CN112006611A

CN112006611A - Cleaning robot

Info

Publication number: CN112006611A
Application number: CN202010834495.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王旭宁; 余杰
Original assignee: Sharkninja China Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Sharkninja China Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-08-19
Filing date: 2020-08-19
Publication date: 2020-12-01

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a cleaning robot including an obstacle sensing unit for sensing an obstacle, a driving unit driving the cleaning robot to travel on a surface, and a control unit including a zigzag program module, a barrier detouring program module, a continuous scan program module, and a supplementary scan program module. The cleaning robot with the structure and/or the program module not only reduces the repeated walking path in the cleaning process, but also enables the cleaning robot to be just positioned on the boundary of the target area when just traversing the whole target area, and the cleaning robot can conveniently enter the next area to further clean the next area.

Description

Cleaning robot

Technical Field

The utility model belongs to the technical field of cleaning device, specifically provide a cleaning robot.

Background

With the improvement of living standards, intelligent cleaning robots are entering more and more households.

The existing cleaning robots comprise a sweeping robot, a floor wiping robot, a sweeping and mopping integrated robot and the like. When cleaning the floor in a room, the cleaning robot usually travels along a zigzag, a Y-shaped, etc. trajectory, so as to be able to traverse all the floors in the room and clean all the floors in the room.

When encountering an obstacle, the cleaning robot usually travels around the obstacle and cleans the obstacle for one circle, and then returns to the originally planned travel path of zigzag, bow, Y and the like to continuously clean the room.

Fig. 1.1 to 1.5 show the situation when the cleaning robot 1 encounters an obstacle 2 in a room.

As shown in fig. 1.1 to 1.3, after encountering the obstacle 2, the cleaning robot 1 travels around the contour of the obstacle 2 with the encounter position between the cleaning robot 1 and the obstacle 2 (the position of the cleaning robot 1 in fig. 1.1) as a starting point. As shown in fig. 1.2, after the cleaning robot 1 travels around the contour of the obstacle 2 for one circle, it returns to the encounter position again, and then starts traversing the area on the left side of the obstacle 2 in a zigzag manner with the encounter position as a starting point until the cleaning robot 1 walks to the position shown in fig. 1.3. To this end, the cleaning robot 1 completes the first cleaning of the target area (the area surrounded by the wall 3 in the drawing). However, as can be seen from fig. 1.3, there are missing scanning areas (areas to be cleaned which are not covered by the zigzag trajectory during the first cleaning) in the target area, which are present on the right, upper, and upper left sides of the obstacle 2. In order to achieve complete cleaning of the target area by the cleaning robot 1, the cleaning robot 1 needs to perform supplementary scanning on the missed-scanning area.

As shown in fig. 1.4, the cleaning robot 1 first travels to the lower right of the right side missed-scan region of the obstacle 2, then starts to sweep the missed-scan region, and after sweeping the region, continues to clean the top missed-scan region of the obstacle 2 until the cleaning robot 1 travels to the upper left corner in fig. 1.4.

As can be seen from fig. 1.4, there is still a row of uncleaned areas on the upper left of the obstacle 2. In order to clean the area, the cleaning robot 1 needs to walk from the upper left corner in fig. 1.4 to the position shown in fig. 1.5.

When it is desired to clean the next area, the cleaning robot 1 needs to walk from the position shown in fig. 1.5 to the lower right corner of the target area shown in fig. 1.3 or to the upper left corner of the target area shown in fig. 1.4, or to the other edges shown in fig. 1.1 to 1.5.

As can be seen, in the process of traveling along the zigzag track, when the existing cleaning robot 1 encounters an obstacle and the end point may not be located on the boundary of the target area when all areas are traversed, the cleaning robot 1 may first go to the boundary of the target area, and then the cleaning robot 1 may repeatedly travel along a plurality of routes.

Fig. 2.1 to 2.6 show the situation when the cleaning robot 1 cleans a room without obstacles.

