KR20230041353A - Robot-friendly building, method and system for controling robot divinging in the building - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a robot-friendly building and a method and system for controlling a robot navigating in a building. More specifically, the present invention relates to a robot control method and system for allowing robots to coexist with people in the same space and to provide useful services to people. The present invention can provide a method for controlling a robot navigating in a building based on a map of the building. The method for controlling a robot comprises the steps of: specifying the location of a virtual obstacle in the building; reflecting virtual obstacle information on the virtual obstacle on the map by using the specified location of the virtual obstacle; specifying at least one robot satisfying a preset distance condition for the virtual obstacle among robots located in the building; and transmitting the virtual obstacle information to the specified robot so that the specified robot avoids the virtual obstacle and navigates.

Description

Robot-friendly building, method and system for controlling a robot driving a building

The present invention relates to a robot-friendly building and a control method and system for a robot traveling in a building. More specifically, the present invention relates to a robot control method and system that enable robots and humans to coexist in the same space and provide useful services to humans.

As technology develops, various service devices are appearing, and in particular, technology development for robots performing various tasks or services has been actively conducted recently.

Furthermore, recently, with the development of artificial intelligence technology, cloud technology, etc., it has become possible to control robots more precisely and safely, and accordingly, the utilization of robots is gradually increasing. In particular, due to the development of technology, robots have reached a level where they can safely coexist with humans in an indoor space.

Accordingly, recently, robots have been replacing human tasks or tasks, and in particular, various methods for robots to directly provide services to people in indoor spaces are being actively researched.

For example, robots provide route guidance services in public places such as airports, stations, and department stores, and robots provide serving services in restaurants. Furthermore, robots are providing a delivery service in which mails and couriers are delivered in office spaces, co-living spaces, and the like. In addition, robots provide various services such as cleaning services, crime prevention services, and logistics handling services. The type and range of services provided by robots will increase exponentially in the future, and the level of service provision is expected to continue to evolve.

These robots provide various services not only in outdoor spaces but also in indoor spaces of buildings (or buildings) such as offices, apartments, department stores, schools, hospitals, amusement facilities, etc. In this case, robots provide It is controlled to provide various services while moving through the indoor space.

Meanwhile, with the development of service robots, freely moving robot services are appearing. When a service robot is operated in a building, a situation may occur in which the robot needs to avoid an obstacle that cannot be recognized only by the built-in sensor or to prevent the robot from entering.

However, in the prior art, virtual wall information is transmitted to each robot to avoid an obstacle through individual control of the robot, or control not to enter a specific area. It is also necessary to perform calculations in the central system.

As in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2019-0098734 (August 22, 2019), in the past, there is a technique for determining the robot's cleaning flow by creating a virtual wall model to prevent the robot from entering a complex area and reflecting it on a map. However, this virtual wall is set only for a single robot and is not reflected for other robots. That is, conventionally, robot control using a virtual obstacle is performed in a single robot unit.

Accordingly, there is still a need for a technology that updates information related to virtual obstacles on a map and allows calculations for robot control to be performed in a central system.

Therefore, in order to provide a higher level of service using robots in buildings, research on robot control technology in service units (eg, route guidance service, delivery service, serving service, etc.), as well as robots providing services In the building itself, essential research is needed to support the various infrastructures required for robots.

On the other hand, in order for robots to provide various services or live in an indoor space, robots must freely move or pass through the indoor space of a building, and in some cases, various facility infrastructures (eg, elevators, There is a need to use escalators, access control gates, etc.).

Therefore, in order to provide a higher level of service using robots in buildings, research on robot control technology in service units (eg, route guidance service, delivery service, serving service, etc.), as well as robots providing services In the building itself, essential research is needed to support the various infrastructures required for robots.

The present invention provides a control method and system for a robot traveling in a building.

More specifically, the present invention is to provide a robot control method and system for limiting the movement of a robot to an inaccessible area when the robot is present in an inaccessible area in a building in some cases.

More specifically, the present invention provides a building and robot control method and system that enable a plurality of robots traveling in a building to efficiently avoid virtual obstacles set in a building by placing virtual obstacles.

In addition, the present invention provides a robot control method and system that allows a robot that fails to avoid a virtual obstacle to return to a position before passing through the virtual obstacle.

Furthermore, the present invention is to provide a robot-friendly building in which robots and humans coexist and provide useful services to humans.

Furthermore, the robot-friendly building according to the present invention can expand the types and ranges of services that can be provided by robots by providing various robot-friendly facility infrastructures that can be used by robots.

Furthermore, the robot-friendly building according to the present invention can manage the driving of robots providing services more systematically by organically controlling a plurality of robots and facility infrastructure using a cloud system that works in conjunction with a plurality of robots. . Through this, the robot-friendly building according to the present invention can provide various services to people more safely, quickly, and accurately.

