CN115670304A - Cleaning machine - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a sweeper. The cleaning machine is provided with: a main body; a mobile unit; a cleaning unit; a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information of an obstacle; and a control device for processing the position information to control the moving unit and the cleaning unit. The control device is provided with: an operation detection unit that detects the stop and movement of an obstacle; a biological body determination unit that determines whether the obstacle is a biological body obstacle or an abiotic body obstacle; a movement control unit that stops the main body when a distance between the moving obstacle and the main body is within a distance threshold; a cleaning control unit that controls cleaning to a position at a first distance from the stopped biological obstacle; and an area setting unit that sets an area not to be cleaned as an area not to be cleaned. The cleaning control unit controls the cleaning of the non-cleaning region after the cleaning of the predetermined cleaning region is completed.

Description

Cleaning machine

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a cleaning machine that performs cleaning while autonomously traveling.

Background

The autonomous traveling type cleaning machine performs cleaning by approaching the vicinity of an obstacle while avoiding the obstacle. On the other hand, a cleaning machine has been proposed which performs cleaning in response to an obstacle as a living body (for example, patent document 1).

Documents of the prior art

Patent document

Patent document 1: japanese patent laid-open publication No. 2018-075192

Disclosure of Invention

Unlike other obstacles, a living body may not only be in a stopped state but also move. In addition, the living body may move from a stopped position. However, it is difficult to cope with the actions specific to these living bodies in the conventional techniques.

The present disclosure has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present disclosure is to provide a cleaning machine capable of changing a cleaning operation in accordance with an operation of a living body.

In order to achieve the above object, a cleaning machine according to one aspect of the present disclosure includes: a main body; a moving unit that moves the main body; a cleaning unit mounted on the main body; a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information indicating a relative positional relationship of the obstacle with respect to the main body; and a control device for processing the position information to control the moving unit and the cleaning unit. The control device is provided with: an action detection unit that detects the stop and movement of an obstacle on the basis of the position information; a biological body determination unit that determines whether the obstacle is a biological body obstacle or an abiotic body obstacle; a movement control unit that controls the moving means to cause the main body to perform an avoidance operation including a stop when a distance between the biological obstacle, the movement of which is detected, and the main body is within a distance threshold; a cleaning control unit that controls the moving unit and the cleaning unit so as to clean the living body obstacle detected to be stopped to a position away from the living body obstacle by a first distance and clean the living body obstacle to a position away from the living body obstacle by a second distance shorter than the first distance; and an area setting unit that sets an area not to be cleaned, including the position of the biological obstacle in the stopped state, as an area not to be cleaned. The cleaning control unit controls the moving unit and the cleaning unit so that the area not to be cleaned is cleaned if no biological obstacle is present in the area not to be cleaned after the cleaning of the predetermined cleaning area is completed.

According to the present disclosure, cleaning can be performed while changing the plan of cleaning according to the movement of the living body, and cleaning can be performed after the living body moves with respect to the area that cannot be cleaned by the living body that is stopped.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a side view showing an external appearance of a cleaning machine according to an embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a bottom view showing an external appearance of the cleaning machine according to the embodiment.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional unit of a control device provided in the cleaning machine according to the embodiment.

Fig. 4 is a diagram showing a floor map and a cleaning plan in the embodiment.

Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the position of the biological obstacle and the path along which the cleaning machine moves in the embodiment.

Fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating a first distance as a avoidance distance for a biological obstacle in the embodiment.

Fig. 7 is a diagram showing an uncleaned area on a floor map in the embodiment.

Fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating another mode of setting an uncleaned area in the embodiment.

Fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an operation of the control device provided in the cleaning machine according to the embodiment.

Fig. 10 is a diagram showing a state in which a floor map and an uncleaned area are displayed on a terminal device in the embodiment.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the cleaning machine according to the present disclosure will be described below with reference to the drawings. The following embodiments are merely examples for illustrating the present disclosure, and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. For example, the shape, structure, material, constituent element, relative positional relationship, connection state, numerical value, numerical expression, contents of each step in the method, order of each step, and the like shown in the following embodiments are examples, and may include contents not described below. Although some geometrical expressions such as parallel and orthogonal expressions may be used, these expressions do not represent mathematical exactness but include substantially allowable errors, variations, and the like. The expressions "simultaneously", "identically" and the like also include substantially acceptable ranges.

