KR100635829B1 - Cleaning area driving method of robot cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for driving a robot cleaner in a cleaning area is provided to minimize a skipped area between cells in cleaning a floor by driving a circular cleaning area including rectangular cells and overlapping the circular area containing cell even despite generation of space between the cell and cell due to deviation between real driven length and moved position. A method for driving a robot cleaner in a cleaning area comprises steps of setting a circular cleaning area having a radius as long as the current position of the robot cleaner passes in a cell cleaning mode(S110,S120); driving a motor to straightly move from the current position inward the set cleaning area(S130); analyzing whether to move out of the cleaning area by using information about the straight movement and stopping operation of the motor if moving out of the cleaning area(S140,S150); converting the moving direction from the stopped position, moving to a predetermined distance, and then moving to the next straight line(S160); and driving the motor to straightly move inward the set cleaning area and moving to a start point of the next cell when the moved position is a finish point of the previous cell(S170,S180).

Description

CLEANING AREA DRIVING METHOD OF ROBOT CLEANER}

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a robot cleaner to which a cleaning area driving method of a robot cleaner according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is applied.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of driving a cleaning area of a robot cleaner according to the present invention;

3 is a diagram illustrating a driving pattern of the robot cleaner according to the present invention.

4 is a diagram illustrating a driving pattern by a random driving method of a conventional robot cleaner.

5 is a diagram illustrating a driving pattern by a grid driving method of a conventional robot cleaner.

6 is a diagram illustrating a driving pattern by a cell driving method of a conventional robot cleaner.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

110: memory

120: sensor

130: microprocessor

140: left / right motor drive unit

150: encoder

The present invention relates to a method for driving a cleaning area of a robot cleaner, and more particularly, to a method for driving a cleaning area of a robot cleaner for efficiently cleaning all the cleaning areas without missing the cleaning area.

The robot cleaner is a device that runs on a certain cleaning area such as a house or an office without a user's operation, and sucks dust or foreign matter that has fallen or accumulated on the floor. Such a robot cleaner may include a driving device for driving the robot cleaner in addition to a general vacuum cleaner that sucks dust or foreign substances, a plurality of detection sensors for detecting obstacles so that the robot cleaner may run without colliding with various obstacles in the cleaning area. It is composed of a microprocessor that controls the overall power supply and a battery to supply power.

According to this configuration, the robot cleaner determines the distance to various obstacles installed in the cleaning area, for example, furniture, walls, etc. through a plurality of detection sensors, and uses the determined information to drive the robot cleaner so that it does not collide with the obstacle. Clean it.

The robot cleaner is designed to recognize the cleaning area by itself and distinguish between the cleaned part and the uncleaned part to clean the uncleaned area without any missing cleaning area.

The robot cleaner may be classified into a random sweep method, a pattern sweep method, and a cell sweep method.

First, as shown in FIG. 4, the random cleaning method is a method of randomly determining rotation and straightness by determining only the presence or absence of an obstacle based on information recognized by a sensor. In the pattern cleaning method, as shown in FIG. 5, the presence of obstacles is determined by information recognized by the sensor, and the robot itself is located and cleaned while moving the robot itself in a specific pattern, usually zigzag. Use a lot of patterns. The cell cleaning method sets a predetermined rectangular area as shown in a) of FIG. 6, and then, in the pattern cleaning method described above, the cleaning of the set rectangular cleaning area is completed. It is a way of cleaning by moving to the starting point.

However, the random cleaning method of the above-described method has a problem that since the cleaning direction is freely switched, the area of overlapping cleaning is increased, the specific area is hardly cleaned according to the situation, there is a combination of use.

In the case of the pattern cleaning method, by moving horizontally close to the wall of the cleaning area, various sensors such as a sensor for detecting a wall on each side and a separate sensor for correcting the driving information of the robot and a sensor for rotation are provided. Not only is it necessary, there is a problem that it takes a long time to process information to process the information input from these sensors.

In the case of the cell cleaning method, when cleaning the cleaning area having a certain square shape and moving to the next line to perform cleaning, as shown in b) of FIG. 6, idling due to slip of the wheel while the cleaner is running, There is a problem that an error occurs between the driving distance and the moving position and the actual driving distance and the position calculated from the signal detected by the sensor due to the bending of the bottom surface.

