KR100696133B1 - Robot system for a cleaning - Google Patents

Abstract

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a robot system for cleaning, and more particularly, to a robot system for cleaning, in which driving control of the robot body is easy. The cleaning robot system includes a remote controller for wirelessly transmitting a remote control signal and a robot body driven and controlled according to a signal transmitted from the remote controller,

The remote control is:

A touch screen for inputting a cleaning area; And a coordinate data transmission control unit configured to control transmission by converting the cleaning area input through the touch screen into cleaning area designation coordinate data.

The robot body is:

And a main body controller for controlling the running of the robot body according to the cleaning area designation coordinate data received through the remote controller receiver.

Robot, drive control, remote control.

Description

ROBOT SYSTEM FOR A CLEANING}

1 is an exemplary view of the appearance of a cleaning robot already known.

Figure 2 is a general remote control configuration shown in FIG.

Figure 3 is a block diagram of a cleaning robot system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a view illustrating a cleaning area (a) input through the touch screen 105 of the remote controller 100 and a path (b) traveling along the cleaning area (a) according to an embodiment of the present invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a robot system for cleaning, and more particularly, to a robot system for cleaning, in which driving control of the robot body is easy.

Robots have been developed for industrial use and as part of factory automation, or have been used to collect or collect information on behalf of humans in extreme environments that humans cannot tolerate. This field of robotics has been developed in recent years as it is used in the cutting-edge space development industry, and recently, until a human-friendly home robot was developed. A representative example of such a human-friendly home robot would be a cleaning robot system.

FIG. 1 illustrates an external view of a known cleaning robot, and FIG. 2 illustrates a configuration of the general remote controller 70 shown in FIG. 1 in more detail.

As shown in FIG. 1, before and after the main body housing 20 of the general cleaning robot, a first sensor unit 30 for detecting an obstacle is formed by receiving ultrasonic waves that are dually reflected after transmitting ultrasonic waves. In addition, at one lower end side of the first sensor unit 30, two contact rods 31a are formed in the front and two at the rear, and the transfer rod 31b is coupled to the contact rod 31a and the housing. (20) It continues to the inside. The contact rod 31a is bent roundly along the outer surface of the cylindrical housing 20, and the contact rod 31a is also referred to as a contact sensor for detecting an obstacle in direct contact with the obstacle.

On the other hand, the driving wheel 40 is formed on the lower left and right sides of the housing 20 of the above-described general cleaning robot, and the cleaning robot can move freely. The movement of the cleaning robot is a remote control signal transmitted from the remote controller 50. The remote control signal is received through the remote control receiver 60 and is transmitted to the controller for controlling the motor drive.

Basically, the user can control the movement and operation of the cleaning robot through the remote controller 50 as shown in FIG. 2. In particular, the driving path of the cleaning robot can be controlled through the direction key 74 of the remote controller 50. Since the driving path is controlled using only four direction keys 74 provided on the remote control 50, the robot You simply have to move forward, backward, left, and right. Therefore, in order to run the cleaning robot in a staircase structure or a spiral structure, more key manipulation is required or a driving route designation itself is not possible.

In addition, when cleaning a predetermined area around the cleaner, for example, a rectangular area around the cleaning robot, it is impossible to set the cleaning area in the existing robot system. Therefore, it is inconvenient for the user to clean the desired area by operating the direction keys. have. Therefore, a new way to solve this problem should be sought together, and furthermore, wireless signal transmission means conforming to different communication protocols, for example, mobile communication terminals (mobile phones, PDAs, etc.) It is also necessary to develop a cleaning robot system for driving control through communication devices.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning robot system that can conveniently designate a driving route without being limited to the shape of the driving route, and can accurately follow the designated driving route.

Furthermore, another object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning robot system capable of designating a cleaning area and cleaning the designated area.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning robot system in which driving and driving can be controlled under the control of a peripheral device capable of wireless communication.

Cleaning robot system according to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object,

One or more radio signal receivers for wirelessly receiving the cleaning area designation coordinate data transmitted from the radio signal transmitters according to different communication protocols;

And a main body controller for controlling the running of the robot body according to the cleaning area designation coordinate data received through the radio signal receiving unit.

According to the embodiment of the present invention as described above, the main body control unit of the cleaning robot system receives the cleaning area designation coordinate data from the home appliance or communication device having a wireless signal transmitting means, and the running of the robot body based on the coordinate data You can control it.

Cleaning robot system according to another embodiment of the present invention includes a remote control for transmitting a remote control signal and a robot body that is driven and controlled according to the signal transmitted from the remote control,

The remote control is:

A touch screen for inputting a cleaning area;

And a coordinate data transmission control unit for controlling transmission by converting the cleaning area input through the touch screen into cleaning area designation coordinate data.