The drawings are schematic drawings in which appropriate emphasis, omission, or scale adjustment is performed for the purpose of explaining the present disclosure, and differ from actual shapes, positional relationships, and scales.

In the following, a plurality of inventions will be collectively described as one embodiment in some cases. Note that a part of the contents described below will be described as an arbitrary constituent element related to the present disclosure.

Fig. 1 is a side view showing an external appearance of a sweeper 130 according to the embodiment. Fig. 2 is a bottom view showing an external appearance of the cleaning machine 130 according to the embodiment. The cleaning machine 130 is a robot type cleaning machine that performs cleaning while autonomously moving, and includes a main body 131, a moving unit 132, a cleaning unit 134, a position information acquiring unit 136, and a control device 170. In the present embodiment, the cleaning machine 130 includes an ambient sound acquisition unit 148.

The main body 131 is a structural member that serves as a structural base of the cleaning machine 130. The main body 131 functions as a housing that houses or holds the moving unit 132, the cleaning unit 134, the positional information acquisition unit 136, the control device 170, and the like. A bumper 139 is attached to an outer peripheral portion of the body 131 so as to be displaceable in the radial direction with respect to the body 131. As shown in fig. 2, a suction port 138 for sucking dust into the main body 131 is provided in the bottom surface of the main body 131.

The moving unit 132 is a device that moves the cleaning machine 130 based on an instruction from the control device 170. The moving unit 132 is not particularly limited, but in the present embodiment, includes a pair of wheels 140 rotatably attached to the main body 131, a traveling motor (not shown) for applying torque to the wheels 140, and a case 141 for housing the traveling motor. The moving unit 132 further includes casters 142 that function as auxiliary wheels on the bottom surface of the main body 131. The main body 131 of the cleaning machine 130 can freely move in a straight line, backward, left-hand rotation, right-hand rotation, and the like by independently rotating the two wheels 140 of the moving unit 132.

The cleaning unit 134 may be any cleaning unit as long as it cleans dust and dirt on the lower side of the main body 131 or on the periphery of the main body 131, and examples thereof include dust collection by suction, wiping cleaning by a mop, a nonwoven fabric, and the like. In the present embodiment, the cleaning unit 134 is a member for cleaning and collecting dust and sucking the dust from the suction port 138, and includes a rotary brush 146 disposed near the suction port 138, a brush drive motor 147 for rotating the rotary brush 146, the suction member 133, and the like.

The suction member 133 sucks dust from the suction port 138 and holds the sucked dust in the main body 131, and includes an electric fan (not shown) and a dust holding portion 143. The electric fan sucks air in the dust holding portion 143 and discharges the air to the outside of the main body 131, thereby sucking dust from the suction port 138 and storing the dust in the dust holding portion 143.

The positional information acquisition unit 136 is a device that acquires positional information indicating a relative positional relationship of the obstacle with respect to the main body 131. The position information acquiring unit 136 detects a direction, a distance, and the like of an obstacle such as a wall, furniture, and the like existing around the main body 131, and acquires 2.5-dimensional position information. The position of the cleaning machine 130 itself can also be grasped from floor information such as a route map and a floor map that is held separately from the information on the direction and distance of the obstacle detected by the position information acquisition means 136.

The kind of the position information acquiring unit 136 is not particularly limited, but for example, light Detection and Ranging (Light Detection and Ranging), a ToF (Time of Flight) camera, or the like that emits Light and detects a position and a distance based on Light reflected back by an obstacle can be exemplified. In addition, as the position information acquiring unit 136, a compound eye camera or the like that acquires illumination light and natural light reflected by an obstacle as an image and acquires a position and a distance based on parallax can be exemplified.

