JPH01293408A - Self-travelling system cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent cleaning from stopping on the way of cleaning by executing the cleaning after judging from the source voltage that the cleaning of a cleaning area can be executed. CONSTITUTION:When the title cleaner makes a tour of a room and a cleaning area is recognized, the area of the cleaning area is calculated by an area calcu lating part 7. An energy consumption calculating part 8 calculates the electric power necessary until the cleaning of the area is completely executed based on the electric power necessary for cleaning, the electric power necessary for the moving and the electric power necessary for displaying and outputs it to a judging processing part 1. Simultaneously at this time, the voltage of a power source 12 measured by a supply voltage monitoring part 9 is inputted to a judging processing part 11. Consequently, the judging processing part 11 compares the electric power necessary until the cleaning area is completely cleaned and the power source capacity of the power source 12, when the power source capacity is smaller, a 'necessary charging' 13a of a displaying part 13 is displayed, informed to a user, cleaning is not executed, and when the power source capacity is larger, the cleaning in the cleaning area is started. Thus, the cleaning is not stopped on the way of the cleaning.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a self-propelled vacuum cleaner that has a cleaning function and a moving function and that cleans a floor surface.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, vacuum cleaners have been developed in which a moving function is added to improve the operability during standby.

In particular, recently, so-called self-propelled vacuum cleaners have been developed, which are equipped with microcomputers and various sensors to move and clean the areas they want to clean. .

These self-propelled vacuum cleaners have a structure as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. In the figure, 1 is a distance sensor that detects obstacles in front of the moving direction, 2 is a self-propelled vacuum cleaner main body (hereinafter referred to as the main body), which processes the signal from the distance sensor 1, and A driving device (not shown) is built in to control the moving direction and moving state of the device. Also, main body 2
At the bottom of the main body 2, there are a pair of steering and driving wheels 3 that are driven independently on the left and right sides by signals from the drive device, an auxiliary wheel 4 that can swing freely, and a bumper 5 that protects the main body 2 from obstacles. It is provided. Reference numeral 18 indicates an obstacle such as a wall that exists in front in the direction of travel, and reference numeral 19 indicates a floor surface that this self-propelled vacuum cleaner cleans.

With the above configuration, the self-propelled vacuum cleaner uses the distance sensor 1 to move around the wall while keeping a constant distance from the side wall of the room, and then move inside the room until it detects an obstacle in the direction of movement.
The robot moves forward while cleaning the area, and when it detects an obstacle, changes direction and moves forward to thoroughly clean the cleaning area.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the self-propelled vacuum cleaner with the conventional configuration described above, even if the power supply voltage has dropped and the entire cleaning area cannot be cleaned, once it is started, the self-propelled vacuum cleaner can continue cleaning. In either case, the machine stops in the middle of cleaning and cannot clean the entire area. . There are also self-propelled vacuum cleaners that check the power supply voltage at startup and stop cleaning if the voltage has dropped. This determines whether the power supply voltage is higher or lower than a preset voltage; if it is low, cleaning is not performed, and if it is high, cleaning is performed. However, normally, at startup, the size of the area to be cleaned is not entered, and when cleaning a small area for supplementary purposes, it is simply input at that time (at startup). It determines whether the power supply voltage is higher or lower than the preset voltage, and if it is low, cleaning is possible, but cleaning cannot be performed and cleaning cannot be done until after charging. This made it difficult to use.

The present invention solves these conventional problems, and has a simple configuration. When a self-propelled vacuum cleaner starts up and after recognizing the area to be cleaned, it checks the power supply voltage and can clean using the power capacity at that time. The purpose is to have the area cleaned.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the self-propelled vacuum cleaner of the present invention includes a cleaning device, a steering and driving means, and a self-propelled vacuum cleaner body that is provided to prevent obstacles in the front and left and right directions. A distance sensor that detects objects, a storage unit that stores the cleaning area that the vacuum cleaner cleans, an area calculation unit that calculates the area of the cleaning area stored in this storage unit, and an area calculated by the area calculation unit. a power consumption calculation unit that calculates the power required to clean the area; a power supply; a power supply voltage monitoring unit that monitors the power supply voltage; and input signals from the distance sensor, the power consumption calculation unit, and the power supply voltage monitoring unit. , and a determination processing section that processes the data in the storage section and sends an output signal to the steering and driving means.