Accordingly, since the position recognition error generated by the cell cleaning method is accumulated as the robot cleaner runs, the current position recognized by the robot cleaner by the accumulated position recognition error has a great difference from the actual position.

Therefore, when the robot cleaner runs and cleans by the cell cleaning method as shown in FIG. 6B, the cell and the cell are cleaned in the entire cleaning area due to an error caused by the position correction means of the robot. There is a problem in that cleaning between the cells is insufficient.

The present invention has been invented to complement the cleaning algorithm of the cell cleaning method in the above cleaning method, and cleaning the robot cleaner to efficiently clean all the cleaning areas without missing the cleaning area when the cell moves between the cells. It is an object of the present invention to provide an area driving method.

Cleaning area driving method of the robot cleaner according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object cleaning to set a circular cleaning area having a radius passing the current position of the robot cleaner in the cell cleaning mode of the robot cleaner In the area setting step, the driving step of driving the motor to travel straight to the inside of the cleaning area set at the current position, and using the displacement information according to the straight running to analyze the presence or absence of the cleaning area and when leaving the cleaning area as a result of analysis A cleaning area analysis step of stopping the driving of the motor, a line moving step of changing a direction from a stopped position and moving a predetermined distance to the next straight line, and when the moved position is a position in the cleaning area, The motor is driven to travel straight inward and the moved position is above the end of the cell. In the case of the device, the cell analysis step moves to the start position of the next cell.

According to such a configuration, the cleaning area driving method of the robot cleaner according to the present invention runs a cleaning area including an existing rectangular cell, so that the cleaning area that is generated when the area moves between the cell and the cell in the conventional cell driving method is omitted. The problem can be solved, and cleaning can be performed efficiently for all the cleaning areas.

That is, by driving a circular cleaning area including a rectangular cell, the cell and the cell due to the error generated between the travel distance and the movement position and the actual travel distance and position calculated from the signal detected by the sensor in the conventional cell cleaning method The circular cleaning areas including the cells overlap with each other even when spaces are generated therebetween, so that the cleaning area may be minimized between the cells and the cells when the cleaning is performed unlike the conventional cell cleaning method. .

The invention will become more apparent through the preferred embodiments described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Hereinafter will be described in detail to enable those skilled in the art to easily understand and reproduce through these embodiments.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a robot cleaner to which a cleaning area driving method of a robot cleaner according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is applied.

As shown in FIG. 1, the robot cleaner to which the driving method according to the present invention is applied includes a memory 110, a sensor unit 120, a left / right motor driving unit 140, an encoder 150, and a microprocessor 130. ) Is included.

The memory 110 stores control program data for controlling the robot cleaner main body and also temporarily stores data generated during the control operation. In addition, the memory 110 includes coordinate information on a rectangular cleaning area, for example, when setting a cleaning area having a rectangle, and end coordinate information on an end position of the corresponding cleaning area together with position coordinates for each vertex. Further, the memory 110 stores the central coordinate information of the circular cleaning area calculated from the coordinate information of the rectangular cleaning area. The memory 110 stores information necessary for calculating the distance traveled by the robot cleaner according to the rotation speed data input from the encoder, that is, the coordinate data for the distance data calculated from the rotation speed data.

In addition, the sensor unit 120 includes a rotation detection sensor that senses an angle at which the robot cleaner rotates when the robot cleaner rotates by the left / right motor driving unit 140. In the embodiment of the present invention, the rotation sensor may be a gyro sensor for measuring the displacement in accordance with the rotation drive.

In addition, the left / right motor driving unit 140 respectively drives the motors for rotationally driving the left / right wheels installed at both rear sides according to the driving control signal applied from the microprocessor 130 to be described later. That is, the left / right motor driving unit 140 independently drives each motor to rotate in the forward or reverse direction according to the travel control signal from the microprocessor 130. At this time, the directional rotation is a robot cleaner is rotated by driving the rotation speed of each motor differently.

As such, when the left / right wheels are rotated by the motor, the microprocessor recognizes the rotation angle of the robot cleaner through the gyro sensor as described above, and also the driving distance according to the rotation amount of each wheel through the encoder. The movement distance can be recognized.