Furthermore, the robot applied to the building according to the present invention can be implemented in a brainless form controlled by a cloud server, and according to this, a plurality of robots disposed in the building can be inexpensively manufactured without expensive sensors. In addition, it can be controlled with high performance/high precision.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention may provide a method for controlling a robot traveling in a building based on a map of the building. The present invention includes the steps of specifying the position of a virtual obstacle in the building, reflecting virtual obstacle information about the virtual obstacle on the map using the specified position of the virtual obstacle, and the virtual obstacle among robots located in the building. A robot comprising specifying at least one robot that satisfies a predetermined distance condition with respect to an obstacle and transmitting the virtual obstacle information to the specified robot so that the specified robot avoids the virtual obstacle and travels. A control method can be provided.

In addition, the present invention provides a building in which a robot driven by a cloud server is controlled. The building includes a communication unit that receives driving and control commands of the robot from the cloud server and transmits them to the robot, and the cloud server specifies the location of the virtual obstacle in the building and determines the location of the specified virtual obstacle. virtual obstacle information about the virtual obstacle is reflected on the map, and at least one robot that satisfies a preset distance condition with respect to the virtual obstacle among robots located in the building is specified, and the specified robot is It may be characterized in that the virtual obstacle information is transmitted to the specified robot to drive while avoiding the virtual obstacle.

In addition, the present invention may provide a robot that travels through a building. The robot includes a body, a driving unit provided in the body, a sensing unit provided in the body and sensing obstacles around the body, a communication unit communicating with a cloud server, and information received from the cloud server and collected through the sensing unit. and a controller configured to control the driving unit to drive the building based on at least one of the information of the virtual obstacle, when the information received from the cloud server includes information about the virtual obstacle. It may be characterized in that the driving unit is controlled so as not to move to an area beyond the .

A method and system for controlling a building and a robot driving the building according to the present invention manages information related to virtual obstacles on a map and provides route information of the robot together with information on virtual obstacles, thereby providing a restricted access area for robots. can be managed efficiently.

Furthermore, the method and system for controlling a building and a robot driving a building according to the present invention provide information on virtual obstacles individually to robots required to avoid virtual obstacles, thereby enabling efficient management suitable for the location characteristics of each robot. possible.

Furthermore, the present invention transmits information related to virtual obstacles only to some robots close to virtual obstacles, thereby minimizing unnecessary communication between robots and servers.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, when the robot passes through a virtual obstacle due to a positioning error, by changing the position of the virtual obstacle, the robot is induced to return to the position before passing the virtual obstacle. Through this, the present invention minimizes the robot's driving in the access-restricted area even if the robot enters an area where the robot's access is restricted, and at the same time induces the robot to naturally drive outside the access-restricted area.

Furthermore, the robot-friendly building according to the present invention uses a technological convergence in which robots, autonomous driving, AI, and cloud technologies are converged and connected, and these technologies, robots, and facility infrastructure provided in the building are organically can provide a new space that is combined with

Furthermore, the robot-friendly building according to the present invention can systematically manage the driving of robots that provide services more systematically by organically controlling a plurality of robots and facility infrastructure using a cloud server that works in conjunction with a plurality of robots. can Through this, the robot-friendly building according to the present invention can provide various services to people more safely, quickly, and accurately.

Furthermore, the robot applied to the building according to the present invention can be implemented in a brainless form controlled by a cloud server, and according to this, a plurality of robots disposed in the building can be inexpensively manufactured without expensive sensors. In addition, it can be controlled with high performance/high precision.

Furthermore, in the building according to the present invention, robots and humans can naturally coexist in the same space by taking into account the tasks and movement situations assigned to a plurality of robots arranged in the building, as well as driving to be considerate of people.

Furthermore, in the building according to the present invention, by performing various controls to prevent accidents by robots and respond to unexpected situations, it is possible to give people a perception that robots are friendly and safe, not dangerous.

1, 2 and 3 are conceptual diagrams for explaining a robot-friendly building according to the present invention.
4, 5 and 6 are conceptual diagrams for explaining a robot driving a robot-friendly building and a system for controlling various facilities provided in the robot-friendly building according to the present invention.
7 and 8 are conceptual diagrams for explaining facility infrastructure provided in a robot-friendly building according to the present invention.
9 to 11 are conceptual diagrams for explaining a method of estimating the position of a robot traveling in a robot-friendly building according to the present invention.
12 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a robot included in the robot system according to the present invention.
13 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a node map used for setting a moving path of a robot.
14 is a flowchart for explaining a robot control method according to the present invention.
15 and 16 are conceptual diagrams illustrating a robot control method according to the present invention.
17 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a shape of a virtual obstacle.
18 and 19 are conceptual views illustrating virtual obstacles installed in a building.

Hereinafter, the embodiments disclosed in this specification will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the same reference numerals will be assigned to the same or similar components regardless of reference numerals, and overlapping descriptions thereof will be omitted. The suffixes "module" and "unit" for components used in the following description are given or used together in consideration of ease of writing the specification, and do not have meanings or roles that are distinct from each other by themselves. In addition, in describing the embodiments disclosed in this specification, if it is determined that a detailed description of a related known technology may obscure the gist of the embodiment disclosed in this specification, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. In addition, the accompanying drawings are only for easy understanding of the embodiments disclosed in this specification, the technical idea disclosed in this specification is not limited by the accompanying drawings, and all changes included in the spirit and technical scope of the present invention , it should be understood to include equivalents or substitutes.

