KR100406636B1 - Robot cleaner and system and method of controling thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A robot cleaner, a system, and a control method thereof are disclosed. The robot cleaner which performs work while communicating with an external device wirelessly includes a driving unit for driving a plurality of wheels, an upper camera installed on the main body so as to capture an upper image perpendicular to the driving direction, and a predetermined driving pattern. The controller is configured to analyze the image captured by the upper camera while controlling the driving unit to travel in the working area, and to correct the driving path. According to such a robot cleaner, its system, and control method, by recognizing a location by using an image of an upper part of which facility change is relatively small, location recognition can be made more precise, and it can reduce the movement error to a destination and perform the indicated work. You can do it more smoothly.

Description

Robot cleaner and system and method of controling

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a robot cleaner, a system, and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to a robot cleaner, a system, and a control method of adjusting a run by using an upward image captured while the cleaner is traveling.

A general robot cleaner uses an ultrasonic sensor installed on a main body to determine an area to be cleaned by driving the outside of a cleaning area surrounded by a wall or an obstacle, and plans a cleaning path for cleaning the determined cleaning area. Then, the wheel is driven to drive the planned cleaning path while calculating the mileage and the current position from the detected signal through the sensor for detecting the rotational speed and the rotation angle of the wheel. However, such a position recognition method generates a driving distance and a moving position and an actual driving distance and a position and an error calculated from a signal detected by the sensor due to slips of a wheel and bending of a floor while the cleaner is running. The position recognition error is accumulated as the cleaner runs, and accordingly, the cleaner running by the accumulated position recognition error may deviate from the planned cleaning path. As a result, an area in which the cleaning operation is not performed may occur, or the same area may be repeatedly cleaned several times, thereby reducing the work efficiency.

The present invention was devised to improve the above problems, and the robot cleaner and its system capable of efficiently performing the indicated work by recognizing the current position of the cleaner more accurately and easily correcting the running trajectory And a control method.

1 is a perspective view showing a state in which the cover of the robot cleaner according to the present invention is removed;

2 is a block diagram showing a robot cleaner system according to the present invention;

3 is a block diagram showing the central control device of FIG.

4 is a view illustrating a state in which the robot cleaner of FIG. 1 is positioned indoors;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a trajectory of a robot cleaner driving the interior of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image map generated by mapping an image captured along a driving trajectory illustrated in FIG. 5.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a control process of a robot cleaner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a view showing an example of another ceiling structure of the room,

9 is a flowchart illustrating a control process of a robot cleaner according to another embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of the reference numerals for the main parts of the drawings>

10: robot cleaner 11: reducer

12: sensor unit 13: front camera

14: upward camera 15: drive unit

16: Storage 17: Transmitter / Receiver

18: control unit 40: remote control

41: wireless repeater 50: central controller

In order to achieve the above object, the robot cleaner according to the present invention comprises a robot cleaner for performing a task while wirelessly communicating with an external device, comprising: a driving unit for driving a plurality of wheels; An upper camera provided on the main body so as to capture an upper image perpendicular to the traveling direction; And a controller configured to correct the driving path by analyzing the image captured by the upper camera while controlling the driving unit to travel in the working area according to a predetermined driving pattern.

Preferably, the control unit generates and stores an image map of the upper area from the image captured by the upper camera while controlling the driving unit to travel in the working area according to a predetermined driving pattern in the working area mapping mode. When the work request signal is input, the image map is compared with the current image input from the upper camera to recognize the position, and the driving unit is controlled to correspond to the desired driving route from the recognized position.

In addition, the controller performs the image map preparation whenever a job request signal is received.

The front camera may further include a front camera installed to capture an image opposite to a driving direction, and the controller may three-dimensionally map the front image captured from the front camera and the upper image captured from the upper camera together. It is desirable to generate an image map.

The control unit divides the image map into a plurality of local cells having a predetermined size, determines a feature element on each divided local cell, sets the determined feature element as a reference coordinate for position recognition, and the feature element is a light bulb or a fire. At least one of a detector, a fluorescent lamp, and a speaker.