That is, the encoder 150 is connected to each of the left wheel and the right wheel to measure the amount of rotation of the wheel and feed back the corresponding rotation speed data to the microprocessor 130. Based on the rotation speed data, the microprocessor 130 may calculate the amount of movement in the cleaning area along the X and Y axes.

Meanwhile, the microprocessor 130 generally controls the operation of the robot cleaner based on the control program data stored in the memory 110, so that the robot cleaner does not leave the circle set as the cleaning area according to the characteristic aspect of the present invention. Control the running of the robot sweeper.

That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, the microprocessor 130 moves straight from the center of the cleaning area calculated from the center coordinates of the set circular cleaning area and the position coordinates of the robot cleaner obtained through the encoder when driving straight. Using the distance to control the robot cleaner's running according to the deviation of the cleaning area range.

For example, the microprocessor 130 determines that the distance between the robot cleaner position coordinates and the center coordinates of the cleaning area that are traveling in a straight line is smaller than the radius of the circle, so that the microprocessor 130 does not deviate so that the robot cleaner runs straight. A straight traveling signal is output to 140. However, when the distance from the center of the cleaning area to the robot cleaner running in a straight line coincides with the radius of the circle, the microprocessor 130 determines that the robot cleaner has reached the boundary of the set cleaning area, and the left / right motor driving unit 140 The road driving stop signal is output to the left / right wheel motor driver 140.

When the cleaning of the straight line is completed, the microprocessor 130 switches the direction to move to the next straight line and travels straight on the next straight line.

At this time, when the cell cleaning method for the cleaning area is selected, the microprocessor 130 sets the current position where the robot cleaner is located as the starting coordinate (0,0) for the cleaning area on the X and Y coordinate axes, so that the X or Y By starting traveling straight in the axial direction, cleaning can be performed while moving in the designated circular cleaning area.

In addition, the microprocessor 130 calculates the movement distance actually moved by the robot cleaner based on the rotation speed data of the robot cleaner according to the travel movement input from the encoder 150 as described above. Coordinate data for the cleaning area is calculated from the calculated distance data.

Therefore, the robot cleaner to which the cleaning driving method according to the present invention is applied in accordance with the above configuration goes straight through the cleaning area set in a circular shape through the moving distance information of the robot cleaner input from the encoder and the rotation angle data input through the gyro sensor. In this case, the cleaning operation is performed on the cleaning area while repeatedly performing the change of direction.

Hereinafter, a cleaning area driving method of the robot cleaner having the above configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method for driving a cleaning area of a robot cleaner according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a driving pattern of the robot cleaner according to the present invention.

First, in the cleaning area driving method of the robot cleaner according to the present invention, when there is no obstacle in the cleaning area to be cleaned, a circular cleaning area having a radius through which the current position of the robot cleaner passes is set for the entire cleaning area ( S110, S120).

That is, when there is no obstacle in the cleaning area to be cleaned, the microprocessor 130 sets a cleaning area having a rectangle based on the control program data stored in the memory 110 (S110). At this time, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the microprocessor 130 sets the current cleaning position of the robot cleaner to start coordinates A (0,0) for the cleaning area on the X and Y coordinate axes to set the rectangular cleaning area. do. That is, as shown in a) of FIG. 3, a rectangular cleaning area via B, C, and D is set according to the control program based on the A point.

For example, when the actual travel distance data is set to 2 cm for the unit length 1 on the X and Y axes, and stored in the memory, and a rectangular cleaning area of 2 m on the X axis and 1 m on the Y axis is set in the drawing, The coordinate data of B shown is (0,50), C is (100,50) and D is (100,0). For reference, a large number of coordinate data exists between each coordinate, for example, A and B. Hereinafter, the driving method of the robot cleaner according to the present invention will be described by exemplifying the coordinate data.

After setting the rectangular cleaning area as described above, the microprocessor 130 sets the circular cleaning area in which the driving method according to the present invention is implemented from the set rectangle (S120).

That is, since the shape of the preset cleaning area is a rectangle, the center coordinates of the circle passing through the vertex of the set rectangle are calculated from the two coordinates located on the diagonal line, and through this, the circular shape passing through the preset A, B, C, D coordinates of the rectangle is calculated. Set the cleaning area. The coordinate with respect to the center coordinate E of the circular cleaning area | region set by this is (50,22.5).