Effect With the above configuration, cleaning is executed by determining whether the recognized cleaning area can be cleaned or not depending on the power supply voltage (power supply capacity) at that time, so there is no possibility of stopping in the middle of cleaning. (Also, if cleaning cannot be performed, the user can be notified of the need for charging.)

EXAMPLE An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6. In the figure, 1 is a distance sensor for detecting obstacles, which is installed at both corners of the front of a self-propelled vacuum cleaner body (hereinafter referred to as the body) 2, and detects obstacles in front and on the sides of the body 2. It is something to detect. 3a and 3b are a pair of left and right steering and driving wheels, and 3C and 3d are steering and driving wheels 3a and 3.
This is a drive device that drives the drive wheels 3C and 3D.
These constitute the steering and drive means 3. As mentioned above, in this embodiment, the left and right steering and driving means 3 are driven independently. The drive devices 3c and 3d
Rotary encoders 10a and 10b attached to the rotating shaft of the motor constitute a speed sensor, and detect the rotational speed of the steering and driving wheels 3a and 3b. 4a and 4b are auxiliary wheels that can swing freely. 5 is a bumper for protecting the main body 2 from obstacles. Reference numeral 6 denotes a storage unit that stores the cleaning area; 7, an area calculation unit that calculates the area of the cleaning area stored in the storage unit 6; and 8, necessary for cleaning the area of the area calculated by the area calculation unit 7. 12 is a power supply that supplies power to each part of the main body 2;
13 is a power supply voltage monitoring unit that monitors the voltage of the power supply; 13 is a display unit that informs the user of the operating status of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner and the need for charging due to a voltage drop in the power supply 12; 15 is the bottom of the main body 2; A floor nozzle installed in the floor nozzle constitutes a cleaning device together with a suction vibrator 14, a horse collection chamber 17, and a fan motor 16.
The fan motor 16 sucks in dust on the floor and cleans it. 11 receives input signals from the distance sensor 1, rotary encoders 10a and 10b as speed sensors, a storage section 7, a power consumption calculation section 8, and a power supply voltage monitoring section 9, and determines the traveling direction and the state of power supply voltage drop. This is a judgment processing section that sends output signals to the steering and driving means 3, the storage section 6, and the display section 13, and is actually composed of a microcomputer or the like. The determination of the traveling direction by the determination processing section 11 is performed based on the following program. That is, the movement is always made in the direction in which the distance sensor 1 detects the wall surface on the left side of the main body 2. In other words, if the distance sensor 1 does not detect the left wall, rotate the main body 2 counterclockwise until the distance sensor 1 detects the left wall at that position, and if the distance sensor 1 detects the wall on the left side of the main body 2, then Drive the steering and driving means 3 to approach (or move away from) the wall until the distance from the wall becomes a preset distance, and then move the main body 2 while keeping the distance from the wall constant. It moves us forward. Further, if it is detected from the stored information in the storage unit 6 that the main body 2 has gone around the room, it will recognize the cleaning area, move forward in this cleaning area in the direction of movement until it detects a wall,
It moves laterally by a width slightly shorter than the width of the main body 2, turns 180 degrees, moves forward again, and repeats this process. That is, the main body 2 is reciprocated to cover the entire cleaning range while having an overlap margin for cleaning. In addition, the decision to carry out cleaning is
After recognizing the cleaning range as described above, the power calculation unit 8 calculates the amount of power required to clean the area of the cleaning range calculated by the surface accuracy calculation unit 7, and at the same time, the power supply voltage monitoring unit 9 , measures the voltage (power capacity) of the power supply 12 at that time, and compares it with the amount of power calculated by the power consumption calculation unit 8 to determine whether cleaning is possible or not (even at startup, the power supply voltage The determination processing unit 11 determines not to stop while rotating around the outer circumference until the cleaning area is recognized by checking the cleaning area).

The operation and effect of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner having the above configuration will be explained below.