In addition, the controller extracts a linear component from the image captured by the upper camera when driving, and corrects the driving trajectory using the extracted texture information.

In order to achieve the above object, a robot cleaner system according to the present invention includes a robot cleaner having a driving unit for driving a plurality of wheels, and an upper camera installed on a main body to capture an image of an upper portion perpendicular to a driving direction. A robot cleaner system having a remote controller that communicates wirelessly with a robot cleaner, wherein the remote controller controls the robot cleaner to travel in a work area according to a predetermined driving pattern while being imaged and received by the upper camera. Analyze and correct the driving trajectory.

The remote controller generates and stores an image map of the upper region from the image captured by the upper camera while controlling the robot cleaner to travel in the working region according to a predetermined driving pattern in the working region mapping mode. When the request signal is input, the robot is recognized so as to recognize the position of the robot cleaner while comparing the image captured by the image map and the current image transmitted from the robot cleaner, and the target operation can be performed from the recognized position. It is desirable to control the working path of the cleaner.

Preferably, the remote controller performs the image mapping whenever a work request signal is received.

The robot cleaner further includes a front camera installed on the main body of the robot cleaner so as to capture an image opposed to a driving direction, and the remote controller includes the front image captured from the front camera and the upper image captured from the upper camera. Generates an image map received from a cleaner and three-dimensionally mapped.

The remote controller may extract a linear component from the image data captured and transmitted from the upper camera during the robot cleaner driving control, and correct the driving trajectory using the extracted texture information.

In addition, in order to achieve the above object, the control method of the robot cleaner according to the present invention is a control method of a robot cleaner equipped with an upper camera capable of capturing upwards, the robot cleaner being moved into a work area according to a predetermined driving pattern. Generating an image map of an upper region from an image captured by the upper camera while driving into a working region; When the work request signal is input, recognizing the position of the robot cleaner while comparing the stored image map image with the current image captured by the upper camera, and calculating a driving route from the recognized position to the target position; ; And driving the robot cleaner according to the calculated driving route.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, in the method of controlling a robot cleaner provided with an upper camera capable of capturing upwards, if it is determined that a work area map preparation mode is provided, a work area map is created while driving the robot cleaner into the work area. Storing by; Calculating a driving route corresponding to the indicated work when the work request signal is input; Driving the robot cleaner according to the calculated driving path; And correcting the driving route by analyzing the image photographed from the upper camera.

Preferably, the driving path correction step extracts a linear component from the image captured by the upper camera, and corrects the driving path using the extracted linear component.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in more detail a robot cleaner, a system and a control method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

1 is a perspective view showing a state in which the cover of the robot cleaner according to the present invention is removed, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the robot cleaner system according to the present invention of FIG. 1.

Referring to the drawings, the robot cleaner 10 includes a suction unit 11, a sensor unit 12, a front camera 13, an upper camera 14, a driving unit 15, a storage device 16, and a transmission / reception unit ( 17) and a control unit 18. Reference numeral 19 is a battery.

The suction part 11 is provided on the main body 10a so that the dust | floor of the floor which opposes while collecting air may be collected. Such a suction part 11 may be configured by various known methods. For example, the suction part 11 includes a suction motor (not shown) and a dust collecting chamber for collecting dust sucked through a suction port or a suction pipe formed to face the floor by driving the suction motor.

The sensor unit 12 transmits a signal to the outside and the obstacle detection sensor 12a disposed at predetermined intervals around the side of the body to receive the reflected signal, and the mileage detection capable of measuring the mileage distance. The sensor 12b is provided.

In the obstacle detection sensor 12a, a plurality of infrared light emitting elements 12a1 for emitting infrared rays and light receiving elements 12a2 for receiving reflected light are vertically paired and arranged along the outer circumferential surface thereof. Alternatively, the obstacle detection sensor 12a may emit an ultrasonic wave, and an ultrasonic sensor configured to receive the reflected ultrasonic wave may be applied. The obstacle detecting sensor 12a is also used to measure the distance from the obstacle or the wall.

The traveling distance detection sensor 12b may be a rotation detection sensor for detecting the rotation speed of the wheels 15a to 15d. For example, the rotation detection sensor may be an encoder installed to detect the rotation speed of the motor (15e) (15f), respectively.