As shown in fig. 2.1 to 2.3, before cleaning the whole room, the cleaning robot 1 works edgewise on the wall 3 of the room, i.e. travels a circle around the inner contour of the wall 3. The method comprises the following specific steps:

the cleaning robot 1 first moves from the position shown in fig. 2.1 towards the nearest wall (as shown in fig. 2.2) and moves to the encounter position in fig. 2.3 where the cleaning robot 1 is located. Then travels one revolution around the inner contour of the wall 3 and reaches the encounter position again. Then, the cleaning robot 1 traverses the lower part of the target area along the zigzag trajectory with the encounter position as a starting point as shown in fig. 2.4 until it encounters the lower right corner shown in fig. 2.4. Then, the cleaning robot 1 moves again from the position shown in fig. 2.4 to the position shown in fig. 2.5, and traverses the upper portion of the target area along the zigzag trajectory as shown in fig. 2.6.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure is directed to providing a robot capable of performing a cleaning operation along a trajectory of a "zigzag" while having less repetitive paths taken by the robot in cleaning a target area.

To this end, the present disclosure provides a cleaning robot comprising an obstacle sensing unit for sensing an obstacle, a drive unit for propelling the cleaning robot over a surface, and a control unit, the control unit comprising at least the following program modules:

a zigzag program module configured to be capable of controlling the cleaning robot to travel along a zigzag trajectory in a target region, the zigzag trajectory including a trajectory of a first travel direction, a trajectory of a second travel direction, and a trajectory of a third travel direction, the first travel direction being parallel and opposite to the second travel direction, the third travel direction being for transitioning the cleaning robot from one of the first travel direction and the second travel direction to the other;

an obstacle detouring program module configured to control the cleaning robot to travel around a contour of an obstacle at least one circle with an encounter position between the cleaning robot and the obstacle as a starting point after encountering the obstacle;

a continuous sweeping program module configured to control the cleaning robot to continue to travel around the contour of the obstacle to a continuation point after traveling around the contour of the obstacle for the at least one circle, and then recall the zigzag program module to cause the cleaning robot to continue to travel along a zigzag trajectory toward an area to be cleaned in the target area; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the connection point is a tangent point of a straight line parallel to the first traveling direction and the contour, and the connection point is positioned on one side of the contour close to the encountering position.

Optionally, a plurality of the tangent points exist on the contour, and the continuation point is one of the tangent points having the shortest distance to the encountered position.

Optionally, there are a plurality of the tangent points on the contour, and one of the tangent points that is farthest from the encountered position in a traveling direction opposite to the third traveling direction is taken as the continuation point.

Optionally, the control unit further comprises a supplementary scanning program module configured to control the cleaning robot to perform supplementary cleaning on the region to be cleaned in the target region, which is not covered by the zigzag track.

Optionally, the complement scan program module is further configured to:

determining a complement scan start point based on the contour of the obstacle;

and the cleaning robot is made to travel to the supplementary scanning starting point, and the zigzag program module is called again, so that the cleaning robot can perform supplementary cleaning on the area to be cleaned which is not covered by the zigzag track.

Optionally, a plurality of said obstacles are present within said target area; the supplemental scan program module is further configured to:

respectively determining a supplementary scanning starting point based on the outline of each obstacle;

and sequentially enabling the cleaning robot to sequentially travel to each supplementary scanning starting point and sequentially recall the zigzag program module so as to enable the cleaning robot to perform supplementary cleaning on each area to be cleaned, which is not covered by the zigzag track.

Optionally, there are a plurality of the tangent points on the contour, the supplementary scan starting point is a tangent point of a straight line parallel to the first traveling direction and the contour, and the supplementary scan starting point is located on a side of the contour away from the encounter position.

Optionally, the start of the sweeping back is the farthest one of the tangent points from the encounter location.

Optionally, in a traveling direction opposite to the third traveling direction, one of the plurality of tangent points that is farthest from the encounter position is taken as the sweep start point.

Optionally, the obstacle sensing unit comprises at least one of a lidar, an image acquisition unit, a collision sensor and a edgewise sensor.

