KR100524708B1 - Regular square region mapping method for mobile robot - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a mapping method of a mobile robot, and in particular, when mapping a rectangular area, a convex envelope converter method is applied to information detected by an obstacle sensor and an odometer installed on a driving wheel without additional sensors. By doing so, mapping to the rectangular area can be performed more quickly. To this end, the present invention provides a mobile robot for mapping a rectangular area, the method comprising: generating an initial path trace using a rangefinder; Selecting the starting point of the initial path trace as the starting point of the first segment of the convex envelope; Selecting an end point of the first vector of the path trace as an end point of the first line segment to generate an axis of a first line segment of a convex envelope; Selecting the start point of the remaining line segments of the convex envelope as end points of the previous line segments, and selecting the end point of the remaining motion segments of the convex envelope by selecting the corresponding end point of the moving vector of the initial path trace to generate an axis of each line segment; Converting the convex envelope into a rectangular shape; Scaling and mapping the segments of the transformed convex envelope is performed.

Description

Rectangular region mapping method of mobile robot {REGULAR SQUARE REGION MAPPING METHOD FOR MOBILE ROBOT}

The present invention relates to a mapping method of a mobile robot, and in particular, when mapping a rectangular area, a convex envelope converter method is applied to information detected by an obstacle sensor and an odometer installed on a driving wheel without additional sensors. Thus, the present invention relates to a rectangular area mapping method of a mobile robot, so that mapping to a rectangular area can be performed more quickly.

In general, the mobile robot generates ultrasonic waves from a plurality of ultrasonic sensors attached thereto, and detects the reflected ultrasonic waves to detect a distance or a direction.

A robot cleaner, which is a representative example of a mobile robot, automatically cleans an area to be cleaned by inhaling foreign substances such as dust from the floor while driving itself in the area to be cleaned without a user's manipulation.

That is, the robot cleaner determines the distance to the obstacles such as furniture, office supplies, and walls installed in the cleaning area through a plurality of ultrasonic sensors detecting the distance and direction, and selectively drives the left and right wheel motors of the robot cleaner. Clean the cleaning area by changing direction.

1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a general robot cleaner.

As shown therein, the conventional robot cleaner is equipped with a fan motor 2 for generating a suction force inside the cleaner body 1, and in front of the fan motor 2 by the fan motor 2. A filter container 4 having a built-in filter 3 for collecting dust and dirt to be sucked in is detachably installed.

In addition, the front of the filter container (4) is installed so that the suction pipe (5) is sucked in the dust or dirt sucked in, the lower end of the suction pipe (5) for sweeping up the dust or dirt of the bottom (6) The suction head 8 is provided with the brush 7 rotatably installed.

In addition, a pair of drive wheels 9 capable of forward and reverse rotation are provided below the fan motor 2 at regular intervals, and behind the suction head 8 is a rear of the cleaner body 1. Auxiliary wheel 10 is installed to support.

In addition, a charging terminal unit 12 having a charging terminal 11 is installed at a rear surface of the cleaner main body 1, and a charging terminal unit 12 is connected to a power terminal unit 14 installed at a wall surface 13 of the room. The connection terminal 15 is provided so that the charging battery 16 inside the main body 1 can be charged while the charging terminal 11 is connected to the connection terminal 15.

  In addition, an ultrasonic sensor 17 for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves is installed at the front center portion of the cleaner body 1.

A light emitting unit 19 for emitting an optical signal for guiding the charging terminal unit 12 toward the power terminal unit 14 is provided below the power terminal unit 14, and below the charging terminal unit 12. The light receiving unit 20 is installed to receive the light signal emitted from the light emitting unit 19.

In the figure, reference numeral 21 denotes a control means, and 22 denotes an exhaust port.

When cleaning using a conventional robot cleaner configured as described above, when the user presses the operation button, the power of the charging battery 16 is applied to the fan motor 2 to drive the fan motor 2, A suction force is generated in the filter container 4 by the fan motor 2 driven as described above, and dust or dirt on the bottom 6 is sucked into the suction head 8 by the suction force. Is collected by the filter (3).