The front camera 13 is installed on the main body 10a so as to capture the front image and outputs the captured image to the controller 18.

The upper camera 14 is provided on the main body 10a so as to capture an image from above, and outputs the captured image to the control unit 18.

The driving unit 15 rotates two wheels 15a and 15b provided at both sides of the front, two wheels 15c and 15d and two wheels 15c and 15d at the rear, respectively. And a timing belt (15g) provided so as to transmit power generated by the motors (15e) (15f) and the rear wheels (15c) (15d) to be driven to the front wheels. The driver 15 independently drives the respective motors 15e and 15f to rotate in the forward / reverse direction according to the control signal of the controller 18. In the directional rotation, the rotation speed of each motor may be driven differently.

The transmitter / receiver 17 transmits the data to be transmitted through the antenna 17a and transmits the signal received through the antenna 17a to the controller 18.

The controller processes the signal received through the transmitter / receiver 17 and controls each element. When a key input device (not shown) is further provided on the main body 10a in which a plurality of keys are provided for manipulating the function setting of the device, the controller 18 processes the key signal input from the key input device.

The controller 18 corrects the driving route by analyzing the image captured by the upper camera 14 while controlling the driving unit 15 to travel in the working area according to the driving pattern determined according to the instructed work.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the control unit 18 controls the driving unit 15 to travel the work area in accordance with a predetermined mapping driving pattern in the image mapping mode, upward from the image captured by the upper camera 14. An image map of the area is generated and stored in the storage device 16. The controller 18 may be set to perform the image mapping mode when a signal for instructing to perform the image mapping mode is wirelessly input from a key input device or an external device. Alternatively, when the work order is received wirelessly from the key input device or the outside, it may be set to perform the image map preparation mode before the work is performed.

The controller 18 controls the driving unit 15 in accordance with a driving pattern set so that the entire work area, for example, an entire room enclosed by an obstacle or a wall in the image mapping mode, can be partitioned and captured by the upper camera 14. An example of the driving pattern is to move forward from the current position, and when a wall or obstacle is detected by the obstacle sensor 12a, set it to an initial position, and then drive around the wall along the wall until it returns to the initial position. The driving unit 15 is controlled so as to. Then, the area determined by the traveled outer line is driven along the running line extended at a predetermined interval. That is, the driving unit 15 is controlled to travel along the traveling line 22 planned for the operating area 21 determined as shown in FIG. 5. At this time, the interval of the running line is determined so that the upper image captured when the cleaner moves along the running line can be continuous with each other. In addition, it is preferable to determine a frame imaging cycle in the upper screen taken or extracted while driving so that the overlapping ratio between adjacent frames is about 10 to 20%. This imaging cycle determination method may determine the imaging cycle through a plurality of images captured during the first several times, and take the image in consideration of the viewing angle of the upper camera 14 and the distance from the floor to the ceiling in a typical building. The cycle may be set in advance, and imaging may be performed for each set imaging cycle.

The image acquired from the upper camera 14 through the driving process is the facility as shown in Figure 6 when the installation of the bulb 31, the fire detector 32, the fluorescent lamp 33 as shown in Figure 4 on the ceiling The upper image map characterized by the image of is controlled by the controller 18 and stored in the storage device 16.

Preferably, the control unit 18 divides the image map stored in the memory device 16 into a plurality of cells, extracts feature points of the image corresponding to each cell, and easily recognizes the position of the robot cleaner 10. Performs image processing to set the reference coordinate point. For example, the light bulb 31, the fire detector 32, the direct fluorescent lamp 33 for the image acquired for the ceiling facility of FIG. 4 in which the light bulb 31, the fire detector 32, and the direct fluorescent lamp 33 are installed. Determine as a feature point in the known image processing method. As the image processing method of extracting feature points from the captured image, various known methods may be applied. For example, a method of converting the captured image into gray level and then processing pixel values having similar values and then calculating the calculated coordinate values as feature points may be applied. The image data distribution form for the feature points may be stored in advance, and then an image region having a distribution similar to the stored data value may be determined as the feature point.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the control unit 18 maps the front image picked up by the front camera 13 and the top image picked up by the upper camera 14 together in three-dimensional image maps every imaging cycle. Is generated and stored in the storage device 16. As such, when the 3D image map is created and used, the accuracy of location recognition may be further improved. In this case, it is preferable to process the position recognition first from the upper image where the facility change is relatively small in the position recognition, and to refer to the front image when the position recognition is not accurately identified.