The self-propelled vacuum cleaner according to the embodiment of the present invention moves forward or backward by driving the steering/driving wheels 3a, 3b by the driving devices 11i3c, 3d. Furthermore, when changing the course, the steering and driving wheel 3a or 3b on the side of the path to be changed is stopped, and only the opposite steering and driving wheel 3b or 3a is driven to change the course. For example, when changing the course to the right, the course can be changed to the right by driving only the left steering and driving wheel 3b with the drive device 3d without driving the right steering and driving wheel 3a.

Here, the cleaning route of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner of this embodiment will be explained based on FIG. 6. The mobile type self-propelled vacuum cleaner of this embodiment starts from a corner A of the room selected by the user, and then first measures the distance to the wall A on the left side of the main body using the distance sensor 1. If the measured distance data is greater than 30 cm, the distance between the main body 2 and the wall surface A is determined. If the distance measurement data is less than 30 cm, drive the steering means 3 and the driving means 4 so that the distance between the main body 2 and the wall A is 30 cm. Move to a place 30cm away from.

Then, while keeping the distance to this wall A at 30 cm,
Move forward along wall A while cleaning the floor. Then, it reaches the corner opening made up of wall A and wall B,
When the distance to the wall B in front of the main body measured by the distance sensor 1 reaches 30 cm, move the main body 2 90 degrees clockwise until the distance sensor 1 detects the wall B on the left side of the main body 2. Rotate. And the distance to wall B is 30
cm, move forward along wall B to corner C formed by wall B and wall C. When you reach the corner C, the left wall (wall surface D) measured by the distance sensor 1
) is considerably larger than 30 cm. Further, the distance to the wall surface E existing in front in the direction of travel measured by the distance sensor 1 is also considerably larger than 30 cm. In this way, when the main body 2 is moving forward while keeping the distance to the left side wall (wall surface B) at 30 cm, if the distance to the left side wall (wall surface D) suddenly increases, the judgment processing unit 11 (Wall surface B) and the new left wall (Wall surface D) are interpreted as having a wall surface (Wall surface C) that is continuous with these two wall surfaces, and the distance sensor 1 moves the main body 2 counterclockwise at the position C. Rotate the main body 2 until it detects a wall on the left side. When the distance sensor 1 detects the wall C on the left side of the main body 2, the distance sensor 1 moves forward until the distance to the wall in front of the main body 2 becomes 30 cm while keeping the distance from the wall C7 constant at 30 cm. - Go around the room along Wall E and Wall F. The movement route of this main body 2 is
It is stored in the storage unit 6.

Here, the storage section 6 stores the cleaning route based on the information from the judgment processing section 11 (the situation will be explained based on FIG. 5).

Each grid in FIG. 5 is one constituent unit of the storage section 6, for example, one byte.