In addition, the cleaning of a predetermined area is automatically performed by moving the cleaner body 1 by driving the driving wheel 9 by the control signal of the control means 21.

Meanwhile, while the automatic cleaning is performed, the voltage level of the charging battery 16 is detected through the voltage detecting unit (not shown), and the voltage level of the charging battery 16 detected by the voltage sensing unit in the control unit 21 is set. When the level is below the level, the cleaning of the automatic cleaner is stopped by the control means, while the control means 21 stores the current position in the internal memory, and then returns a control signal for returning the cleaner by the return adjustment stored in the memory. Occurs.

Therefore, when the cleaner main body 1 moves to the power supply terminal part 14 by the control signal of the control means 21, and the cleaner main body 1 approaches the power supply terminal part 14, the lower side of the power supply terminal part 14 is carried out. The optical signal emitted from the light emitting unit 19 installed in the light receiving unit 20 is received by the light receiving unit 20 provided below the charging terminal unit 12, and the control means controls the driving wheel 9 by the optical signal received from the light receiving unit 20. By the drive control, the charging terminal portion 12 approaches the power supply terminal portion 14 side.

Then, the charging terminal 11 of the charging terminal unit 12 is brought into contact with the connection terminal 15 of the power supply terminal unit 14, and the inside of the cleaner main body 1 by the power supplied by the power supply terminal unit 14. The charging battery 16 is charged.

Such a robot cleaner runs on the map information stored in itself by a given command and performs the cleaning operation. This method of performing the operation by the user's command is repeated unless the layout is changed.

However, in the case where the layout of the workspace is changed and the obstacle is changed in position, in order to control the running of the robot cleaner or the like, a map suitable for the changed layout is recreated.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of rectangular area mapping of a robot cleaner using a beacon in the related art, in which a robot cleaner starts from a starting point of a rectangular area where an obstacle exists and runs while avoiding an obstacle with an obstacle recognition sensor to a rangefinder. Create a path trace by

At this time, the robot vacuum cleaner receives additional information of the indoor area by receiving a signal from the beacons 41 to 47 installed at a special point while moving the indoor environment.

Therefore, the robot cleaner maps a rectangular area based on a path trace by a rangefinder and a beacon signal.

However, the rectangular area mapping method of the above-described conventional robot cleaner requires the use of additional sensors (gyro sensors, beacons, laser rangefinders, image sensors) that can obtain additional information in addition to the information obtained from the rangefinder attached to the driving wheel. There is an increasing problem.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, when mapping the rectangular area, Convex Envelope converter method to detect the information detected by the sensor for detecting obstacles and the rangefinder installed on the driving wheel without additional sensors. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for mapping a rectangular area of a mobile robot so that mapping to a rectangular area can be performed more quickly.

The present invention for achieving the above object, the process of generating an initial path trace using a rangefinder in a mobile robot for mapping a rectangular area; Selecting the starting point of the initial path trace as the starting point of the first segment of the convex envelope; Selecting an end point of the first vector of the path trace as an end point of the first line segment to generate an axis of a first line segment of a convex envelope; Selecting the start point of the remaining line segments of the convex envelope as end points of the previous line segments, and selecting the end point of the remaining motion segments of the convex envelope by selecting the corresponding end point of the moving vector of the initial path trace to generate an axis of each line segment; Converting the convex envelope into a rectangular shape; and scaling and mapping line segments of the converted convex envelope.

Hereinafter, operations and effects on the rectangular region mapping method of the mobile robot according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for mapping a rectangular region of a mobile robot according to the present invention, and a step (SP1) of generating an initial path trace using a distance meter as shown in FIG. Creating a convex envelope (SP2) using the initial path trace (SP2); Converting the convex envelope into a rectangular shape (SP3); A process of scaling and mapping the line segments of the converted convex envelope (SP4) is described, and the operation of the present invention will be described.