Therefore, through the above process, the microprocessor 130 sets a circular cleaning area different from the rectangle used in the conventional cell cleaning method in the cell cleaning mode of the robot cleaner. In addition, the coordinate information of the cleaning area set in the process of setting the cleaning area is calculated and stored in the memory 110. At this time, the coordinate information stored in the memory 110 includes at least the cleaning start / end coordinates at which the robot cleaner starts / ends cleaning in the set cleaning area and center coordinate information about the center of the cleaning area.

When the circular cleaning area is set as described above, the microprocessor 130 outputs a straight driving signal to the left / right wheel motor driving unit 140 to travel straight to the inside of the circular cleaning area set at the current position (S130). Accordingly, the robot cleaner travels straight according to the driving of the motor by the left / right motor driving unit 140.

Next, the presence or absence of the cleaning area is analyzed using the displacement information according to the straight running, and as a result of the analysis, when the robot cleaner leaves the cleaning area, the motor stops and moves to the next straight line (S140 to S160).

That is, the microprocessor 130 calculates a separation distance from the center coordinates of the cleaning area to the current position of the robot cleaner in operation by using the displacement information of the robot cleaner when driving in a straight line (S140). In other words, the microprocessor 130 calculates the distance actually moved by the robot cleaner based on the rotation speed data of the motor obtained from the encoder 150 when driving straight. Coordinate data for the cleaning area is calculated from the calculated distance data.

In operation S150, it is determined whether the robot cleaner running straight travels out of the cleaning area by using the calculated separation distance. In the embodiment of the present invention, "departure" is defined as the robot cleaner reaches the boundary of the cleaning area.

That is, when the microprocessor 130 is the radius of the cleaning area and the coordinate data (50,22.5) of E, which is the center of the circle in the embodiment of the present invention, the radius of the cleaning area is 54.83, the calculated distance of the robot cleaner is calculated. When exceeding the radius (S150), the motor drive is stopped and moves to the next straight line. However, when the separation distance of the robot cleaner is smaller than the radius as a result of the determination in step S150, the driving signal is output to the left / right motor driving unit 140 so as to continue traveling straight from the current position.

For example, when the robot cleaner travels 80 cm vertically from the point A, which is the cleaning start position by the motor drive, the actual travel distance data is set to 2 cm for the unit length 1 on the X and Y axes. 130 recognizes that the current position of the robot cleaner traveling straight is at a position of 0.39 on the X and Y axes.

If the robot cleaner is located at this point, the distance d from the center of the cleaning area to the position of the robot cleaner is

(xr: X coordinate of robot cleaner, yr: Y coordinate of robot cleaner, xc: X coordinate of circle center, yc: Y coordinate of circle center)

Is calculated.

That is, if the coordinate of the current robot cleaner is (0,39), the distance from the center of the cleaning area (50,22.5) to the location of the robot cleaner is about 52.65, which is smaller than 55.90, the radius of the cleaning area (S150). The controller 130 determines that the robot cleaner driving straight ahead is still within the cleaning area, and outputs a straight traveling signal to the left / right motor driving unit 140. Accordingly, the robot cleaner is fed back to step S130 to travel straight.

However, when the coordinate of the robot cleaner is (0.50), the distance from the center of the cleaning area to the position of the robot cleaner is the same as the radius of the cleaning area, so that the microprocessor 130 moves out of the cleaning area range. In response to the determination, the driving stop signal is output to the left / right wheel motor driving unit 140. Accordingly, the robot cleaner in driving stops the motor driving according to the driving stop signal applied from the microprocessor, thereby stopping the robot cleaner.

As described above, when the robot cleaner running straight in step S150 leaves the range of the cleaning area, the robot cleaner moves in the stopped position as described above, moves by a predetermined distance, and moves to the next straight line (S160).

The direction change and movement of the robot cleaner is based on control program data stored in a memory, and may be implemented through various algorithms.

For example, in one embodiment of the present invention, the robot cleaner's line movement method rotates 90 degrees to the right from the first stop point, and moves straight ahead by a predetermined distance, as in the conventional cell cleaning method, and moves to the left at the next stop point. After the rotation by 90 degrees may be a way to go straight for a predetermined distance.