The controller 18 recognizes the location by using the image map created when the task is performed after the image map is created. That is, when the work request signal is wirelessly input from the key input device or the outside, the controller 18 stores the stored image map and the current image input from the upper camera 14 or the upper camera 14 and the front camera 13. Recognizing the current position of the robot cleaner 10 while comparing the, and controls the driving unit 15 to correspond to the desired driving path from the recognized position. Here, the work request signal includes a cleaning operation or a monitoring operation through the cameras 13 and 14. When traveling along the target driving route, the driving error is calculated using the current position recognized by comparing the mileage measured from the encoder with the currently captured image and the stored image map, and the error is compensated for. Control the drive unit 15 to track.

In the above description, an example in which the controller 18 directly generates an image map and recognizes a location by using the generated image map has been described.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the robot cleaner system to externally process the upper image map and the position recognition of the robot cleaner 10 in order to reduce the computational processing burden required for image mapping and position recognition of the robot cleaner 10. This is built.

To this end, the robot cleaner 10 is configured to wirelessly transmit the captured image information to the outside and operate according to a control signal received from the outside, and the remote controller 40 wirelessly controls the driving of the robot cleaner 10. While creating a video map and recognize the location of the robot cleaner.

The remote controller 40 includes a wireless repeater 41 and a central controller 50.

The wireless repeater 41 processes the radio signal received from the robot cleaner 10 and transmits the radio signal to the central controller 50 through a wire, and wirelessly transmits the signal received from the central controller 50 through the antenna 42. Is sent to the robot cleaner 41.

The central control unit 50 is constructed of a conventional computer, an example of which is shown in FIG. Referring to the drawings, the central control unit is a central processing unit (CPU) 51, a ROM (ROM) 52, a RAM (RAM) 53, a display device 54, an input device 55, a storage device ( 56 and a communication device 57.

The storage device 56 is provided with a robot cleaner driver 56a that controls the robot cleaner 10 and processes a signal transmitted from the robot cleaner 10.

When the robot cleaner driver 56a is executed, the robot cleaner 10 provides a menu for setting the control through the display device 54, and the menu item selected by the user for the provided menu can be executed by the robot cleaner. Process. The menu includes work area mapping, cleaning work, and monitoring work as a major category, and as a sub-selection menu for a major category, a plurality of devices that can be supported by a device to be applied such as image mapping, a target area selection list, a work method, etc. It is preferred that a menu is provided.

In the case of the work area map or the image map preparation menu, it is preferable to provide a sub-menu for the image map update condition, for example, each time the work is performed, so that the user can set each update period such as one week or one month.

When the image map creation request signal is input through the input device 55 by the set image map creation time or by the user, the robot cleaner driver 56a may display the upper image of the entire work area required for creating the image map. The robot cleaner 10 is controlled as described above to be received from the 10). The robot cleaner driver 56a controls the robot cleaner 10 to map the received image to create an image map and store the created image map in the storage device 56 by the method described above. In this case, the control unit 18 of the robot cleaner 10 controls the driving unit 15 according to the control information received from the robot cleaner driver 56a through the wireless repeater 41, and the operation processing burden for image mapping is It is omitted. The controller 18 transmits the upward image captured by the predetermined cycle while driving to the central controller 50 through the wireless repeater 41. The robot cleaner driver 56a may of course map the front image and the upper image together to create an image map.

A method of recognizing a position of the robot cleaner operated in this manner will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 7.

First, it is determined whether to perform the image map preparation mode (step 100).

If it is determined that the image mapping mode is selected, the robot cleaner 10 is driven to capture an image of the entire upper area of the work area (step 110).