The ambient sound acquisition unit 148 is a device capable of acquiring ambient sound. The ambient sound acquiring unit 148 is not particularly limited, but in the case of the present embodiment, is a microphone having directivity for acquiring ambient sound around a biological obstacle.

In the present embodiment, the cleaning machine 130 includes its own position detection device (not shown). The self-position detection device detects the relative self-position with respect to the predetermined position based on the actual state of movement of the cleaner 130 by the movement unit 132. The type of the self-position detection device is not particularly limited, and examples thereof include an odometer sensor (odometer sensor) such as an encoder that detects the rotation angle of each of the pair of wheels 140 rotated by the travel motor provided in the moving unit 132. The self-position detection device may include an acceleration sensor that detects acceleration when the cleaning machine 130 travels, an inertial sensor such as an angular velocity sensor that detects an angular velocity when the cleaning machine 130 rotates, or the like. The self-position detection device may be provided with an LPS (Local Positioning System).

The sweeper 130 of the present embodiment acquires its own position using SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping). Specifically, a map is created while continuously acquiring scanning data of an odometer and LiDAR, and the position of the user is acquired by calculation based on the created map.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional part of the control device 170. The control device 170 is a device including a processor that processes the position information acquired by the position information acquisition unit 136 to control the movement unit 132 and the cleaning unit 134. The control device 170 includes a motion detection unit 171, a living body determination unit 172, a movement control unit 173, a cleaning control unit 174, and an area setting unit 175 as a processing unit realized by causing a processor to execute a program. In the present embodiment, the control device 170 further includes a sound determination unit 176 as a processing unit. The respective processing units will be described below, but the order of description does not coincide with the processing flow of the control device 170. The processing flow of the controller 170 will be described later.

The motion detector 171 detects the stop and movement of the obstacle based on the position information acquired from the position information acquisition unit 136. For example, when the cleaning machine 130 includes only LiDAR as the position information acquisition unit 136, the presence or absence of an operation of an obstacle is determined by analyzing a change in position information with time. When the living body is limited to a human, the cross-sectional shape of the foot of the human corresponding to the height position of the laser beam irradiated with LiDAR, such as the ankle and the calf, on the horizontal plane may be stored in advance, and the movement and the stop may be detected by tracking the cross-sectional shape of the foot based on the position information.

Specifically, the following can be exemplified: the LiDAR point clusters are segmented into sets (clusters) of proximate points, and a determination is made for each cluster based on similarity to the cross-sectional shape of the foot. In addition, since the area where the legs of furniture such as table legs and chair legs are dense, such as under a dining table, can be determined by the density of the number of clusters within a predetermined range, the determination condition (similarity) for determining the legs of a person may be strict when the density is equal to or greater than a predetermined value.

In the case of the present embodiment, the motion detector 171 detects the movement and stop of the obstacle, and also detects the relative movement direction of the obstacle with respect to the main body 131. For example, the direction of the obstacle moving straight toward the main body is set to 0 °, and the direction of the obstacle moving is detected as an angle.

The biological determination unit 172 determines whether the obstacle acquired by the position information acquisition unit 136 is a biological obstacle or a non-biological obstacle. The determination method of the living body determination unit 172 is not particularly limited. For example, when the movement of the obstacle is detected by the motion detection unit 171, the biological body determination unit 172 may determine the moving obstacle as a biological body obstacle. In addition, when the moving obstacle has stopped, the biological determination unit 172 may determine the moving obstacle and the obstacle existing at the stop position as the biological obstacle. The biological determination unit 172 may store the cross-sectional shape of a sitting person, a lying person, and the like at the height position of the laser beam irradiated with the LiDAR in advance, and compare the shape obtained from the position information with the stored shape to determine whether the stopped obstacle is a biological obstacle or an abiotic obstacle.

The cleaning machine 130 may include an infrared sensor, and the biological determination unit 172 may determine the obstacle as a biological obstacle when the obstacle emits heat at about 36 ℃. Further, the cleaning machine 130 may include a camera, and the biological body determination unit 172 may analyze an image from the camera to determine the obstacle as a biological body obstacle and may specify the type of the biological body. The biological body determination unit 172 may acquire the environmental sound from the environmental sound acquisition unit 148, and determine the obstacle as a biological body obstacle based on the voice of a person, the sound of footsteps, and the like.

