KR101410981B1 - autonomous lawn mower - Google Patents

Abstract

[0001] The present invention relates to an autonomous working lawn mower, and more particularly, to an autonomous working lawn mower which includes a main body adapted to be able to travel on the ground, a running driving part driven to drive the main body, A GPS receiver installed in the main body, a storage unit in which geographical information on the working area is recorded, and a work area stored in the storage unit, in order to cut the lawn using the current coordinate information received from the GPS receiver, And a control unit for controlling the driving unit. According to the autonomous working lawn mower, the work area can be operated by using the GPS coordinate information by itself, the work state information can be provided to a remote control terminal such as a smart phone, and the work can be performed by remote control The convenience of the user can be improved.

Description

[0002] Autonomous lawn mower [0003]

The present invention relates to a lawn mowing apparatus, and more particularly, to an autonomous working lawn mowing apparatus capable of lawn lawn mowing by autonomous driving.

The power lawn mower, which is widely used as a lawn mower, is capable of cutting grass by rotation of a blade driven by a power source.

Korean Patent No. 10-0920151 discloses a lawn mowing machine in which a lawn is cut while a worker performs a driving operation of a main body that is capable of rolling movement.

Such a conventional lawn mower has an inconvenience in that a lawnmower operation must be performed while the operator directly operates the lawn mower.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an autonomous working lawn mower which is capable of performing lawn mowing while autonomously traveling a work area.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an autonomous working lawn mower which is capable of performing lawn mowing autonomously by judging the growth state of grass.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an autonomous working lawn mower including: a main body capable of traveling on a ground; A traveling driving unit for driving the main body to travel; A cutting device installed on the main body so as to cut grass on the bottom of the main body by rotation of the blade; A GPS receiver installed in the main body; A storage unit for storing geographical information on a work area; And a control unit for controlling the cutter and the driving driving unit to cut the grass using the current coordinate information received from the GPS receiver.

In addition, a charging unit that supplies driving power to the main body and is chargeable from the outside; A charging station having a ceiling portion into which the main body can enter and be stored so as to protect the main body from rain, and capable of supplying power through a charging portion of the main body in a retracted state; The humidity control system according to claim 1, further comprising a humidity sensor installed in the main body, wherein when the humidity of the humidity sensor reaches a first humidity set in the course of performing a lawn mower operation outside the charging station, It is preferable to control the driving driving unit to return to the charging station using the position information of the charging station stored in the storage unit.

Further preferably, the main body further includes a camera for capturing an external image so as to determine a grass growth length of a working area, wherein the control unit determines the grass growth length from the image of the grass imaged by the camera, And controls the cutter and the driving driving unit to cut grass in the working area if it is determined that the grass has grown by a length corresponding to the set cutting height.

Further, the cutting machine is capable of sending grass cut by the rotation of the blades to the discharge tube by the rotational force of the blades, while rotating the grass introduced through the discharge tube onto the main body in a spiral track, A cyclone dust collector for guiding the drop to the discharge port of the cyclone dust collector; A compression chamber accommodating the grass introduced through the discharge port of the cyclone dust collector and having an opening / closing door which is opened and closed at one end thereof by the control unit; And a compressor for moving the compression plate, which can be moved in the direction of the opening / closing door from the other end of the compression chamber, under control of the control unit. The control unit controls the compression of the compressor It is preferable that the compressed grass is discharged to the outside of the main body by opening the opening and closing door after compressing the lawn by operating the compressor to advance the plate in the direction of the opening and closing door.

Preferably, the distance sensor unit senses the distance to the front object so that the obstacle can be detected on the outer circumferential surface of the main body, and provides the detected distance to the control unit. The control unit processes the remote control signal requested by the remote control terminal of the manager connected through the communication unit.

Preferably, the control unit transmits job performance result information to the remote control terminal through the communication unit whenever the lawn mower operation is performed.

According to the autonomous working lawn mower of the present invention, the work area can be operated by using the GPS coordinate information by itself, the work state information can be provided to a remote control terminal such as a smart phone, So that the convenience of the user can be improved.

