to the angular velocity ω,
If this signal is synchronously detected at ω0t, a DC signal proportional to the angular velocity ω can be obtained.

Note that even if a translational motion other than angular velocity is applied to this sensor, the first sensing element 103 and the second sensing element 10
Since charges of the same polarity are generated on the surfaces of both the 4 and 4, when converted to a DC signal, they cancel each other out and no output is produced.As explained above using piezoelectric bimorph elements,
It goes without saying that general piezoelectric elements have similar functions.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a vacuum cleaner according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing its configuration, in which (a) shows a transmitting system and (b) shows a receiving system. Components having the same functions as those of the conventional example are designated by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, 1 is a remote control transmitter;
2 is a vacuum cleaner body, 3 is a suction device, 4 is a signal processing device, 5 is a switch input device, 6 is an angular velocity sensor, 7 is an acceleration sensor, 8 is a radio wave signal transmission circuit, 9 is an antenna, 10
11 is a signal processing device; 12 is a vacuum cleaner arm control driver; 13 is an arm control motor;
14 is a travel system driver, 15 is a travel motor, 16 is a suction motor driver, 17 is a suction motor, and 18 is a steering motor.

In FIG. 2, the angular velocity sensor 6 built into the remote control transmitter 1 detects the angular velocity of the human hand in the left-right direction, the up-down direction, and the rotation of the wrist of the hand.
The signal is subjected to sensor drift correction, noise reduction, or processing to obtain the angle by integrating the angular velocity, and is further multiplexed as a serial signal, and then sent out by the radio wave signal transmission circuit 8. In addition, in the vacuum cleaner main body 2, first,
The signal received by the radio wave signal receiving circuit 10 is decoded by the signal processing device 11 and is sent to the vacuum cleaner arm control driver 12 to control the arm so that the suction device 3 can be rotated back and forth, left or right, or rotated as shown in FIG. Motor 13
is driven.

Further, a travel motor 15 and a steering motor 18 are controlled via a travel system driver 14 so that the position and direction of the vacuum cleaner main body 2 automatically follow the movement of the suction device 3. . In addition, since the suction device 3 is required to operate quickly based on the signal from the remote control transmitter 1, the vacuum cleaner main body 2 moves the position of the suction device 3 by arm control. The signal processing device 11 contains an algorithm for always moving its own position to a position where the suction device 3 can be optimally controlled.

A switch input device 5 built into the remote control transmitter 1 is an input device for controlling the suction motor 17 and moving the position of the cleaner body 2 within a range that cannot be controlled by the angular velocity sensor 6.

Furthermore, the acceleration sensor 7 is connected to the remote control transmitter 1.
This is to detect not only the angular velocity component of the human hand movement, but also the amount of parallel movement in the horizontal and vertical directions.

[0022]

[Effect of the invention] As described above, the vacuum cleaner according to the present invention has
It can perform detailed cleaning even in small areas, requires little human effort to move the vacuum cleaner, and uses an angular velocity sensor as a means of transmitting human intentions to the vacuum cleaner itself, so there is no need to become familiar with the operation. This makes it possible to obtain effects such as ease of handling.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a vacuum cleaner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Figure 2] (a) Block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the transmitting system in the same embodiment (b) Block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the receiving system in the same embodiment

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a tuning fork structure vibration type angular velocity sensor according to the present invention.

[Figure 4] Plan view of Figure 3

[Figure 5] A perspective view showing the main parts of the tuning fork structure vibration type angular velocity sensor in Figure 3.

[Figure 6] A perspective view showing a conventional cleaning robot

[Figure 7] Block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the cleaning robot

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Remote control transmitter 2 Vacuum cleaner body 3 Suction device 4 Signal processing device 5　Switch input device 6 Angular velocity sensor 7 Acceleration sensor 8 Radio signal transmission circuit 9 Antenna 10 Radio signal receiving circuit 11 Signal processing device 12 Arm control driver 13 Arm control motor 14 Driving system driver 15 Travel motor 16 Suction motor driver 17 Suction motor 18 Steering motor

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claims: 1. A vacuum cleaner main body having a receiving means, a plurality of drive sources controlled by signals received by the receiving means, and outputting a signal for controlling each drive source of the vacuum cleaner main body. The device consists of a remote control transmitter with a built-in transmitting means, and within this remote control transmitter is a vibration type angular velocity sensor that outputs an electrical signal in accordance with the angular velocity, and the direction of the remote control transmitter is determined by the signal from this angular velocity sensor. A vacuum cleaner configured to be connected to an azimuth detecting means for detecting the direction of the vacuum cleaner, and to control the running direction of the vacuum cleaner main body in accordance with the azimuth of the remote control transmitter.