When the distance between the obstacle, the movement of which is detected, and the main body 131 is within the distance threshold, the movement control unit 173 controls the movement unit 132 to cause the main body 131 to perform a hiding operation including a stop. The distance threshold may be a predetermined constant value or may be changed based on the relative movement speed of the obstacle and the body 131. In the case of the present embodiment, if an obstacle moving based on the moving direction of the obstacle detected by the motion detection unit 171 and the moving direction of the main body 131 does not collide with the main body 131 in the future, the movement control unit 173 controls the moving unit 132 so that the main body 131 continues to move. For example, the movement control unit 173 may acquire the moving direction of the moving obstacle and the width of the obstacle in the direction orthogonal to the moving direction from the motion detection unit 171, and when it can be estimated that the obstacle will come into contact with the body 131 in consideration of the width and the moving direction of the obstacle, and the width and the moving direction of the body 131, the body 131 may be caused to perform the avoidance operation by causing the obstacle to collide with the body 131 in the future. Specific avoidance operation may be exemplified by a temporary stop, a detour operation in which the body 131 is moved so that the distance to the obstacle is equal to or greater than a predetermined distance, or the like. When the accuracy of the determination of whether a biological obstacle or a non-biological obstacle is performed by the biological determination unit 172 is moderate, the following operation may be included in the avoidance operation: the body 131 is temporarily stopped, decelerated, or operated so that the distance to the obstacle becomes a predetermined distance, and the living body determining unit 172 determines whether or not the obstacle is a living body again. For example, when the position information acquiring unit 136 is LiDAR, the shorter the distance to the obstacle, the more detailed and more obstacle information can be acquired, so that the accuracy of determination by the biological body determination unit 172 improves, and the main body 131 can perform more effective avoidance operation.

The cleaning control unit 174 acquires a floor map as shown in fig. 4 in advance. The cleaning control unit 174 acquires a cleaning plan shown by an arrow in fig. 4 in advance. The arrangement of the non-living body obstacles 210 such as walls, pillars, partitions, furniture, and the like is registered in advance in the floor map. The cleaning control unit 174 controls the moving unit 132 and the cleaning unit 134 according to the cleaning plan while using the acquired floor map to perform cleaning. In the case of the present embodiment, the entire cleaning region shown in fig. 4 is divided into a plurality of regions (four regions in the present embodiment), and a cleaning plan is set for each of the regions. The cleaning control unit 174 performs cleaning for each area.

When cleaning the vicinity of the biological obstacle 200 as shown in fig. 5, the cleaning control unit 174 controls the moving unit 132 and the cleaning unit 134 so as to clean the biological obstacle 200, which is an obstacle detected to be stopped by the operation detection unit 171 and determined to be a biological obstacle by the biological determination unit 172, to a position away from the biological obstacle 200 by the first distance 201 as shown in fig. 6. That is, the cleaning control unit 174 controls the moving unit 132 so as to avoid the biological obstacle 200 in a state of being separated from the biological obstacle 200 by the first distance 201. Further, the cleaning control unit 174 controls the moving unit 132 and the cleaning unit 134 so as to clean the living body obstacle 210 to a position separated by a second distance shorter than the first distance 201.

The first distance 201 is not particularly limited, but is set to a distance such that it does not come into contact with the body 131 even when the stopped biological obstacle 200 changes its posture, for example. The second distance is set to a distance to the extent that the distal end portion of the rotating brush 146 contacts the living body obstacle 210, for example.

When the non-cleaning area is set by the area setting unit 175 described later, the cleaning control unit 174 controls the moving unit 132 and the cleaning unit 134 so that the non-cleaning area is cleaned if there is no biological obstacle in the set non-cleaning area after the cleaning of the predetermined cleaning area (one of the four areas in the present embodiment) according to the cleaning plan is completed. This allows an area that cannot be cleaned due to the presence of the biological obstacle to be autonomously cleaned, and a cleaning plan can be achieved.