Based on the foregoing description, it can be understood by those skilled in the art that in the foregoing technical solution of the present disclosure, by enabling the cleaning robot to travel along the trajectory of the zigzag, the cleaning robot is enabled to travel along the first, second, and third traveling directions of the zigzag. After the cleaning robot encounters the obstacle, the cleaning robot travels around the outline of the obstacle by taking the encountered position between the cleaning robot and the obstacle as a starting point for at least one circle, so that the cleaning robot can clean the ground at the outline of the obstacle, and the condition of missing sweeping at the concave part or the corner of the obstacle when the cleaning robot travels along the zigzag track is avoided. The cleaning robot walks to a continuous point of the outline of the obstacle (a tangent point of a straight line parallel to the first traveling direction and the outline) after at least one circle around the obstacle and then continues to travel along the zigzag track, so that the cleaning robot can always continue to travel along the zigzag track with one end point of the obstacle (the aforementioned continuous point) as a starting point after at least one circle around the obstacle, and the cleaning robot can traverse all areas on one side (one of two opposite sides) of the obstacle after at least one circle around the obstacle. And the contour line of this one side of barrier has constituted the regional partial contour line of this one side for the region based on this one side contour line of barrier is more regular, and regular region more is favorable to cleaning robot to clean. Therefore, the cleaning robot disclosed by the invention avoids the situation that when the area on one side is not completely traversed, a missed-scanning area (an area to be cleaned which is not covered by the zigzag track in the first cleaning process) exists, so that the cleaning robot needs to perform supplementary scanning on the area, and further reduces the repeated route which is traveled by the cleaning robot during supplementary scanning.

It can be understood by those skilled in the art that the cleaning robot of the present disclosure can sweep an area on one side of each obstacle individually by the aforementioned technical means regardless of the number of obstacles in the target area. Therefore, no matter one obstacle or a plurality of obstacles exist in the target area, the cleaning robot can clean the target area by using the same logic and/or program, and the cleaning robot is prevented from being provided with a plurality of programs to deal with different numbers of obstacles.

It can also be understood by those skilled in the art that since the connection point is a tangent point of a straight line parallel to the first traveling direction and the contour of the obstacle, and the cleaning robot can accurately and precisely acquire/recognize the tangent point on the contour of the obstacle, the cleaning robot can accurately acquire the connection point by acquiring the tangent point, thereby enabling the cleaning robot to precisely move to the connection point from any position in the target area.

Further, when a plurality of tangent points exist on the contour, the cleaning robot can first traverse the area on the side of the obstacle close to the encounter position by using one of the tangent points having the shortest distance to the encounter position as a continuation point.

Further, when a plurality of tangent points exist on the contour, by taking one of the plurality of tangent points, which is farthest from the encounter position, as a continuation point in a traveling direction opposite to the third traveling direction, the cleaning robot is bound to traverse an area on a side of the obstacle close to the encounter position after traveling around the obstacle. And in the traveling direction opposite to the third traveling direction, one tangent point which is farthest away from the encountered position in the plurality of tangent points on the side of the obstacle outline far away from the encountered position is taken as a supplementary scanning starting point, so that the cleaning robot can traverse all areas on the side of the obstacle far away from the encountered position by taking the supplementary scanning starting point as a starting point during supplementary scanning. And the contour line of this one side of barrier has constituted the regional partial contour line of this one side for the region based on this one side contour line of barrier is more regular, and regular region more is favorable to cleaning robot to clean. Therefore, the cleaning robot disclosed by the invention can clean the area on one side of the obstacle firstly when cleaning the ground for the first time and clean the area on the other side of the obstacle again when in supplementary sweeping, so that the aim of completely traversing the areas on the two sides of the obstacle is fulfilled.

As can be understood by those skilled in the art, after the cleaning robot performs the operation along the edge of the target area and starts the cleaning operation from a certain corner (e.g., the upper left corner) of the target area, the cleaning robot only needs to perform the additional cleaning once no matter how many obstacles exist in the target area.

Drawings

Preferred embodiments of the present disclosure are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

fig. 1.1 to 1.5 are schematic views of a conventional cleaning robot when encountering an obstacle during its travel along a zigzag trajectory;

2.1-2.6 are schematic views of a prior art cleaning robot when it does not encounter an obstacle during its travel along a zig-zag trajectory;

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural view of a cleaning robot of the present disclosure;

4.1-4.7 are schematic views of the cleaning robot of the present disclosure encountering a single obstacle during travel along a zig-zag trajectory;

5.1-5.8 are schematic views of the cleaning robot of the present disclosure encountering multiple obstacles during travel along a zig-zag trajectory;

fig. 6.1 to 6.5 are schematic views of the prior art cleaning robot when it does not encounter an obstacle during its travel along the zigzag trajectory.