The upper image (and the front image) captured by the upper camera 14 during the driving process is mapped to correspond to the work area to create an image map, and the created image map is stored in the storage devices 16 and 56 (step). 120).

It is then determined whether a work command has been received (step 130).

If it is determined that the work command has been received, the position of the robot cleaner 10 is recognized by comparing the stored image map image with the image of the upper image currently received from the upper camera 14 (step 140). If the image map has information about the front image in step 140, the current front image may also be used for position recognition.

Then, a driving route for moving to a work place or work route corresponding to the received work command from the recognized current position is calculated (step 150).

Then, the robot cleaner 10 is driven according to the calculated driving route (step 160).

Then, it is determined whether the work is completed (step 170). The job here refers to a job in which travel is performed, for example, a cleaning job while traveling to a destination or traveling on a cleaning target path. If it is determined that the task is not completed, the steps 140 to 160 are repeated until the task is completed.

On the other hand, according to another aspect of the present invention, if the ceiling is equipped with a facility having an orthogonal contour is applied to the method of driving the robot cleaner to more mitigate the correction calculation processing burden for the driving path by imaging it.

For example, when the ceiling is finished by arranging rectangular gypsum boards 34 as shown in FIG. 8, or when a plurality of linear fluorescent lamp devices 35 are installed, a driving error is performed using a ceiling environment that provides such a straight outline. The controller 18 and / or the remote controller 40 is constructed to correct this.

To this end, the controller 18 extracts a linear component from the image captured by the upper camera 14 when driving, according to a known boundary detection image processing method, and corrects the driving trajectory using the extracted linear component information.

Preferably, the driving error amount detected from the encoder is corrected for a predetermined time or a certain distance, and then the driving error, or straightness, is corrected repeatedly using the linear component of the image captured from the upper camera as a unit correction period. .

That is, the control unit 18 controls the driving unit 15 to detect and calculate the driving trajectory error first by the encoder, and then returns to the target driving trajectory according to the calculated error amount. Using the direction information of the extracted linear component by analyzing the image data, the amount of deviation error of the robot cleaner 10 is calculated to correct the driving error.

This approach can be applied to the robot cleaner system described above.

The boundary detection image processing method may be applied to various known methods such as Sobel Algorithm and Navatiark Babu Algorithm.

The robot cleaner control process of correcting the driving error by extracting the linear components from the upper image is described in more detail with reference to FIG. 9.

First, it is determined whether to perform the work area map preparation mode (step 200).

If it is determined that the work area map creation mode is reached, the robot cleaner 10 is driven into the work area (step 210).

The robot cleaner driving pattern for the work area mapping mode moves forward from the current position to the front as in the above-described example, and when a wall or obstacle is detected by the obstacle sensor 12a, the robot cleaner driving pattern is set to an initial position, and then The driving unit 15 is controlled to travel along the wall to the outside of the room until it returns to the initial position. Then, the area determined by the traveled outer line is driven along the running line extended at a predetermined interval. The work area map is created using the driving ruin information and the obstacle information detected in the driving process, and the created work area map is stored (step 220). Alternatively, the work area map may be created and stored in the same manner as the image mapping mode described above.

It is then determined whether a work command has been received (step 230).

If it is determined that the work command has been received, a driving route for moving to a work place or work path corresponding to the received work command is calculated (step 240).

Then, the robot cleaner 10 is driven according to the calculated driving route (step 250).

The linear component is extracted from the image captured by the upper camera 14 in the robot cleaner driving process, and the driving error is corrected using the extracted linear component information (step 260). In this case, the process of analyzing the image picked up from the upper camera 14 is preferably performed every set period to ease the image processing burden.

According to this process, it is determined whether the operation is completed while driving the robot cleaner 10 (step 170). If it is determined that the task has not been completed, the steps 240 to 260 are repeated until the task is completed.

As described so far, according to the robot cleaner, the system and the control method according to the present invention, by recognizing the position by using the image of the upper side where the change of the facility is relatively small, the position recognition can be made more precise and the destination By reducing the movement error of the controller, the indicated work can be performed more smoothly.