When it is determined by a sound determination unit 176, which will be described later, that the sound emitted from the audio device is included in the sound of the surroundings of the stopped biological obstacle 200, the cleaning control unit 174 controls at least one of the moving unit 132 and the cleaning unit 134 so as to suppress the sound transmitted from the main body 131 to the biological obstacle 200. For example, by controlling the moving unit 132 and the cleaning unit 134 to clean the obstacle to a third distance longer than the first distance 201, the sound transmitted from the main body 131 to the biological obstacle 200 can be suppressed. Further, the sound transmitted from the main body 131 to the biological obstacle 200 can be suppressed by suppressing the moving speed of the main body 131, suppressing the suction force of the cleaning unit 134, suppressing the rotation speed of the rotary brush, and the like.

As shown in fig. 7, the area setting unit 175 sets an uncleaned area including the position of the biological obstacle 200 in the stopped state as an uncleaned area 300. The method of setting the uncleaned area 300 is not particularly limited, but for example, the area setting unit 175 records the actual state of the travel of the main body 131 according to the cleaning plan, and sets an area included in the cleaning plan and to which the main body 131 cannot travel as an uncleaned area. Thus, as shown by a in fig. 7, an area that cannot be cleaned due to being blocked by the biological obstacle 200 is also set as an uncleaned area.

In addition, when a biological obstacle 200 is present in an area in which the area of the area surrounded by the non-biological obstacle 210 is equal to or smaller than the area threshold, such as the area indicated by B in fig. 8, the area setting unit 175 may stop the control of cleaning the area and set the area surrounded by the non-biological obstacle 210 as the non-cleaning area 300. This prevents the cleaning machine 130 from approaching the foot of a person and interfering with the work of the person when the person is present in a narrow place such as a kitchen.

Even if the region set as the uncleaned region 300 is due to the existence of the biological obstacle 200, the region setting unit 175 may cancel the set uncleaned region 300 in a region where the legs of furniture such as table legs and chair legs are dense, for example, below a dining table. This is because, in the region with dense furniture legs, the sectional shape of the furniture legs is similar to the sectional shape of the human legs, and therefore, there is a high possibility of erroneous determination, and the time until the main body 131 enters the region with dense furniture legs and leaves the region with dense furniture legs becomes long.

The sound determination unit 176 determines whether or not there is an audio device sound, which is a sound emitted from the audio device, in the ambient sound around the biological obstacle 200 whose stoppage is detected. Audio equipment is, for example, a television, a sound system, or the like, and is a device that emits sound using a speaker. The method of determining the audio device sound is not particularly limited, but for example, a human dialogue, singing, performance, and the like emitted from a speaker are included in the audio device sound, and sounds generated at a monotone cycle, sounds generated at a constant volume, and the like are excluded from the audio device sound.

Next, a control operation of the control device 170 provided in the cleaning machine 130 will be described. Fig. 9 is a flowchart showing a flow of a control operation of control device 170.

The cleaning machine 130 performs cleaning according to the set cleaning plan until the end of the cleaning plan (S101). During cleaning, the position information of the obstacle is sequentially acquired using the position information acquisition unit 136 (S102). The cleaning machine 130 uses the position information acquisition means 136 and its own position detection device to advance the cleaning plan while recognizing its own position on the floor map.

The operation detecting unit 171 detects the operation of the obstacle based on the position information sequentially acquired by the position information acquiring unit 136 (S103). When the obstacle within the distance threshold is moving, the movement control unit 173 controls the moving unit 132 to cause the main body 131 to perform the avoidance operation until it is determined that the obstacle is separated from the distance threshold or more in principle (S104). When the obstacle is far from the body 131, or when it can be predicted that the body 131 will not come into contact with a moving obstacle, the body 131 may not be temporarily stopped in consideration of the relative movement direction between the obstacle and the body 131.