Terms including ordinal numbers, such as first and second, may be used to describe various components, but the components are not limited by the terms. These terms are only used for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another.

It is understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another element, it may be directly connected or connected to the other element, but other elements may exist in the middle. It should be. On the other hand, when an element is referred to as “directly connected” or “directly connected” to another element, it should be understood that no other element exists in the middle.

Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

In this application, terms such as "comprise" or "have" are intended to designate that there is a feature, number, step, operation, component, part, or combination thereof described in the specification, but one or more other features It should be understood that the presence or addition of numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof is not precluded.

The present invention relates to a robot-friendly building, and proposes a robot-friendly building in which humans and robots safely coexist and in which robots can provide beneficial services in a building.

More specifically, the present invention provides a method of providing useful services to humans using robots, robot-friendly infrastructure, and various systems for controlling them. In the building according to the present invention, humans and a plurality of robots can coexist, and various infrastructures (or facility infrastructures) that allow a plurality of robots to move freely within the building can be provided.

In the present invention, a building is a structure made for continuous residence, life, work, etc., and may have various forms such as commercial buildings, industrial buildings, institutional buildings, and residential buildings. Also, the building may be a multi-story building having a plurality of floors and a single-story building as opposed to a multi-story building. However, in the present invention, for convenience of description, infrastructure or facility infrastructure applied to a multi-story building will be described as an example.

In the present invention, infrastructure or facility infrastructure is a facility provided in a building for service provision, robot movement, function maintenance, cleanliness maintenance, and the like, and its types and forms can be very diverse. For example, infrastructure provided in a building may be diverse, such as mobile facilities (eg, robot moving passages, elevators, escalators, etc.), charging facilities, communication facilities, cleaning facilities, structures (eg, stairs, etc.), and the like. there is. In this specification, these facilities are referred to as facilities, infrastructure, facility infrastructure, or facility infrastructure, and in some cases, the terms are used interchangeably.

Furthermore, in the building according to the present invention, at least one of the building, various facility infrastructures, and robots provided in the building are controlled in conjunction with each other, so that the robot can safely and accurately provide various services within the building.

In the present invention, various facility infrastructures are provided that allow multiple robots to drive in a building, provide services according to missions (or tasks), standby or charge functions as needed, and furthermore support repair and cleaning functions for robots. proposed building. This building provides an integrated solution (or system) for the robot, and the building according to the present invention can be named with various modifiers. For example, the building according to the present invention includes i) a building equipped with robot-used infrastructure, ii) a building equipped with robot-friendly infrastructure, iii) a robot-friendly building, iv) a building where robots and humans live together, v) It can be expressed in various ways, such as a building that provides various services using robots.

On the other hand, in the present invention, the meaning of “robot-friendly” is for a building where robots coexist, and more specifically, allows robots to run, robots provide services, or facility infrastructure in which robots can be used is built. , it can mean that facility infrastructure that provides necessary functions for robots (ex: charging, repairing, washing, etc.) is established. In this case, “robot friendliness” in the present invention can be used to mean having an integrated solution for the coexistence of robots and humans.

Hereinafter, together with the accompanying drawings, look at the present invention in more detail.

1, 2, and 3 are conceptual diagrams for explaining a robot-friendly building according to the present invention, and FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 are a robot driving the robot-friendly building and a robot-friendly building according to the present invention. These are conceptual diagrams for explaining a system that controls various facilities provided in Furthermore, FIGS. 7 and 8 are conceptual diagrams for explaining facility infrastructure provided in a robot-friendly building according to the present invention.

First, for convenience of description, representative reference numerals will be defined.

In the present invention, the reference numeral “1000” is assigned to a building, and the reference numeral “10” is assigned to a space (indoor space or indoor area) of the building 1000 (see FIG. 8). Furthermore, reference numerals 10a, 10b, and 10c are assigned to indoor spaces respectively corresponding to a plurality of floors constituting the indoor space of the building 1000 (see FIG. 8). In the present invention, an indoor space or an indoor area is a concept opposite to the exterior of a building, and refers to the interior of a building protected by an exterior wall, and is not limited to meaning a space.

Furthermore, in the present invention, a robot is assigned a reference numeral “R”, and even if a reference numeral is not written for a robot in the drawings or specifications, all robots can be understood as robots (R).

Furthermore, in the present invention, a person or human is given a reference numeral “U”, and a person or human can be named as a dynamic object. At this time, the dynamic object does not necessarily mean only a person, but an animal such as a dog or cat, or at least one other robot (eg, a user's personal robot, a robot providing other services, etc.), a drone, a vacuum cleaner (eg, a user's personal robot, a robot that provides other services, etc.) For example, it can be taken as a meaning including objects capable of movement, such as a robot vacuum cleaner.

On the other hand, the building (建物, building, structure, edifice, 1000) described in the present invention is not limited to a particular type, and is a structure built for people to live in, work, breed animals, or put things. can mean

For example, the building 1000 may be offices, offices, officetels, apartments, residential/commercial apartments, houses, schools, hospitals, restaurants, government offices, etc., and the present invention may be applied to these various types of buildings.