In another embodiment, the robot cleaner line movement method is similar to the conventional cell cleaning method, but may also be performed by moving the circumference of the cleaning area instead of the right angle. In this case, the microprocessor may control the robot cleaner that is stationary to rotate along the circumference with reference to the rotation angle data input from the gyro sensor, which is a sensor unit.

Meanwhile, as described above, it is determined whether the position coordinates of the robot cleaner moved to the next straight line by the moving algorithm coincide with the end coordinates of the cleaning area (S170). At this time, the microprocessor 130 calculates the coordinates of the moved point on the basis of the rotation speed data obtained from the encoder 150 as described above.

Therefore, the microprocessor 130 implementing the cleaning area driving method of the robot cleaner according to the present invention, when the position coordinates of the robot cleaner moved to the next straight line is a position in the cleaning area (S170), it goes straight into the set cleaning area. The driving signal is output to the left / right wheel motor driver 140 to travel. Accordingly, the robot cleaner travels straight by the motor driving by the left / right motor drive unit.

However, when the position coordinates of the robot cleaner moved to the next straight line coincide with the cleaning end coordinates of the cleaning area stored in the memory, the driving control signal is output to the left / right motor driving unit 140 to move to the next cell.

Accordingly, the robot cleaner moves to another cell after finishing the cleaning of the corresponding cleaning area set in a circle (S180).

Therefore, the robot cleaner uses the driving method as described above. The space between the cell and the cell is due to the error generated between the driving distance and the moving position and the actual driving distance and the position calculated from the signal detected by the sensor in the conventional cell cleaning method. Even if this occurs, as shown in b) of FIG. 3, since the circular cleaning areas including the cells overlap each other, unlike the conventional cell cleaning method, the cleaning areas are missing between the cells in the cleaning. Can be minimized.

As described in detail above, the cleaning area driving method of the robot cleaner according to the present invention runs a cleaning area including a conventional rectangular cell, thereby cleaning the area generated when the area moves between the cells in the conventional cell driving method. The problem of omission of the problem can be solved, so that all the cleaning areas can be cleaned efficiently.

That is, by driving a circular cleaning area including a rectangular cell, the cell and the cell due to the error generated between the travel distance and the movement position and the actual travel distance and position calculated from the signal detected by the sensor in the conventional cell cleaning method The circular cleaning area including the cell overlaps with each other even when a space is generated therebetween, so that the cleaning area may be minimized between the cell and the cell when performing cleaning unlike the conventional cell cleaning method.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the accompanying drawings, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many different and obvious modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the invention from this description. Therefore, the scope of the invention should be construed by the claims described to include many such variations.

Claims (5)

A cleaning area setting step of setting a circular cleaning area having a radius at which the current position of the robot cleaner passes in the cell cleaning mode of the robot cleaner; A driving step of driving the motor to travel straight inside the cleaning area set at the current position; A cleaning area analyzing step of analyzing whether the cleaning area is separated by using the displacement information according to the straight running, and stopping the motor driving when the cleaning area leaves the cleaning area; A line moving step of changing a direction at a stop position and moving a predetermined distance to move to the next straight line; A cell analysis step of driving the motor to travel straight inside the set cleaning area when the moved position is a position in the cleaning area, and moving to the start position of the next cell when the moved position is the end position of the cell; Cleaning area driving method of the robot cleaner comprising a. The method of claim 1, wherein the setting of the cleaning area comprises: Setting a rectangular cleaning area having one vertex as the current position of the robot cleaner in the cell cleaning mode of the robot cleaner; And setting a circular cleaning area in contact with a vertex of the set rectangle. The method of claim 2, wherein the setting of the rectangular cleaning area comprises: A cleaning area driving method of a robot cleaner, characterized by setting a current position as a starting coordinate of a cleaning area. The method of claim 1, wherein the cleaning area analyzing step comprises: Calculating a separation distance from the center of the cleaning area to the current position by using the displacement information according to the driving during the straight driving; And stopping the motor driving when the calculated separation distance exceeds the radius of the cleaning area. The method of claim 4, wherein calculating the separation distance comprises: Calculating the current position information by using the displacement information according to the rotation amount of the driving wheel input from the encoder when driving straight; And calculating a distance from the center of the cleaning area to the current location by using the calculated position information.

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