The robot body is:

And a main body controller for controlling the running of the robot body according to the cleaning area designation coordinate data received through the remote controller receiver.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the user can freely designate the driving route or the cleaning area through the touch screen provided in the remote controller, and the controller of the robot body may freely designate the traveling route or the cleaning area through the touch screen. By receiving the corresponding coordinate data, it is possible to normally control the running of the robot body based on the coordinate data.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of related known functions or configurations may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

3 is a block diagram of a cleaning robot system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the drawing, the cleaning robot system includes a remote controller 100 and a remote controller as a controlled object for remotely controlling a controlled object. And a cleaning robot body 200 that is remotely adjustable by 200.

Referring to Figure 3 describes the basic configuration of the remote controller 100 and the cleaning robot main body 200, first, the remote controller 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is a number of keys and like a remote control of a general cleaning robot; A key input unit 125 including a power key and the like, and a wireless transmission / reception unit 120 generating and transmitting a signal (remote control signal) for remotely controlling the cleaning robot main body 200. For reference, the wireless transmitter / receiver 120 may be implemented as an infrared transmitter, a Bluetooth module as a short range wireless communication module, a wireless LAN module, and a Zigbee module.

Meanwhile, the remote controller 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention further includes a touch screen 105 for inputting a cleaning area using a user's hand or a text input pen, unlike a remote controller of a general cleaning robot system. In addition, an input position detecting unit 110 for detecting a cleaning area (input position) input through the touch screen 105 and a cleaning area (input position) detected through the input position detecting unit 110 are cleaned. The control unit 115 further converts the area-specific coordinate data into transmission control. Since the input position detecting unit 110 and the control unit 115 can be one-chip into one controller, they can be referred to as the coordinate data transmission control unit, and the coordinate data transmission control unit is input through the "touch screen 105. Converting the cleaning area into the cleaning area designation coordinate data to control transmission. In addition, the coordinate data transmission control unit performs a transmission control by converting a designated movement route input through a touch screen into movement route designation coordinate data.

Hereinafter, the configuration of the cleaning robot main body 200 controlled by the remote controller 100 having the above-described configuration will be described in detail.

First, the cleaning robot main body 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention also includes a user interface unit 210 like the general cleaning robot main body. The user interface unit 210 includes a plurality of operation buttons and a display unit for displaying an operation state. The user interface 210 allows the user to manually control the cleaning robot body 200 as well as visually confirm the current operating state thereof.

In addition, the cleaning robot main body 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a left / right motor driving unit 220 and rotation amount sensing units 225 as the general cleaning robot main body. The left / right motor driving unit 220 drives the left / right wheel motors according to the driving control signal applied from the main body control unit 215 which will be described later. Each of the rotation amount detecting units 225 is connected to the left wheel and the right wheel, respectively, and detects the amount of rotation of each of the left and right wheels and feeds back the corresponding rotation speed data to the main body controller 215. Based on the rotation speed data, the main body controller 215 may calculate a movement amount in the x and y axes in space.

On the other hand, the main body control unit 215 of the cleaning robot main body 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention controls the overall operation of the main body 200 based on the control program data stored in the memory 230, but unlike the general cleaning robot The controller 100 controls the driving of the robot body 200 according to the cleaning area designation coordinate data received through the remote control receiver, that is, the wireless (transport) receiver 205. For example, the main body controller 215 starts driving by setting the coordinate data of any one of the cleaning area designation coordinate data to the start start coordinates (0,0) on the x and y coordinate axes, thereby setting the inside of the designated cleaning area. You will be able to clean while moving. In addition, the main body controller 215 starts driving by setting the coordinate data of any one of the received movement route designation coordinate data to the start start coordinates (0,0) on the x and y coordinate axes, thereby setting the movement route designated by the user. You will be able to drive.

For reference, reference numeral 205, which is not described in FIG. 3, illustrates a wireless (transmitter) receiver. As described in the remote controller 100, an infrared transmitter, a short range wireless communication module, a Bluetooth module, a wireless LAN module, and a Zigbee ( zigbee) module. In addition, reference numeral 230, which is not described, illustrates a memory, and in the memory 230, control program data for controlling the cleaning robot main body 200 is stored, and it also plays a role of temporarily storing data generated during a control operation. do. Furthermore, the memory 230 stores information necessary for calculating the distance that the actual cleaner needs to be driven according to the received coordinate data, that is, distance data that should be actually traveled for each unit length of each of the x and y axes.

Hereinafter, the operation of the cleaning robot system having the above-described configuration will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 specifically illustrates a cleaning area a input through the touch screen 105 of the remote controller 100 and a path b traveling along the cleaning area a according to an embodiment of the present invention. will be.

Referring to FIG. 4, first, a cleaner user who wants to instruct to clean a predetermined area designates a cleaning area through the remote controller 100. As a method of designating the cleaning area, a predetermined area is input on the touch screen 105 such as A → B → C → D using a hand or a text input pen as shown in FIG. The cleaning area position information input in this way is applied to the control unit 115 by the input position detecting unit 110. Then, the control unit 115 converts the input cleaning area position information into cleaning area designation coordinate data and transmits the control to the cleaning robot body 200 through the wireless transmission / reception unit 120. More specifically, the cleaning area position information A → B → C → D detected by the input position detecting unit 110 is (2.3) → (2.7) → (5.7) → (5.3) on the x, y axis coordinate system. In this case, the control unit 115 converts this into cleaning area designation coordinate data such as (0,0) → (0,4) → (3,4) → (3,0) to the cleaning robot main body 200. Will be sent. For reference, a large number of coordinate data exist between each coordinate, for example, A and B. Such coordinate data will also be converted and transmitted together in the manner described above.