List of reference numerals:

1. a cleaning robot; 11. a control unit; 111. a zigzag program module; 112. an obstacle avoidance program module; 113. a continuous scanning program module; 114. a supplementary scanning program module; 12. an obstacle sensing unit; 13. a drive unit;

2. an obstacle; 21. a connection point;

3. a wall.

Detailed Description

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the embodiments described below are only preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, and do not mean that the present disclosure can be implemented only by the preferred embodiments, which are merely for explaining the technical principles of the present disclosure and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. All other embodiments that can be derived by one of ordinary skill in the art from the preferred embodiments provided by the disclosure without undue experimentation will still fall within the scope of the disclosure.

In the description of the present disclosure, each functional module may be a physical module composed of a plurality of structures, members, or electronic components, or may be a virtual module composed of a plurality of programs; each functional module may be a module that exists independently of each other, or may be a module that is functionally divided from an overall module. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the technical solutions described in the present disclosure can be implemented without any change in the configuration, implementation, and positional relationship of the functional modules, which does not depart from the technical principles of the present disclosure, and therefore, the functional modules should fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.

In addition, it should be noted that, unless explicitly stated or limited otherwise, the terms "connected" and "connected" in the description of the present disclosure should be interpreted broadly, and may be, for example, a wired connection, a wireless connection, or a communication connection (including both a wired connection and a wireless connection). The specific meaning of the above terms in the present disclosure can be understood by those skilled in the art as appropriate.

As shown in fig. 3, in a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, the cleaning robot 1 includes a control unit 11, an obstacle sensing unit 12, and a driving unit 13. Wherein, the control unit 11 is respectively connected with the obstacle sensing unit 12 and the driving unit 13 in a communication way, so as to be capable of receiving signals from the obstacle sensing unit 12 and transmitting control signals to the obstacle sensing unit 12; and can receive signals from the drive unit 13 and can send control signals to the drive unit 13.

Although not shown in the drawings, the obstacle sensing unit 12 includes at least one of a laser radar, an image pickup unit, a collision sensor, and a edgewise sensor. Specifically, a person skilled in the art may set a laser radar, an image pickup unit, a collision sensor, and/or an edge sensor on the cleaning robot 1 with reference to the existing cleaning robot 1.

Further, although not shown in the drawings, the driving unit 13 includes a motor and a traveling wheel driven by the motor. The control unit 11 controls the rotation of the traveling wheels by controlling the rotation direction and the rotation speed of the motor, thereby controlling the traveling posture of the cleaning robot 1.

With continued reference to FIG. 3, the control unit 11 includes a zigzag program module 111, a barrier program module 112, a continuous scan program module 113, and a complementary scan program module 114. Wherein the zigzag program module 111 is used for controlling the cleaning robot 1 to travel along the zigzag track. The obstacle detouring program module 112 is used to control the cleaning robot 1 to travel around the contour of an obstacle. The continuous scanning program module 113 is used to make the cleaning robot 1 recall the zigzag program module 111 after traveling around the obstacle, and then make the cleaning robot 1 continue traveling along the zigzag trajectory. The supplementary scanning program module 114 is used for controlling the cleaning robot 1 to clean the missed area when the target area is cleaned for the first time.

In particular, the zigzag program module 111 is configured to be able to control the cleaning robot 1 to travel in the target area along a zigzag trajectory including a trajectory of a first travel direction, a trajectory of a second travel direction, and a trajectory of a third travel direction, the first travel direction being parallel and opposite to the second travel direction, the third travel direction being for transitioning the cleaning robot 1 from one of the first travel direction and the second travel direction to the other.

The zigzag track is explained with reference to fig. 1.5: the arrow pointing to the left in fig. 1.5 indicates a first direction of travel; the arrow pointing to the right in fig. 1.5 represents the second direction of travel; the vertical line segment in fig. 1.5 represents the third direction of travel, and the third direction of travel is from top to bottom in fig. 1.5. Of course, the skilled person can also indicate the second direction of travel with the arrow pointing to the left in fig. 1.5, as desired; the first direction of travel is indicated by the arrow pointing to the right in fig. 1.5; the third direction of travel is indicated by the vertical line segment in fig. 1.5, and is from bottom to top in fig. 1.5.