Next, it is determined whether or not an obstacle that has stopped and is not present on the floor map is a living body (S105). In the case where the obstacle is an inanimate obstacle 210, cleaning is performed so that the distance from the approach to the inanimate obstacle 210 is a second distance (S106). In addition, cleaning is also performed for the non-biological obstacle 210 existing on the floor map so as to approach to the second distance according to the cleaning plan.

When the obstacle is the biological obstacle 200 and the environmental sound around the biological obstacle 200 includes the audio device sound (S107), cleaning is performed in a silent mode such as cleaning while avoiding the biological obstacle 200 at a third distance from the biological obstacle 200 (S108). When the ambient sound around the biological obstacle 200 does not include the audio device sound (S107), cleaning is performed while avoiding the biological obstacle 200 in a state separated from the biological obstacle 200 by a first distance in a normal mode other than the silent mode (S109).

Next, the area setting unit 175 sets, as the non-cleaning area 300, an area that cannot be cleaned by cleaning while avoiding the biological obstacle 200 in the stopped state (S110). The above processing is executed until the cleaning plan for each area is finished (S101), and if the cleaning plan for one area is finished (S101: yes), the cleaning control unit 174 confirms whether or not the biological obstacle 200 is present in the set non-cleaning area 300 based on the position information from the position information acquisition unit 136 (S111). When the presence or absence of the biological obstacle 200 in the non-cleaning region 300 cannot be confirmed at the end of the cleaning plan, the cleaning control unit 174 moves the main body 131 to a position where the non-cleaning region 300 can be confirmed. When the biological obstacle 200 is not present in the uncleaned area 300, the cleaning control unit 174 performs cleaning on the uncleaned area 300 (S112). The area setting unit also performs processing regarding the non-cleaned area 300 after cleaning is performed as if cleaning is completed.

The above processing is executed for each divided cleaning area, but the non-cleaning area 300 which cannot be cleaned due to the presence of the biological obstacle 200 is stored until the cleaning plan for the entire cleaning area is completed.

According to the cleaning machine 130 of the above embodiment, when there is a moving obstacle within the distance threshold, the collision can be avoided by temporarily stopping the movement of the body 131. Further, the stopped biological obstacle 200 can be subjected to a sudden posture change of the biological obstacle 200 by performing cleaning at a distance farther from the biological obstacle 200 than the distance from the non-biological obstacle 210.

In addition, based on the knowledge that the stopped biological obstacle 200 is moving all the time, the cleaning plan can be achieved by cleaning the uncleaned region 300 that cannot be cleaned due to the presence of the biological obstacle 200 after the cleaning plan of the predetermined region is completed.

In addition, when the environmental sound around the biological obstacle 200 includes the audio device sound, it is estimated that the biological obstacle 200 is watching television, enjoying music, or the like, and the noise during the cleaning execution period can be reduced by suppressing the sound of the cleaning machine 130 heard by the biological obstacle 200.

The present disclosure is not limited to the above embodiments. For example, another embodiment in which the components described in the present specification are arbitrarily combined or some of the components are excluded may be an embodiment of the present disclosure. Further, the present disclosure also includes modifications that can be obtained by applying various modifications that can be conceived by those skilled in the art to the above-described embodiments without departing from the gist of the present disclosure, that is, within the meaning indicated by the words of the claims.

For example, the case where the entire cleaning area is divided into four areas and the non-cleaning area is cleaned each time one area is cleaned is completed has been described, but the non-cleaning area may be cleaned after the entire cleaning area is completed.

In addition, when the cleaning time exceeds a predetermined time, the cleaning of the non-cleaned area may not be performed even after the cleaning of one area is completed or after the cleaning of the entire area is completed.

The cleaning machine 130 may include a communication unit capable of communicating with a terminal device such as a smartphone, and transmit a floor map provided in the cleaning machine 130 to the terminal device, and may transmit non-cleaning information indicating a position and a range of a non-cleaning area in the floor map. Fig. 10 is a diagram showing a state in which a floor map and an uncleaned area are displayed on the terminal device 160. The terminal device 160 may include a display unit 161 and a display control unit (not shown) for displaying the non-cleaning information by superimposing it on the received floor map.