1 is a side view of an autonomic working lawn mower according to the present invention,
Fig. 2 is a sectional view for explaining an element processing the cut lawn of the autonomic working lawn mower apparatus main body of Fig. 1,
3 is a block diagram of a control system of the autonomous working lawn mower of FIG.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an autonomic working lawn mower according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an autonomic working mowing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view for explaining an element for treating a cut grass of the autonomic working mowing apparatus main body of FIG. 1, 1 is a block diagram of a control system of an autonomous working lawn mower.

1 to 3, an autonomic working lawn mower 100 according to the present invention includes a main body 110 and a filling station 170.

The main body 110 is allowed to run while rolling on the ground.

In the illustrated example, the structure is shown to be able to travel through the rotation of the wheel 112, and a structure that travels through a belt-shaped caterpillar that performs endless track motion unlike the illustrated example can be applied.

The travel driving unit 120 is configured to control the rolling motion and the steering angle of the wheel 112 to be controlled by the control unit 151 so that the main body 110 is driven.

The cutter 123 is installed on the lower portion of the main body 110 and is provided on the main body 110 so that the grass on the bottom of the main body 110 can be cut by the rotation of the blade 126.

The cutting machine 123 includes a housing 124, a blade 126, and a drive motor 128.

The housing 124 is lowered so that the grass cut by the blade 126 can be smoothly discharged to the discharge pipe 125 through the opening 124a formed in the side by the pneumatic pressure formed by the rotating blade 126 And is formed in an open cap shape, and a blade 126 is rotatably installed inside.

The blade 126 is applied with a blade whose tip portion in the rotational direction is inclined lower than the follower portion so that the cut grass can be lifted and moved while being rotated.

The drive motor 128 is controlled by the controller 151 to rotationally drive the rotation axis of the blade 126.

The cutting machine 123 feeds the grass cut by the rotation of the blade 126 to the discharge tube 125 by the rotational force of the blade 126.

The cyclone dust collector 129 is installed in the main body 110. The cyclone dust collector 129 is formed in a hollow cylindrical shape and has a lower portion formed with a narrow inner diameter and an air outlet 129 through which air is discharged at an upper portion of the center. And is connected in the tangential direction so as to communicate the inner space of the terminal end of the second electrode 125 with the terminal.

The cyclone dust collector 129 causes the grass introduced through the discharge pipe 125 to rotate inside the spiral orbit while the air is discharged to the air discharge port 129 and the grass is led to the lower discharge port 129b have.

The compression chamber 130 forms an accommodation space for receiving the grass introduced through the discharge port 129 of the cyclone dust collector 129 and is opened and closed by a control unit 151 at one end toward the outside of the main body 110 An opening / closing door 114 is provided.

Here, the opening / closing door 114 can be opened / closed by the door driving unit 132 driven by the control unit 151. [

The opening and closing door 114 can be constructed in various ways such as a structure in which the compression chamber 130 can be opened and closed with respect to the outside while being slid in the vertical direction by driving the cylinder in addition to the structure in which the opening and closing door 114 is rotated in a hinge manner.

The door driving unit 132 may have various structures such as a structure that can open or close the opening and closing door 114 by an actuator such as a cylinder.

The compressor 134 is applied with a compression cylinder structure capable of moving the compression plate 135 which can be moved in the direction of the opening and closing door 114 from the other end of the compression chamber 130 by the control unit 151.

The compression drive unit 136 is controlled by the control unit 151 to drive the compressor 134 such that the compression plate 135 advances and retreats.

The distance detection sensor unit 138 is installed on the outer circumference of the main body 110 and detects the distance to the front object so as to detect whether or not an obstacle is detected.

The distance detection sensor unit 138 may include a plurality of ultrasonic sensors spaced apart from each other on the outer circumferential surface of the main body 110.

The GPS receiver 141 is installed in the main body and calculates current position information from the information received from the GPS satellites and provides it to the controller 151.