It can be understood by those skilled in the art that since the third travel direction trajectory is only a trajectory for moving the cleaning robot 1 from the first travel direction trajectory to the second travel direction or a trajectory for moving the cleaning robot 1 from the second travel direction trajectory to the first travel direction, the third travel direction trajectory may be perpendicular or non-perpendicular with respect to the first travel direction; and the track of the third travel direction can be a straight line segment, an arc line segment or other curved line segments. Thus, the third travel direction refers in this disclosure to the elongation of the straight, arc, or ray from one end point to another end point on the line segment.

Further specifically, the obstacle detouring program module 112 is configured to control the cleaning robot 1 to travel around the contour of the obstacle at least one week starting from an encounter position between the cleaning robot 1 and the obstacle after encountering the obstacle. It should be noted that the obstacle may be the obstacle 2 in the target area shown in the drawing, or may be a wall at the edge of the target area (as shown in fig. 5.1 to 5.8).

Further specifically, the continuous scanning program module 113 is configured to control the cleaning robot 1 to continue to travel around the contour of the obstacle to a continuing point after traveling around the contour of the obstacle for at least one turn, and then recall the zigzag program module 111 to cause the cleaning robot 1 to continue to travel along a zigzag trajectory toward the region to be cleaned in the target region.

The connecting point is a tangent point of a straight line parallel to the first traveling direction and the contour, and the connecting point is positioned on one side of the contour close to the encountering position. The following will describe the continuation and tangent points in detail with reference to a specific work scene.

Further specifically, the supplementary cleaning program module 114 is configured to be able to control the cleaning robot 1 to perform supplementary cleaning of the region to be cleaned in the target region, which is not covered by the zigzag trajectory.

In order to make the technical solution of the present disclosure more clearly understood by those skilled in the art, the working principle of the cleaning robot 1 will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 4.1 to 4.7 and fig. 5.1 to 5.8.

Wherein fig. 4.1 to 4.7 show the movement trajectory of the cleaning robot 1 when there is only one obstacle 2 in the room; fig. 5.1 to 5.8 show the movement trajectory of the cleaning robot 1 when there are a plurality of (specifically, two) obstacles 2 in the room.

It should be noted that, in fig. 4.1 to 4.7 and 5.1 to 5.8, during the process of cleaning the target area for the first time by the cleaning robot 1, the third traveling direction is a direction from top to bottom in the corresponding figure; the third traveling direction is a corresponding direction from bottom to top in the drawing in the process of sweeping back the missed-sweeping area (the area to be cleaned which is not covered by the zigzag trajectory in the first cleaning process) by the cleaning robot 1. For example, the top-down direction in fig. 4.6 represents the third direction of travel, and the bottom-up direction in the sweep region (increasing trajectory relative to fig. 6) of fig. 4.7 represents the third direction of travel.

As shown in fig. 4.1 to 4.3, when the cleaning robot 1 detects the obstacle 2 by the obstacle sensing unit 12, the cleaning robot 1 moves from the position shown in fig. 4.1 to the position shown in fig. 4.2. In fig. 4.2, the position of the cleaning robot 1 is an encountered position between the cleaning robot 1 and the obstacle 2. Then, the obstacle detouring program module 112 controls the cleaning robot 1 to detour around the obstacle 2 once in the clockwise direction with the encounter position in fig. 4.2 as a starting point, and to return to the encounter position again (as shown in fig. 4.3).

As shown in fig. 4.4, the cleaning robot 1 acquires the continuation point 21 on the contour of the obstacle 2. For example, in the process of making the cleaning robot 1 travel around the obstacle 2 for one circle, the obstacle sensing unit 12 acquires the contour of the obstacle 2, and then finds the tangent point of the straight line parallel to the first travel direction (the direction indicated by the arrow at the cleaning robot 1 in fig. 4.4) and the contour, so as to obtain the continuation point 21.

As can be seen from fig. 4.4, the tangent point satisfying the above condition includes two portions, one is an end point located at the top end of the obstacle 2, and the other is a borderline located at the bottom end of the obstacle 2, and the borderline has a plurality of tangent points. From all the contact points satisfying the above conditions, contact points satisfying the following conditions are selected as the connection points 21: in the traveling direction opposite to the third traveling direction (the direction from top to bottom in fig. 4.6), the one of the plurality of tangent points that is farthest from the encounter position is taken as the continuation point (the position where the cleaning robot 1 is located in fig. 4.5).