Further, terminal device 160 may include a receiving unit that receives an input of whether or not cleaning is to be performed after completion of cleaning of a predetermined area, based on a touch or the like of a user on an uncleaned area displayed on display unit 161, and terminal device 160 may transmit the received reception information to cleaner 130. The cleaning control unit 174 that has acquired the reception information may execute cleaning of the non-cleaning area 300 in accordance with the reception information.

Industrial applicability

The present disclosure can be used for a cleaning machine that autonomously travels to clean a predetermined area.

Description of the reference numerals

130: a sweeper; 131: a main body; 132: a mobile unit; 133: a suction member; 134: a cleaning unit; 136: a position information acquisition unit; 138: a suction inlet; 139: a bumper; 140: a wheel; 141: a housing; 142: a caster wheel; 143: a dust holding section; 146: rotating the brush; 147: a brush drive motor; 148: an ambient sound acquisition unit; 160: a terminal device; 161: a display unit; 170: a control device; 171: an operation detection unit; 172: a living body determination unit; 173: a movement control unit; 174: a cleaning control unit; 175: an area setting unit; 176: a sound determination unit; 200: a biological obstruction; 201: a first distance; 210: an abiotic barrier; 300: the uncleaned area.

Claims (7)

1. A cleaning machine is provided with:

a main body;

a moving unit that moves the main body;

a cleaning unit attached to the main body;

a position information acquisition unit that acquires position information indicating a relative positional relationship of an obstacle with respect to the main body; and

a control device for processing the position information to control the moving unit and the cleaning unit,

wherein the control device comprises:

an operation detection unit that detects a stop and a movement of an obstacle based on the position information;

a biological determination unit that determines whether the obstacle is a biological obstacle or a non-biological obstacle;

a movement control unit that controls the moving unit to cause the main body to perform a avoidance operation including a stop when a distance between the biological obstacle, the movement of which is detected to be moving, and the main body is within a distance threshold;

a cleaning control unit that controls the moving unit and the cleaning unit so as to clean the living body obstacle detected to stop at a first distance and clean the living body obstacle at a second distance from the living body obstacle, the second distance being shorter than the first distance; and

an area setting unit that sets an area not to be cleaned including a position of the biological obstacle in the stopped state as an area not to be cleaned,

the cleaning control unit controls the moving unit and the cleaning unit so that the cleaning of the non-cleaning region is performed if there is no biological obstacle in the non-cleaning region after the cleaning of the predetermined cleaning region is completed.

2. The sweeper according to claim 1,

the motion detection unit detects a moving direction of the biological obstacle with respect to the main body,

the movement control unit may control the moving unit to continue the movement of the main body when it is determined that the moving biological obstacle does not collide with the main body in the future based on the detected moving direction of the biological obstacle relative to the main body and the moving direction of the main body.

3. The sweeping machine according to claim 1 or 2,

the predetermined cleaning area is at least one of a plurality of cleaning areas obtained by dividing the entire cleaning area into a plurality of areas.

4. The sweeper according to claim 1,

the area setting unit sets an area that cannot be cleaned due to the blockage of the biological obstacle detected to stop as the non-cleaned area.

5. The sweeper according to claim 1,

the region setting unit sets the region surrounded by the obstacle as the uncleaned region when a biological obstacle is present in a region having an area less than or equal to an area threshold.

6. The sweeping machine according to claim 1,

further comprises an ambient sound acquiring unit for acquiring ambient sound around the obstacle,

the control device includes a sound determination unit that determines whether or not an audio device sound, which is a sound emitted from an audio device, is present in the environmental sound around the biological obstacle detected to stop,

when the sound determination unit determines that the audio device sound is present, the cleaning control unit controls at least one of the moving unit and the cleaning unit to suppress the sound transmitted to the biological obstacle.

7. The sweeper according to claim 6,

when the sound determination unit determines that the audio device sound is present, the cleaning control unit controls the moving unit and the cleaning unit to clean the living obstacle to a position separated from the living obstacle by a third distance, which is longer than the first distance.

Images