On the other hand, when the series of cleaning area designation coordinate data as described above is transmitted from the remote controller 100, the wireless (transmitter) receiving unit 205 of the cleaning robot main body 200 side receives it and applies it to the main body control unit 215. Therefore, the main body control unit 215 may control the running of the cleaning robot main body 200 according to the cleaning area designation coordinate data received through the wireless signal receiving unit 205. The process of controlling the running of the cleaning robot main body 200 based on the above-described cleaning area designation coordinate data (0,0) → (0,4) → (3,4) → (3,0) will be described.

First, if the distance data to be actually traveled with respect to the unit length 1 on the x and y axes is set to 20 cm on the x axis and 10 cm on the y axis, and stored in the memory 230, the main body controller 215 may receive the received data. After setting the cleaning area designation coordinate data (0,0) as the starting start coordinates, the cleaning area is calculated based on the cleaning area designation coordinate data. Since it is assumed that the distance data that should be actually traveled with respect to the unit length 1 on the x and y axes is 20 cm and 10 cm on the x and y axes, respectively, as shown in FIG. A rectangular area of 40 cm on the y-axis and 60 cm on the x-axis is set as the cleaning area with reference to (point A).

Thereafter, the main body controller 215 executes the cleaning mode while driving in a known driving pattern, for example, a grid driving method, in the area set as the cleaning area, so that the user can clean the intended cleaning area normally. Will be.

Similarly to the method described above, the user may designate a driving path of the cleaning robot body 200. That is, when a driving path such as E → F → G → H → I → J → K → L is designated on the touch screen 105 as shown in FIG. Is generated by the remote controller 100, the control unit 115 and transmitted to the cleaning robot body 200.

Accordingly, the main body controller 215 starts driving by setting any one of the received movement route designation coordinate data, for example, E point as the starting start coordinate, so that the cleaning robot main body 200 is shown in FIG. As you can see, the E → F → G → H → I → J → K → L trajectories are drawn.

Therefore, the user can designate the movement path of the cleaning robot body 200 more conveniently through the touch screen 105.

In the above described embodiments of the present invention assuming that the remote controller 100 and the cleaning robot main body 200 constitute one cleaning robot system, the cleaning robot main body 200 itself uses one cleaning robot system. It may be considered to constitute. The reason for this is that a wireless signal transmitting means conforming to different communication protocols, for example, a mobile communication terminal (mobile phone, PDA, etc.) equipped with a touch screen, a home appliance / communication device equipped with a touch screen and a near field communication module, and a touch screen This is because the home appliance / communication device equipped with a Zigbee module may control the cleaning robot body 200 according to the operation procedure as described above.

Thus, those skilled in the art will understand that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible from the above-described embodiments.

As described above, since the present invention can designate a driving route through a remote controller having a touch screen, the cleaning robot main body can be conveniently controlled by specifying the driving route without being restricted by the shape of the driving route. There is this.

Furthermore, the present invention has the convenience of controlling the cleaning robot so that cleaning can be performed by specifying only the desired area because the cleaning area can be designated through the touch screen.

The home appliance / communication device having a touch screen and capable of performing wireless communication has an advantage of remotely designating a driving path and a cleaning area of the cleaning robot body.

Claims (7)

delete delete One or more radio signal receivers for wirelessly receiving the cleaning area designation coordinate data transmitted from the radio signal transmitters according to different communication protocols; And a main body controller configured to control driving of the robot body according to cleaning area designation coordinate data received through the wireless signal receiver. The main body control unit, And start driving by setting any one of the cleaning area designation coordinate data as a starting start coordinate. The method according to claim 3, The main body control unit, Cleaning robot system, characterized in that for starting the driving by setting the coordinate data of any one of the movement path designation coordinate data received through the wireless signal receiving unit as the starting start coordinate. delete A cleaning robot system comprising a remote controller for wirelessly transmitting a remote control signal and a robot body driven and controlled according to a signal transmitted from the remote controller, The remote control is: A touch screen for inputting a cleaning area; And a coordinate data transmission control unit for controlling transmission by converting the cleaning area input through the touch screen into cleaning area designation coordinate data. The robot body is: And a main body controller configured to control driving of the robot body according to the cleaning area designation coordinate data received through the remote control receiver. The main body control unit, Cleaning robot system, characterized in that for starting the driving by setting the coordinate data of any one of the cleaning area designation coordinate data as the start start coordinates. The method according to claim 6, wherein the coordinate data transmission control unit converts the movement path specified through the touch screen to the movement path designation coordinate data transmission control, and the main body control unit controls the coordinate data of any one of the movement path designation coordinate data A cleaning robot system, characterized in that the driving start is set by starting start coordinates.

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