It should be noted that, in the present disclosure, a tangent of a straight line segment is a straight line coinciding with the straight line segment; the tangent points of the straight line segment are all the points constituting the straight line segment, in other words, each point on the straight line segment is its tangent point.

As shown in fig. 4.5 and 4.6, the continuous scanning program module 113 controls the cleaning robot 1 to travel from the encounter position (the position of the cleaning robot 1 in fig. 4.3) to the continuation point 21 (the position of the cleaning robot 1 in fig. 4.5), and then invokes the zigzag program module 111, so that the zigzag program module 111 controls the cleaning robot 1 to traverse the left and lower areas of the obstacle 2 along the zigzag trajectory until the cleaning robot 1 travels to the lower right corner of fig. 4.6.

As shown in fig. 4.6 and 4.7, the supplementary scan program module 114 moves the cleaning robot 1 into a missing scan area (an area to be cleaned which is not covered by the zigzag trajectory in the first cleaning process) and calls up the zigzag program module 111, so that the zigzag program module 111 controls the cleaning robot 1 to clean the missing scan area along the zigzag trajectory. Specifically, the supplementary scan program module 114 moves the cleaning robot 1 to the lower right of the missed scan region on the right side of the obstacle 2 in fig. 4.6, and then calls the zigzag program module 111, so that the zigzag program module 111 controls the cleaning robot 1 to clean all the missed scan regions along the zigzag trajectory until the cleaning robot 1 travels to the position shown in fig. 4.7.

The working principle of the cleaning robot 1 of the present disclosure is further explained with reference to fig. 5.1 to 5.8.

As shown in fig. 5.1 to 5.3, when the cleaning robot 1 detects the first obstacle 2 by the obstacle sensing unit 12, the cleaning robot 1 moves from the position shown in fig. 5.1 to the position shown in fig. 5.2. In fig. 5.2, the cleaning robot 1 is located at an encounter position between the cleaning robot 1 and the first obstacle 2. The obstacle detouring program module 112 then controls the cleaning robot 1 to make one turn around the first obstacle 2 in the clockwise direction starting from the encounter position in fig. 5.2 and to return to the encounter position again (as shown in fig. 5.3).

As shown in fig. 5.4, the cleaning robot 1 acquires the continuation point a on the contour of the first obstacle 2. For example, in the process of making the cleaning robot 1 travel around the first obstacle 2 for one circle, the obstacle sensing unit 12 obtains the contour of the first obstacle 2, and then finds the tangent point between the straight line parallel to the first travel direction (the direction indicated by the arrow at the cleaning robot 1 in fig. 5.4) and the contour, so as to obtain the continuation point a.

As can be seen from fig. 5.4, the tangent point satisfying the above condition includes two portions, one is a border line at the top end of the first obstacle 2, and the other is a border line at the bottom end of the first obstacle 2, and each border line has a plurality of tangent points. From all the tangent points satisfying the above-described conditions, the tangent points satisfying the following two conditions are selected as the connecting points 21. The first condition is that the tangent point is located on the side of the contour of the first obstacle 2 close to the encountered position, i.e. at the left end of the upper and lower edges of the first obstacle 2, and it can be seen that there are two tangent points satisfying the first condition. The second condition is that, in the main traveling direction of the cleaning robot 1, one of the plurality of contact points located most upstream in the main traveling direction is taken as a continuation point. At this point, only 1 tangent point satisfying the above two conditions, i.e., the point a shown in fig. 5.4, can be determined.

It should be noted that the "main traveling direction" refers to a direction in which the cleaning robot 1 moves forward and is perpendicular to the first traveling direction and the second traveling direction in the process of cleaning the target area. Illustratively, the top-down direction in the initial cleaning trajectory shown in fig. 1.3, the top-down direction in the initial cleaning trajectory shown in fig. 2.4, the top-down direction in the initial cleaning trajectory shown in fig. 4.6, the top-down direction in the initial cleaning trajectory shown in fig. 5.5, the bottom-up direction in the supplemental cleaning trajectory shown in the upper right-hand portion of fig. 1.4, the bottom-up direction in the supplemental cleaning trajectory shown in the upper right-hand portion of fig. 2.6, and the bottom-up direction in the supplemental cleaning trajectory shown in the upper right-hand portion of fig. 4.7.