As shown in FIG. 1 , in the building 1000 according to the present invention, a robot may run and provide various services.

A plurality of robots of one or more different types may be located in the building 1000, and these robots run in the building 1000 under the control of the server 20, provide services, and provide services to the building ( 1000) can use various facility infrastructures.

In the present invention, the location of the server 20 may exist in various ways. For example, the server 20 may be located in at least one of an interior of the building 1000 and an exterior of the building 1000 . That is, at least a part of the server 20 may be located inside the building 1000 and the other part may be located outside the building 1000 . Alternatively, the server 20 may be located entirely inside the building 1000 or located only outside the building 1000 . Therefore, in the present invention, the specific location of the server 20 is not particularly limited.

Furthermore, in the present invention, the server 20 is made to use at least one of a cloud computing server (cloud server 21) and an edge computing server (edge server 22). can Furthermore, the server 20 can be applied to the present invention as long as it is a method capable of controlling a robot in addition to a cloud computing or edge computing method.

On the other hand, the server 20 according to the present invention, in some cases, by mixing the server 21 of the cloud computing method and the edge computing method, among the facility infrastructure provided in the robot and the building 1000 Control of at least one can be performed.

Meanwhile, looking at the cloud server 21 and the edge server 22 in more detail, the edge server 22 is an electronic device and may operate as a brain of the robot R. That is, each edge server 22 may wirelessly control at least one robot R. At this time, the edge server 22 may control the robot R based on the determined control period. The control period may be determined as the sum of time given to process data related to the robot R and time given to provide control commands to the robot R. The cloud server 21 may manage at least one of the robot R or the edge server 22 . At this time, the edge server 22 may operate as a server corresponding to the robot R, and may operate as a client corresponding to the cloud server 21.

The robot R and the edge server 22 may communicate wirelessly, and the edge server 22 and the cloud server 21 may communicate wired or wirelessly. At this time, the robot R and the edge server 22 may communicate through a wireless network capable of ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC). For example, the wireless network may include at least one of a 5G network and WiFi-6 (WiFi ad/ay). Here, the 5G network may have features capable of ultra-reliable low-latency communication, as well as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and massive machine type communications (mMTC). For example, the edge server 22 includes a mobile edge computing, multi-access edge computing (MEC) server and may be disposed in a base station. Through this, latency according to communication between the robot R and the edge server 22 can be reduced. At this time, in the control period of the edge server 22, as the time given to provide a control command to the robot R is shortened, the time given to process data may be extended. Meanwhile, the edge server 22 and the cloud server 21 may communicate through a wireless network such as the Internet.

Meanwhile, in some cases, a plurality of edge servers may be connected through a wireless mesh network, and functions of the cloud server 21 may be distributed to the plurality of edge servers. In this case, for a certain robot R, one of the edge servers operates as an edge server 22 for the robot R, and at least another one of the edge servers cooperates with any one of the edge servers. , can operate as a cloud server 21 for the robot R.

The network or communication network formed in the building 1000 according to the present invention includes at least one robot R configured to collect data, at least one edge server 22 configured to wirelessly control the robot R, and It may include communication between the cloud server 21 connected to the edge server 22 and configured to manage the robot R and the edge server 22 .

The edge server 22 may be configured to wirelessly receive the data from the robot R, determine a control command based on the data, and wirelessly transmit the control command to the robot R.

According to various embodiments, the edge server 22 determines whether to cooperate with the cloud server 21 based on the data, and if it is determined that there is no need to cooperate with the cloud server 21, the edge server 22 controls the predetermined within a period, it may be configured to determine the control command and transmit the control command.

According to various embodiments, the edge server 22 may be configured to determine the control command by communicating with the cloud server 21 based on the data when it is determined that cooperation with the cloud server 21 is required. there is.

Meanwhile, the robot R may be driven according to a control command. For example, the robot R may move a location or change a posture by changing a movement, and may perform a software update.

In the present invention, for convenience of description, the server 20 is uniformly named as a “cloud server” and reference numeral “20” is given. On the other hand, of course, such a cloud server 20 can also be replaced with the term edge server 22 of edge computing.

Furthermore, the term “cloud server” may be variously changed to terms such as a cloud robot system, a cloud system, a cloud robot control system, and a cloud control system.

Meanwhile, the cloud server 20 according to the present invention can perform integrated control of a plurality of robots traveling in the building 1000 . That is, the cloud server 20 performs monitoring of i) a plurality of robot robots (R) located in the building 1000, ii) assigns a mission (or task) to the plurality of robots, and iii) a plurality of The facility infrastructure provided in the building 1000 may be directly controlled so that the robot R may successfully perform its mission, or iv) the facility infrastructure may be controlled through communication with a control system that controls the facility infrastructure.

Furthermore, the cloud server 20 may check state information of robots located in the building and provide (or support) various functions required for the robots. Here, various functions may include a charging function for robots, a washing function for contaminated robots, a standby function for robots whose missions have been completed, and the like.