The storage unit 143 records geographical information about a work area to be lawn cut. Here, the geographical information recorded in the storage unit 143 refers to position coordinate information for the boundary line of the work area.

The humidity sensor 145 is installed in the main body 110 to detect the humidity of the outside and provides the detected humidity information to the controller 151.

Here, the humidity sensor 145 is adapted to determine whether it is raining.

The camera 146 is installed in front of the main body 110 to pick up an external image so as to determine the external environment information and the grass growth length of the working area, and provides the external image to the controller 151.

The receiving grass load detection sensor 147 detects the load amount of the grass loaded in the compression chamber 130 and provides the load to the control unit 151. The grass load amount detection sensor 147 detects the load amount of the grass loaded on the bottom surface of the compression chamber 130 A load cell providing load information can be applied.

The communication unit 149 is preferably capable of performing wireless communication and includes a Bluetooth communication module for short range wireless communication and a main communication module for performing communication with a mobile communication terminal such as a smart phone.

The charging unit 160 is provided in the main body 110 and supplies driving power of an element driven by electric power such as a cutting machine 123, a compressor 134, and a controller 151, It is possible to charge.

Of course, various known charging methods such as a non-contact type charging method by electromagnetic induction other than the connection method through the charging terminal 162 can be applied to the charging part 160 of the charging method.

The charging unit 160 is constructed so as to detect the charging state and provide it to the control unit 151. [

The charging station 170 is capable of performing charging through the charging terminal 162 of the main body 110. In the illustrated example, the charging terminal 170 is formed such that the charging terminal 162, And can be charged through the connector terminal 172.

The charging station 170 may be constructed so as to convert commercial AC power into electric power required by the charging unit 160 and supply the same.

The charging station 170 is provided with a ceiling portion 174 on which the main body 110 can enter and be stored so as to protect the main body 110 from rain, So that a storage space can be formed.

The control unit 151 controls the cutting unit 123 and the driving unit 124 to cut the grass while moving the work area stored in the storage unit 143 using the current coordinate information received from the GPS receiver 141, And controls the driving unit 120.

Here, the job start conditions can be stored in advance in the time schedule.

The control unit 151 determines the grass growth length from the image of the grass captured by the camera 146. If it is determined that the grass has grown by the length corresponding to the set cutting height, It is possible to control the cutting machine 123 and the travel driving unit 120 to cut grass in the work area.

Here, the growth length of the grass is determined by the grass height of the image of the image captured by the image processing method of comparing the image of the image captured by the camera 146 with the reference image stored in the storage unit 143, It is determined that the operation start condition is satisfied.

When the humidity of the humidity sensor 145 reaches the first humidity set in the process of performing the lawn mower operation outside the charging station 170 corresponding to the operation start condition, the controller 151 determines that it is raining, The operation is stopped so as to protect the vehicle 110 from the rain and controls the travel driving unit 120 to return to the charging station 170 using the position information of the charging station 170 stored in the storage unit 143. [

In addition, the control unit 151 controls the cutting unit 123 to operate the cutting unit 123 in the course of performing the lawn mowing operation. When the cutting unit 123 is in the set discharge condition, that is, when the load reaches the load amount corresponding to the discharge condition from the receiving grass load detection sensor 147 The compressor 134 is operated through the compression drive unit 136 to advance the compression plate 135 of the compressor 134 in the direction of the opening and closing door 114 to compress the grass to be received and then the opening and closing door 114 And controls the door driving unit 132 to open so that the compressed grass is discharged to the outside of the main body 110.

Meanwhile, the control unit 151 processes the remote control signal requested from the remote control terminal 200 of the manager connected through the communication unit 149. [

Here, the remote control terminal 200 may be a mobile communication terminal such as a smart phone, which can perform communication with the main body 110 through the communication network 230.

The remote control terminal 200 is equipped with a remote control module 210 for monitoring the operation state of the main body 110 and transmitting a signal for remotely controlling a work instruction.