Also, the numbers written on the left side of the grid and below the grid indicate the addresses of each grid, and are written for the purpose of explanation. For example, area X in the figure indicates address 1033. This storage unit 6 stores the cleaning area that the self-propelled vacuum cleaner according to the embodiment of the present invention cleans, and one constituent unit (1 For each area, whether or not a self-propelled vacuum cleaner is present in that area and whether or not the self-propelled vacuum cleaner has passed through that area are stored. Now, assuming that the self-propelled vacuum cleaner (the reference point indicating the position of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner, e.g. the center of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner body) is within the area X in Figure 5, the current position is memorized. For the value
0*f2 (=42)Cm, turn 45 degrees to the right and turn W
It changes to. Also, in any of these cases, the fact that the vehicle has passed point X is stored in the storage unit 6. In this way, the cleaning route is stored in the storage unit 6, and the interior of the room is recognized as the cleaning area as the cleaning route is returned to the starting point A and goes around the room. After going around the room and recognizing the cleaning area, the area calculating section 7 calculates the area of this cleaning area. This calculates the number of one constituent unit (1 byte) of the storage unit 6 in the stored cleaning area, and calculates the -area of the constituent unit (
Calculate by multiplying by 30*30=900 square centimeters). Then, the calculated area of the cleaning area is output to the power consumption calculating section 8. The power consumption calculation unit 8 calculates the power required until the cleaning area of this area is completely cleaned based on the power required for cleaning, the power required for movement, the power required for display, etc. Output to 11. Furthermore, at the same time, the voltage of the power supply 12 measured by the power supply voltage monitoring section 9 is input to the determination processing section 11 . As a result, the judgment processing unit 11 compares the power required until the cleaning area is completely cleaned with the power capacity of the power source 12, and if the power capacity is smaller, displays “Charging required” 13a on the display unit 13. However, if the power supply capacity is larger, cleaning in the cleaning area is started. When cleaning is started, based on the shape information in the storage section 6, the main body 2 performs a reciprocating movement while moving laterally within the cleaning area by a width slightly narrower than the width of the main body 2, that is, with an overlap margin for cleaning. The entire cleaning area is repeatedly cleaned. Also, as mentioned above, when starting to clean the inside of the cleaning area, the power supply voltage is checked, but in addition, the power supply 12 is checked during cleaning. Even if the voltage suddenly drops due to some reason, the power supply voltage monitoring section 9 detects it and sends a signal to the judgment processing circuit 11.The judgment processing circuit 11 stores the point in the storage section 6 and performs the initial Return to the position and display "Charging required" 13a on the display section 13,
Turn off all other displays to avoid consuming excess power.

Then, when it is charged by the user, becomes capable of cleaning, and is started again, the cleaning is resumed based on the data in the storage unit 6 to the point where the abnormality occurred, and the cleaning is continued to the end.

In addition, in this embodiment, when the need for charging arises, the display unit 1
3, by providing a charger and inputting information on the location of this charger into the storage unit 6, when the judgment processing unit 11 determines that charging is necessary as described above, Furthermore, based on the information in the storage section 6, the user can return to the charger and charge it by himself/herself.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, the execution of cleaning is determined by comparing the power supply voltage and the power consumption required to clean the cleaning area, so that cleaning cannot be continued during cleaning (
If the mains voltage is low when you want to clean the auxiliary area, but there is still enough voltage to clean the area to be cleaned, then you should clean it if it is not charged. This eliminates the inconvenience of not being able to Additionally, if some abnormality occurs and the device stops midway through cleaning, the user can recharge the device and start it again, allowing the user to resume cleaning from the area where the device was left unfinished.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram for explaining the electric circuit of a self-propelled vacuum cleaner according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a side sectional view of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner, and Fig. 3 is a block diagram of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner. A plan view of the vacuum cleaner, Fig. 4 is a partial view of the display section of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner, Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the storage section of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner, and Fig. 6 is a partial view of the display section of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner. 7 and 8 are external views showing the appearance of a conventional self-propelled vacuum cleaner. 1... Distance sensor, 3... Steering and drive means (3a, 3b... Steering and driving wheel, 3c
・3d・old drive device), 6...storage unit, 7
... Area calculation section, 8 ... Power consumption calculation section, 9 ... Power supply voltage monitoring section, 11 ...
Judgment processing unit, 12... Power supply. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao 1 person 3-11 Kakudo 1. Adjustment 0: Shishi C enters, drive 1 y (r throw 1st figure J (L3b 42 figure 5-Hamber 12--Ikkamomizo 6--Kihashi first 5-2 come No. 3) Figure 4 Ward Figure 5 0/2Jt,!; 1,78 Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Claims] A cleaning device, a steering and driving means, a distance sensor provided in the vacuum cleaner body to detect obstacles in the front and left and right directions, a storage unit that stores the cleaning area to be cleaned by the vacuum cleaner, and a storage unit that stores information in the storage unit. an area calculation unit that calculates the area of the cleaning area to be cleaned; a power consumption calculation unit that calculates the power necessary to clean the area of the area calculated by the area calculation unit; a power supply;
A power supply voltage monitoring unit that monitors the power supply voltage, processing input signals from the distance sensor, power consumption calculation unit, and power supply voltage monitoring unit, and data in the storage unit, and determining whether to send an output signal to the steering and driving means. A self-propelled vacuum cleaner comprising a processing section.