The cloud server 20 may control the robots so that the robots use various facility infrastructures provided in the building 1000 to provide various functions to the robots. Furthermore, in order to provide various functions to the robots, the cloud server can directly control the facility infrastructure provided in the building 1000 or control the facility infrastructure through communication with a control system that controls the facility infrastructure. there is.

In this way, robots controlled by the cloud server 20 may drive the building 1000 and provide various services.

Meanwhile, the cloud server 20 may perform various controls based on information stored in the database, and in the present invention, the type and location of the database are not particularly limited. The terms of such a database can be freely modified and used as long as they refer to a means for storing information, such as a memory, a storage unit, a storage unit, a cloud storage unit, an external storage unit, and an external server. Hereinafter, the term “database” will be unified and explained.

Meanwhile, the cloud server 20 according to the present invention may perform distributed control of robots based on various criteria such as the type of service provided by robots and the type of control for robots. In this case, the cloud server 20 ) may have subordinate sub-servers of sub-concepts.

Furthermore, the cloud server 20 according to the present invention may control the robot traveling in the building 1000 based on various artificial intelligence algorithms.

Furthermore, the cloud server 20 performs artificial intelligence-based learning that utilizes data collected in the process of controlling the robot as learning data, and utilizes this to control the robot. It can be operated accurately and efficiently. That is, the cloud server 20 may be configured to perform deep learning or machine learning. In addition, the cloud server 20 may perform deep learning or machine learning through simulation, etc., and control the robot using an artificial intelligence model built as a result.

On the other hand, the building 1000 may be equipped with various facility infrastructures for robot driving, providing robot functions, maintaining robot functions, performing missions of robots, or coexistence of robots and humans.

For example, as shown in (a) of FIG. 1 , various facility infrastructures 1 and 2 capable of supporting driving (or movement) of the robot R may be provided in the building 1000 . These facility infrastructures 1 and 2 support movement of the robot R in the horizontal direction within a floor of the building 1000, or move the robot R vertically between different floors of the building 1000. can support movement. In this way, the facility infrastructures 1 and 2 may have a transport system that supports movement of the robot. The cloud server 20 controls the robot R to use these various facility infrastructures 1 and 2, and as shown in FIG. 1 (b), the robot R provides a building ( 1000) can be moved.

Meanwhile, the robots according to the present invention may be controlled based on at least one of the cloud server 20 and a control unit provided in the robot itself, so as to travel within the building 1000 or provide services corresponding to assigned tasks. there is.

Furthermore, as shown in (c) of FIG. 1, the building according to the present invention is a building in which robots and people coexist, and the robots are people (U) and objects used by people (for example, strollers, carts, etc.) , It is made to drive avoiding obstacles such as animals, and in some cases, it can be made to output notification information (3) related to the robot's driving. The driving of the robot may be made to avoid an obstacle based on at least one of the cloud server 20 and a control unit provided in the robot. The cloud server 20 allows the robot to avoid obstacles and enter the building 1000 based on information received through various sensors (eg, a camera (image sensor), proximity sensor, infrared sensor, etc.) provided in the robot. You can control the robot to move.

In addition, the robot traveling in the building through the process of FIG. 1 (a) to (c) is configured to provide services to people or target objects present in the building, as shown in FIG. 1 (d). can

The type of service provided by the robot may be different for each robot. That is, various types of robots may exist depending on the purpose, the robot may have a different structure for each purpose, and a program suitable for the purpose may be installed in the robot.

For example, the building 1000 includes delivery, logistics work, guidance, interpretation, parking assistance, security, crime prevention, security, public order, cleaning, quarantine, disinfection, laundry, beverage preparation, food preparation, serving, fire suppression, and medical assistance. And robots providing at least one of entertainment services may be disposed. Services provided by robots may be various other than the examples listed above.

Meanwhile, the cloud server 20 may assign an appropriate task to the robots in consideration of the purpose of each robot, and control the robots to perform the assigned task.

At least some of the robots described in the present invention may drive or perform missions under the control of the cloud server 20, and in this case, the amount of data processed by the robot itself to drive or perform missions may be minimized. there is. In the present invention, such a robot may be referred to as a brainless robot. These brainless robots may depend on the control of the cloud server 20 for at least some control in performing actions such as driving, performing missions, performing charging, waiting, and washing within the building 1000 .

However, in this specification, the brainless robots are not classified and named, but all are unified and named as “robots”.

As described above, the building 1000 according to the present invention may be equipped with various facility infrastructures that can be used by robots, and as shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, the facility infrastructure is disposed within the building 1000. In this case, through interworking with the building 1000 and the cloud server 20, movement (or driving) of the robot may be supported or various functions may be provided to the robot.

More specifically, the facility infrastructure may include facilities for supporting movement of the robot within a building.

Facilities supporting the movement of the robot may have any one type of robot-specific facilities exclusively used by the robot and shared facilities jointly used by humans.