First, as the robot moves to a specific portion of the rectangular shape as a starting point, an initial path trace is generated using a rangefinder (SP1), which is indicated by the connection of the dotted arrows in FIG. 4.

Next, using the initial path trace, a Convex Envelope represented by the connection of the solid arrows of FIG. 4 is created (SP2), that is, a starting point of the initial path trace is defined as a Convex Envelope. Select the starting point of the first line segment, and select the ending point of the first vector of the initial path trace as the ending point of the first line segment to generate the axis of the first segment of the Convex Envelope.

Here, the start point of the remaining line segments of the convex envelope is selected as the end point of the previous segment, and the end point of the remaining line segments of the convex envelope is the end point of the corresponding motion vector of the initial path trace. To create an axis for each line segment.

At this time, the end point of each segment of the Convex Envelope is an end point located to the right of the segment of the Convex Envelope among the predefined movement vector end points of some initial path traces. The end point of the motion vector is updated to the end point of the predetermined line segment of the Convex Envelope, and if there is no end point located to the right of the line segment, the original end point is maintained as it is.

Next, the Convex Envelope is converted into a rectangular shape as shown in FIG. 5 (SP3), that is, the longest of the sizes of the remaining line segments projected on the vertical axis of each segment of the Convex Envelope. Select a segment and rotate the remaining segments at an angle so that the selected segment is perpendicular to the previously selected segment.

Next, the line segments of the transformed convex envelope are scaled and mapped (SP4).

In other words, the present invention generates an initial path trace using a rangefinder, without creating an additional device for mapping, and writes the initial path trace into a Convex Envelope, and then the Convex Envelope. Is transformed into a rectangular shape and scaled and mapped to the segments of the transformed Convex Envelope.

The specific embodiments or examples made in the detailed description of the present invention are intended to clarify the technical contents of the present invention to the extent that they should not be construed as limited to these specific embodiments and should not be construed in consultation. Various changes can be made within the scope of.

As described in detail above, the present invention provides a method of mapping a rectangular area by applying a convex envelope converter method to information detected by an obstacle sensor and an odometer installed on a driving wheel without additional sensors. This has the effect of quickly mapping the rectangular area.

Figure 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing a typical robot cleaner

Figure 2 is an embodiment showing a rectangular area mapping of the robot cleaner using a conventional beacon (Beacon).

Figure 3 is a flow chart for the rectangular area mapping method of the mobile robot of the present invention.

Figure 4 shows the initial path trace and convex envelope creation in Figure 3;

FIG. 5 is a view showing a state in which the convex envelope is converted into a rectangular area in FIG.

Claims (4)

In the mobile robot that maps the rectangular area Generating an initial path trace using a rangefinder;  Selecting the starting point of the initial path trace as the starting point of the first segment of the convex envelope;  Selecting an end point of the first vector of the path trace as an end point of the first line segment to generate an axis of a first line segment of a convex envelope;  Selecting the start point of the remaining line segments of the convex envelope as end points of the previous line segments, and selecting the end point of the remaining motion segments of the convex envelope by selecting the corresponding end point of the moving vector of the initial path trace to generate an axis of each line segment; Converting the convex envelope into a rectangular shape; And mapping the line segments of the transformed convex envelope by scaling. delete The method of claim 1, wherein the end point of each line segment is If there is an end point located to the right of the corresponding segment of the Convex Envelope among several predefined path vector end points of the initial path trace, the end point of the movement vector is defined as the predetermined segment of the Convex Envelope. Rectangular region mapping method of a mobile robot, characterized in that updated to the end point of the. The method of claim 1, wherein the converting the convex envelope into a rectangular shape comprises: Selecting the longest segment among the sizes of the remaining segments projected on the vertical axis of each segment of the convex envelope; And rotating the remaining line segments at a predetermined angle such that the selected line segment is perpendicular to the previously selected line segment.