Claims (17)

In the robot cleaner for performing a task while communicating wirelessly with an external device, A drive unit for driving a plurality of wheels; An upper camera provided on the main body so as to capture an upper image perpendicular to the traveling direction; And a controller configured to correct the driving path by analyzing the image captured by the upper camera while controlling the driving unit to travel in the working area according to a predetermined driving pattern. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller generates an image map of an upper region from an image captured by the upper camera while controlling the driving unit to travel in the working region according to a predetermined driving pattern in the working region mapping mode. Storing and comparing the image map with the current image input from the upper camera, recognizing a position, and controlling the driving unit to correspond to a desired driving route from the recognized position. vacuum cleaner. The robot cleaner of claim 2, wherein the controller performs the image mapping whenever a job request signal is received. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a front camera provided on the main body to capture an image opposed to a driving direction. And the controller generates an image map by three-dimensionally mapping the front image captured from the front camera and the upper image captured from the upper camera together in three dimensions. The method of claim 2, wherein the controller divides the image map into a plurality of local cells having a predetermined size, determines a feature element on each divided local cell, and sets the determined feature element as a reference coordinate point for location recognition. Robot cleaner. The robot cleaner of claim 5, wherein the feature includes at least one of a light bulb, a fire detector, a fluorescent lamp, and a speaker. The method of claim 1, wherein the control unit And a straight line component extracted from the image captured by the upper camera during driving, and correcting the driving trajectory using the extracted straight component information. A robot cleaner system having a drive unit for driving a plurality of wheels, a robot cleaner having an upper camera mounted on a main body so as to capture an image perpendicular to the driving direction, and a remote controller for wireless communication with the robot cleaner. To And the remote controller controls the robot cleaner to travel in the working area according to a predetermined driving pattern, and analyzes the image captured and transmitted by the upper camera to correct the driving trajectory. The method of claim 8, wherein the remote controller In the work area mapping mode, the robot cleaner is controlled to travel in the work area according to a predetermined driving pattern, and an image map of the upper area is generated and stored from the image captured by the upper camera, and a work request signal is input. When the image of the robot cleaner is compared with the current image captured by the image camera and the image transmitted from the robot cleaner to recognize the position of the robot cleaner, the operation path of the robot cleaner so that a target operation can be performed from the recognized position Robot cleaner system, characterized in that for controlling. The robot cleaner system of claim 9, wherein the remote controller performs the image mapping whenever a job request signal is received. The robot cleaner of claim 10, further comprising a front camera installed on the main body of the robot cleaner so as to capture an image opposed to a driving direction. And the remote controller generates an image map obtained by receiving a front image captured by the front camera and an upper image captured by the upper camera together from the robot cleaner and mapping them three-dimensionally. The method of claim 9, wherein the remote controller divides the image map into a plurality of local cells having a predetermined size, determines a feature element on each divided local cell, and sets the determined feature element as a reference image for location recognition. Robot cleaner system. 13. The robot cleaner system of claim 12, wherein the feature includes at least one of a light bulb, a fire detector, a fluorescent lamp, and a speaker. The method of claim 8, wherein the remote controller extracts a linear component from the image data captured and transmitted from the upper camera during the robot cleaner driving control, and corrects the driving trajectory using the extracted texture information. Robot cleaner system. In the control method of the robot cleaner provided with the upper camera which can image the upper direction, Generating an image map of an upper region from an image captured by the upper camera while driving the robot cleaner into the working region according to a predetermined driving pattern; When the work request signal is input, recognizing the position of the robot cleaner while comparing the stored image map image with the current image captured by the upper camera, and calculating a driving route from the recognized position to the target position; ; And driving the robot cleaner according to the calculated driving route. In the control method of the robot cleaner provided with the upper camera which can image the upper direction, Creating and storing a work area map while driving the robot cleaner into a work area when determined as a work area map preparation mode; Calculating a driving route corresponding to the indicated work when the work request signal is input; Driving the robot cleaner according to the calculated driving path; And correcting the driving route by analyzing the image photographed from the upper camera. The method of claim 16, wherein the driving path correction step And extracting a linear component from the image captured by the upper camera, and correcting the driving path using the extracted linear component.