As shown in fig. 5.5, the continuous scanning program module 113 controls the cleaning robot 1 to travel from the encountered position (the position of the cleaning robot 1 in fig. 5.3) to the continuation point a, and then invokes the zigzag program module 111, so that the zigzag program module 111 controls the cleaning robot 1 to traverse the left and lower areas of the first obstacle 2 along the zigzag trajectory until the cleaning robot 1 travels to the position shown in fig. 5.5 and meets the second obstacle 2.

As shown in fig. 5.6, the obstacle detouring program module 112 controls the cleaning robot 1 to detour around the second obstacle 2 once in the clockwise direction starting from the encounter position B in fig. 5.5, and to return to the encounter position B again. And the continuation point of the second obstacle 2 is determined to be B again by the aforementioned first condition and second condition. As can be seen from fig. 5.6, the third travel direction in this process is from top to bottom in fig. 5.6.

Continuing with fig. 5.6, the continuous scanning program module 113 controls the cleaning robot 1 to travel from the encounter position B to the continuing point B, and then calls the zigzag program module 111, so that the zigzag program module 111 controls the cleaning robot 1 to traverse the right and lower regions of the second obstacle 2 along the zigzag trajectory until the cleaning robot 1 moves to the point C shown in fig. 5.6.

As shown in fig. 5.7, the supplementary scan program module 114 moves the cleaning robot 1 into the left side of the second obstacle 2 in the missed scan region (the region to be cleaned which is not covered by the zigzag trajectory in the first cleaning process), and determines the supplementary scan start point as D by the aforementioned first condition and second condition. Then, the zigzag program module 111 is called, so that the zigzag program module 111 controls the cleaning robot 1 to traverse the area on the left side of the second obstacle 2 along the zigzag trajectory until the area is completely traversed. As can be seen from fig. 5.7, the third travel direction in this process is the bottom-up direction in fig. 5.7.

As shown in fig. 5.7 and 5.8, after traversing the area on the left side of the second obstacle 2, the supplementary scanning program module 114 moves the cleaning robot 1 into the missed scanning area (the area to be cleaned which is not covered by the zigzag trajectory in the first cleaning process) on the right side of the first obstacle 2, and determines that the supplementary scanning start point is the lower right corner E point of the first obstacle 2 by the first condition and the second condition. The zigzag program module 111 is then invoked, causing the zigzag program module 111 to control the cleaning robot 1 to continue to travel along the zigzag trajectory until it reaches point F shown in fig. 5.8.

As can be seen from fig. 5.1 to 5.8, after the target area is cleaned for the first time, the supplementary scanning program module 114 is based on the current position of the cleaning robot 1, then determines a supplementary scanning starting point (D and E) for each obstacle 2 in the order from near to far, and then recalls the zigzag program module 111 in turn, so that the cleaning robot 1 performs supplementary cleaning on each area to be cleaned which is not covered by the zigzag track.

Based on the foregoing description, it can be understood by those skilled in the art that the cleaning robot 1 of the present disclosure can complete cleaning of the entire area with only one additional sweep of the environment shown in fig. 4.1 to 4.7 and 5.1 to 5.8. With respect to the paths shown in fig. 1.1 to 1.5, there is no route of repeated walking, and the end point when the cleaning robot 1 has traversed the entire area is located at the corner of the area, so that the cleaning robot 1 can quickly enter the next area to be cleaned for cleaning. Further, as can be seen from fig. 4.6, when the cleaning robot 1 of the present disclosure cleans an area where an obstacle exists, a partial edge of a missed-scanning area after first cleaning is a contour of the obstacle 2. In other words, the cleaning robot 1 of the present disclosure only needs the first cleaning and the second cleaning to completely cover the area around the obstacle 2.

As can be seen from fig. 5.6, the left side of the second obstacle 2 has a relatively regular sweep area, so that, as required, the cleaning robot 1 may make one of the tangent points farthest from the encountered position as a continuation point in the third traveling direction after making at least one turn around the obstacle 2. For example, after the cleaning robot 1 makes at least one turn around the first obstacle 2 on the left side in fig. 5.5, the cleaning robot starts traveling along the zigzag trajectory with the tangent point at the lower left corner (below the point a) of the obstacle 2 as the starting point.