Furthermore, facilities supporting movement of the robot may support movement of the robot in a horizontal direction or support movement of the robot in a vertical direction. The robots may move horizontally or vertically using facilities within the building 1000 . Movement in the horizontal direction may mean movement within the same floor, and movement in the vertical direction may mean movement between different floors. Therefore, in the present invention, moving up and down within the same layer may be referred to as horizontal movement.

Facilities supporting the movement of the robot may be various, and for example, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 , the building 1000 includes a robot passage (robot road, 201) supporting the movement of the robot in the horizontal direction. , 202, 203) may be provided. Such a robot passage may include a robot-only passage exclusively used by the robot. On the other hand, the passage dedicated to the robot can be formed so that human access is fundamentally blocked, but may not necessarily be limited thereto. That is, the passage dedicated to the robot may have a structure that allows people to pass through or approach it.

Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 3 , the passage dedicated to the robot may include at least one of a first exclusive passage (or first type passage 201 ) and a second exclusive passage (or second type passage 202 ). The first exclusive passage and the second exclusive passage 201, 202 may be provided together on the same floor or may be provided on different floors.

As another example, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 , the building 1000 may be provided with moving means 204 and 205 that support movement of the robot in a vertical direction. These moving means (204, 205) may include at least one of an elevator (elevator) or an escalator (escalator). The robot may move between different floors using an elevator 204 or an escalator 205 provided in the building 1000 .

On the other hand, such an elevator 204 or escalator 205 may be made exclusively for robots, or may be made for common use with people.

For example, the building 1000 may include at least one of a robot-only elevator and a shared elevator. Similarly, furthermore, at least one of a robot-only escalator and a shared escalator may be included in the building 1000 .

On the other hand, the building 1000 may be equipped with a type of movement means that can be used for both vertical and horizontal movement. For example, a moving means in the form of a moving walkway may support a robot to move in a horizontal direction within a floor or to move in a vertical direction between floors.

The robot may move within the building 1000 horizontally or vertically under its own control or under the control of the cloud server 20. can move me

Furthermore, the building 1000 may include at least one of an entrance door 206 (or automatic door) and an access control gate 207 that control access to the building 1000 or a specific area within the building 1000 . At least one of the door 206 and the access control gate 207 may be made usable by a robot. The robot may pass through an entrance door (or automatic door, 206) or an access control gate 207 under the control of the cloud server 20.

Meanwhile, the access control gate 207 may be named in various ways, such as a speed gate.

Furthermore, the building 1000 may further include a waiting space facility 208 corresponding to a waiting space where the robot waits, a charging facility 209 for charging the robot, and a washing facility 210 for cleaning the robot. .

Furthermore, the building 1000 may include a facility 211 specialized for a specific service provided by the robot, and may include, for example, a facility for delivery service.

In addition, the building 1000 may include facilities for monitoring the robot (refer to reference numeral 212), and various sensors (eg, cameras (or image sensors, 121)) may be present as examples of such facilities.

As reviewed together with FIGS. 2 and 3 , the building 1000 according to the present invention may be provided with various facilities for service provision, robot movement, driving, function maintenance, cleanliness maintenance, and the like.

Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 4, the building 1000 according to the present invention is interconnected with the cloud server 20, the robot R, and the facility infrastructure 200, so that the robots within the building 1000 provide various services. Of course, it is possible to properly use the facilities for this purpose.

Here, "interconnected" means that various data and control commands related to services provided in a building, robot movement, driving, function maintenance, cleanliness maintenance, etc. are transmitted from at least one subject to another through a network (or communication network). It may mean unidirectional or bidirectional transmission and reception to at least one subject.

Here, the subject may be the building 1000, the cloud server 20, the robot R, the facility infrastructure 200, and the like.

Furthermore, the facility infrastructure 200 includes at least one of the various facilities (refer to reference numerals 201 to 213) and control systems 201a, 202a, 203a, 204a, ... that control the various facilities reviewed together with FIGS. 2 and 3. can do.

The robot R traveling in the building 1000 is made to communicate with the cloud server 20 through the network 40, and can provide services within the building 1000 under the control of the cloud server 20. .

More specifically, the building 1000 may include a building system 1000a for communicating with or directly controlling various facilities provided in the building 1000 . As shown in FIG. 4 , the building system 1000a may include a communication unit 110 , a sensing unit 120 , an output unit 130 , a storage unit 140 and a control unit 150 .

The communication unit 110 forms at least one of a wired communication network and a wireless communication network within the building 1000, i) between the cloud server 20 and the robot R, ii) between the cloud server 20 and the building 1000 , iii) between the cloud server 20 and the facility infrastructure 200, iv) between the facility infrastructure 200 and the robot R, and v) between the facility infrastructure 200 and the building 1000. That is, the communication unit 110 may serve as a medium of communication between different entities. The communication unit 110 may also be named a base station, a router, and the like, and the communication unit 110 allows the robot R, the cloud server 20, and the facility infrastructure 200 to communicate with each other within the building 1000. It is possible to form a communication network or network so that

Meanwhile, in this specification, being connected to the building 1000 through a communication network may mean being connected to at least one of the components included in the building system 1000a.