The remote control module 210 is an application program executed in the remote control terminal 200. When the execution icon is clicked and executed, the remote control module 210 can perform a supported function such as a remote driving operation mode and a work status monitoring mode of the main body 110 And transmits the designated control command signal through the communication unit 149 of the main body 110 through the communication network 230 using the registered communication address of the main body.

Accordingly, the user operates the remote control module 210 to instruct the remote site to receive the information captured through the camera 146 to confirm the working state or the growth state of the grass, and to forward, Direction movement, backward movement, and the like, and can control the operation of the cutting machine 123 and the like remotely.

The control unit 151 is preferably configured to transmit the job execution result information to the remote control terminal 200 registered through the communication unit 149 every time the lawn mower operation is performed.

Here, the work execution result information preferably includes image information of the work area captured by the camera 146 during the work date and time, or after the work is completed.

Meanwhile, when the main body 110 is constructed to support remote control in a Bluetooth manner, the remote control module 210 may be constructed so that the main body 110 can perform remote control using the remote control terminal 200 supporting Bluetooth communication.

According to the autonomous working lawn mower apparatus 100, the growth state is determined from the image of the lawn picked up by the camera 146 at the set period while waiting at the charging station 170 at the time of non-work, The user carries out lawn mowing while traveling in zigzag form using the current coordinate information of the GPS receiver 141 and the work area coordinate information stored in the storage unit 143. After completing the work, So that it is possible to autonomously perform lawn mowing without the help of manpower.

110: main body 120: cutting machine
130 compression chamber 134 compressor
141: GPS receiver 143:
146: camera 151:
170: Charging station

Claims (6)

delete A main body adapted to travel on the ground;
A traveling driving unit for driving the main body to travel;
A cutting device installed on the main body so as to cut grass on the bottom of the main body by rotation of the blade;
A GPS receiver installed in the main body;
A storage unit for storing geographical information on a work area;
And a control unit for controlling the cutter and the travel driving unit to cut grass using the current coordinate information received from the GPS receiver, the work area stored in the storage unit,
A charging unit that supplies driving power to the main body and is chargeable from the outside;
A charging station having a ceiling portion into which the main body can enter and be stored so as to protect the main body from rain, and capable of supplying power through a charging portion of the main body in a retracted state;
And a humidity sensor installed in the main body for detecting humidity,
Wherein the control unit is operable to detect position information of the charging station stored in the storage unit to protect the main body from rain when the humidity of the humidity sensor reaches a set first humidity in the course of performing a lawn mower operation outside the charging station And controls the driving driving unit to return to the charging station by using the self-powered grass mower. [3] The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the main body further comprises a camera for picking up an external image so as to judge a grass growth length of a work area,
Wherein the controller determines the grass growth length from the image of the grass captured by the camera and controls the cutter and the driving drive unit to cut the grass in the work area when it is determined that the grass has grown by a length corresponding to the set cutting height Wherein the automatic lawn mowing device is a self-powered lawn mowing device. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the cutter is capable of sending the grass cut by the rotation of the blade to the discharge tube by the rotational force of the blade,
A cyclone dust collector for rotating the grass introduced through the discharge pipe on the main body in a spiral orbit and guiding the falling to the lower discharge port;
A compression chamber accommodating the grass introduced through the discharge port of the cyclone dust collector and having an opening / closing door which is opened and closed at one end thereof by the control unit;
Further comprising a compressor for controlling the compression plate to be moved in the direction of the opening / closing door from the other end of the compression chamber,
The control unit operates the compressor so that the compression plate of the compressor advances toward the opening / closing door when the discharge condition is set after the cutting machine is operated, compresses the grass to be accommodated, And then discharged to the outside of the main body. The distance sensor according to claim 4, further comprising: a distance sensing sensor unit for sensing a distance to a front object so as to detect an obstacle and providing the sensor to the control unit;
And a communication unit for performing wireless communication,
Wherein the control unit processes the remote control signal requested by the remote control terminal of the manager connected through the communication unit. 6. The autonomous working lawn mower as claimed in claim 5, wherein the control unit transmits operation result information to the remote control terminal through the communication unit whenever the lawn mower operation is performed.

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