Fig. 6.1 to 6.5 show the situation when the cleaning robot 1 cleans a room without obstacles.

As shown in fig. 6.1 to 6.4, before cleaning the whole room, the cleaning robot 1 works edgewise on the wall 3 of the room, i.e. travels a circle around the inner contour of the wall 3. The method comprises the following specific steps:

the cleaning robot 1 first moves from the position shown in fig. 6.1 towards the nearest wall 3 (as shown in fig. 6.2) and moves to the encounter position in fig. 6.3 where the cleaning robot 1 is located. Then travels one revolution around the inner contour of the wall 3 and reaches the encounter position again.

It can be understood by those skilled in the art that although the cleaning robot 1 does not travel along the zigzag path in the course of moving along the wall 3, the cleaning robot 1 travels along the zigzag trajectory in the course of traversing the target area inside the wall 3, and thus, based on the zigzag trajectory that the cleaning robot 1 will travel in the target area, a continuation point satisfying the aforementioned first and second conditions is found and the cleaning robot 1 is moved to the continuation point (as shown in fig. 6.4), and then the cleaning robot 1 is moved from the position shown in fig. 6.4 to the position shown in fig. 6.5 along the zigzag trajectory, and thus the target area is traversed.

Therefore, the cleaning robot 1 of the present disclosure can completely traverse the target area without the obstacle with only one sweep without the need of a supplementary sweep again.

In summary, the cleaning robot 1 of the present disclosure can clean a room with an arbitrary position on the boundary of the target area (e.g., the wall 3) as a starting point, and complete traversal of the entire target area can be completed only by first cleaning and one supplementary cleaning no matter how many obstacles are in the room. Compared with the prior art, the cleaning robot has the advantages that the repeated walking route of the cleaning robot 1 is reduced, the cleaning robot 1 can be located on the boundary of the target area when just traversing the whole target area, the cleaning robot 1 can conveniently enter the next area, and the next area is cleaned.

So far, the technical solutions of the present disclosure have been described in connection with the foregoing embodiments, but it is easily understood by those skilled in the art that the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to only these specific embodiments. The technical solutions in the above embodiments can be split and combined, and equivalent changes or substitutions can be made on related technical features by those skilled in the art without departing from the technical principles of the present disclosure, and any changes, equivalents, improvements, and the like made within the technical concept and/or technical principles of the present disclosure will fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A cleaning robot comprising an obstacle sensing unit for sensing an obstacle, a drive unit for propelling the cleaning robot over a surface, and a control unit, the control unit comprising at least the following program modules:

2. The cleaning robot according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the tangent points exist on the contour, and the continuation point is one of the plurality of the tangent points whose distance from the encounter position is shortest.

3. The cleaning robot of claim 1, wherein there are a plurality of the tangent points on the contour,

and in the traveling direction opposite to the third traveling direction, one of the tangent points which is farthest from the encounter position is taken as the continuation point.

4. The cleaning robot of claim 1, wherein the control unit further comprises a post-sweep program module,

the supplementary scanning program module is configured to control the cleaning robot to perform supplementary cleaning on an area to be cleaned in the target area, which is not covered by the zigzag track.

5. The cleaning robot of claim 4, wherein the supplemental sweep program module is further configured to:

determining a complement scan start point based on the contour of the obstacle;

6. The cleaning robot of claim 5, wherein a plurality of the obstacles are present within the target area; the supplemental scan program module is further configured to:

7. The cleaning robot according to claim 5 or 6, wherein a plurality of the tangent points exist on the contour, the supplementary scan start point is a tangent point of a straight line parallel to the first traveling direction and the contour, and the supplementary scan start point is located on a side of the contour away from the encounter position.

8. The cleaning robot according to claim 7, wherein the sweeping start point is one of the tangent points that is farthest from the encounter position.

9. The cleaning robot according to claim 7, wherein one of the plurality of tangent points that is farthest from the encounter position is taken as the supplementary scan start point in a traveling direction opposite to the third traveling direction.

10. The cleaning robot of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the obstacle sensing unit comprises at least one of a lidar, an image acquisition unit, a collision sensor, and a edgewise sensor.