As shown in FIG. 5 , the plurality of robots R disposed in the building 1000 communicate with the cloud server 20 through at least one of a wired communication network and a wireless communication network formed through the communication unit 110. By performing, it can be made to be remotely controlled by the cloud server 20 . A communication network such as a wired communication network or a wireless communication network may be understood as a network 40 .

In this way, the building 1000, the cloud server 20, the robot R, and the facility infrastructure 200 may form the network 40 based on the communication network formed within the building 1000. Based on this network, the robot R may provide services corresponding to assigned tasks using various facilities provided in the building 1000 under the control of the cloud server 20 .

On the other hand, the facility infrastructure 200 includes at least one of the various facilities (see reference numerals 201 to 213) and control systems 201a, 202a, 203a, 204a, ... that control them, respectively, as reviewed with FIGS. 2 and 3 (Such a control system may also be termed a “control server”).

As shown in Figure 4, different types of equipment may have their own control system. For example, in the case of a robot passage (or robot passage, robot road, robot passage, 201, 202, 203), control systems 201a and 202a for independently controlling the robot passages 201, 202 and 203 respectively , 203a) exists, and in the case of an elevator (or a robot-only elevator, 204), a control system 204 for controlling the elevator 204 may exist.

These unique control systems for controlling the facilities communicate with at least one of the cloud server 20, the robot R, and the building 1000, and appropriately control each facility so that the robot R uses the facilities. can be performed.

Meanwhile, the sensing units 201b, 202b, 203b, 204b, ... included in each of the facility control systems 201a, 202a, 203a, 204a, ... are provided in the facility itself to sense various information related to the facility. It can be done.

Furthermore, the controllers 201c, 202c, 203c, 204c, ... included in each facility control system 201a, 202a, 203a, 204a, ... perform control for driving each facility, and the cloud server 20 ), it is possible to perform appropriate control so that the robot R uses the facility. For example, the control system 204b of the elevator 204, through communication with the cloud server 20, allows the robot R to board the elevator 204 at the floor where the robot R is located, the elevator 204 ) can control the elevator 204 to stop.

At least some of the control units 201c, 202c, 203c, 204c, ... included in each facility control system 201a, 202a, 203a, 204a, ... Together, they may be located within the building 1000 or located outside the building 1000.

Furthermore, it is also possible that at least some of the facilities included in the building 1000 according to the present invention are controlled by the cloud server 20 or the control unit 150 of the building 1000 . In this case, the facility may not have a separate facility control system.

In the following description, each facility will be described as having its own control system, but as mentioned above, the role of the control system for controlling the facility is that of the cloud server 20 or building 1000. Of course, it can be replaced by the control unit 150. In this case, the terms of the controllers 201c, 202c, 203c, 204c, ... of the facility control system described herein are replaced with terms of the cloud server 20 or the controller 150 or the controller 150 of the building. Of course, it can be expressed as

Meanwhile, the components of each facility control system 201a, 202a, 203a, 204a, ... in FIG. 4 are for an example, and various components may be added or excluded according to the characteristics of each facility.

As such, in the present invention, the robot R, the cloud server 20, and the facility control systems 201a, 202a, 203a, 204a, ... provide various services within the building 1000 using the facility infrastructure.

In this case, the robot R mainly travels in a building to provide various services. To this end, the robot R may include at least one of a body unit, a driving unit, a sensing unit, a communication unit, an interface unit, and a power supply unit.

The body part includes a case (casing, housing, cover, etc.) constituting the exterior. In this embodiment, the case may be divided into a plurality of parts, and various electronic components are embedded in a space formed by the case. In this case, the body part may be formed in different shapes according to various services exemplified in the present invention. For example, in the case of a robot providing a delivery service, a container for storing goods may be provided on the upper part of the body part. As another example, in the case of a robot providing a cleaning service, a suction port for sucking in dust using a vacuum may be provided at the lower part of the body.

The driving unit is configured to perform a specific operation according to a control command transmitted from the cloud server 20 .

The driving unit provides a means for moving the body of the robot within a specific space in relation to driving. More specifically, the drive unit includes a motor and a plurality of wheels, which are combined to perform functions of driving, changing direction, and rotating the robot R. As another example, the driving unit may include at least one of an end effector, a manipulator, and an actuator to perform an operation other than driving, such as pickup.

The sensing unit may include one or more sensors for sensing at least one of information within the robot (particularly, a driving state of the robot), environment information surrounding the robot, location information of the robot, and user information.

For example, the sensing unit may include a camera (image sensor), a proximity sensor, an infrared sensor, a laser scanner (lidar sensor), an RGBD sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, an inertial sensor, a UWB sensor, and the like.

The communication unit of the robot transmits and receives wireless signals from the robot to perform wireless communication between the robot R and the communication unit of the building, between the robot R and other robots, or between the robot R and the control system of the facility. done to do As such an example, the communication unit may include a wireless Internet module, a short-distance communication module, a location information module, and the like.

The interface unit may be provided as a passage through which the robot R may be connected to an external device. For example, the interface unit may be a terminal (charging terminal, connection terminal, power terminal), port, or connector. The power supply unit may be a device that supplies power to each component included in the robot R by receiving external power and internal power. As another example, the power supply unit may be a device that generates electric energy inside the robot R and supplies it to each component.

In the above, the robot R has been described based on mainly traveling inside a building, but the present invention is not necessarily limited thereto. For example, the robot of the present invention may be in the form of a robot flying in a building, such as a drone. More specifically, a robot providing a guidance service may provide guidance about a building to a person while flying around a person in a building.

Meanwhile, the overall operation of the robot of the present invention is controlled by the cloud server 20. In addition to this, the robot may have a separate control unit as a lower controller of the cloud server 20 . For example, the control unit of the robot receives a driving control command from the cloud server 20 and controls the driving unit of the robot. In this case, the control unit may calculate the torque or current to be applied to the motor using data sensed by the sensing unit of the robot. Using the calculated result, a motor, etc. is driven by a position controller, speed controller, current controller, etc., and through this, the robot performs control commands of the cloud server 20.

Meanwhile, in the present invention, the building 1000 may include a building system 1000a for communicating with or directly controlling various facilities provided in the building 1000 . As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 , the building system 1000a may include at least one of a communication unit 110, a sensing unit 120, an output unit 130, a storage unit 140, and a control unit 150. can

The communication unit 110 forms at least one of a wired communication network and a wireless communication network within the building 1000, i) between the cloud server 20 and the robot R, ii) between the cloud server 20 and the building 1000 , iii) between the cloud server 20 and the facility infrastructure 200, iv) between the facility infrastructure 200 and the robot R, and v) between the facility infrastructure 200 and the building 1000. That is, the communication unit 110 may serve as a medium of communication between different entities.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 , the communication unit 110 is configured to include at least one of a mobile communication module 111, a wired Internet module 112, a wireless Internet module 113, and a short-distance communication module 114. can

The communication unit 110 may support various communication methods based on the communication modules listed above.

For example, the mobile communication module 111 complies with technical standards or communication schemes for mobile communications (eg, 5G, 4G, GSM (Global System for Mobile communication), CDMA (Code Division Multi Access) ), CDMA2000 (Code Division Multi Access 2000), EV-DO (Enhanced Voice-Data Optimized or Enhanced Voice-Data Only), WCDMA (Wideband CDMA), HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) ), LTE (Long Term Evolution), LTE-A (Long Term Evolution-Advanced), etc.) building system (1000a), cloud server 20, robot (R) and facility infrastructure (200) on a mobile communication network built according to It may be made to transmit and receive at least one of the wireless signals. At this time, as a more specific example, the robot R may transmit and receive radio signals with the mobile communication module 111 using the communication unit of the robot R described above.

Next, the wired Internet module 112 is a method of providing communication in a wired manner, and transmits and receives signals with at least one of the cloud server 20, the robot R, and the facility infrastructure 200 via a physical communication line as a medium. It can be done.

Furthermore, the wireless Internet module 113 is a concept including the mobile communication module 111 and may mean a module capable of accessing the wireless Internet. The wireless Internet module 113 is disposed in the building 1000 and wirelessly communicates with at least one of the building system 1000a, the cloud server 20, the robot R, and the facility infrastructure 200 in a communication network according to wireless Internet technologies. made to transmit and receive signals.

Wireless Internet technology can be very diverse, and the communication technology of the mobile communication module 111 described above, as well as WLAN (Wireless LAN), Wi-Fi (Wireless-Fidelity), Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) Direct, DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance), WiBro (Wireless Broadband), and WiMAX (World Interoperability for Microwave Access). Furthermore, in the present invention, the wireless Internet module 113 transmits and receives data according to at least one wireless Internet technology within a range including Internet technologies not listed above.

Next, the short-range communication module 114 is for short-range communication, and includes Bluetooth™, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Infrared Data Association (IrDA), Ultra Wideband (UWB), and ZigBee. , NFC (Near Field Communication), Wi-Fi (Wireless-Fidelity), Wi-Fi Direct, and Wireless USB (Wireless Universal Serial Bus) using at least one technology, the building system (1000a), the cloud server (20), Short-range communication may be performed with at least one of the robot R and the facility infrastructure 200 .

The communication unit 110 may include at least one of the communication modules described above, and these communication modules may be disposed in various spaces inside the building 1000 to form a communication network. Through this communication network, i) cloud server 20 and robot (R), ii) cloud server 20 and building 1000, iii) cloud server 20 and facility infrastructure (200, iv) facility infrastructure (200 ) and the robot (R), v) the facility infrastructure 200 and the building 1000 may be made to communicate with each other.

Next, the building 1000 may include a sensing unit 120, and this sensing unit 120 may include various sensors. At least some of the information sensed through the sensing unit 120 of the building 1000 is transferred to at least one of the cloud server 20, the robot R, and the facility infrastructure 200 through a communication network formed through the communication unit 110. can be sent as one. At least one of the cloud server 20, the robot R, and the facility infrastructure 200 controls the robot R or the facility infrastructure 200 using information sensed through the sensing unit 120. can

The types of sensors included in the sensing unit 120 may be very diverse. The sensing unit 120 may be provided in the building 1000 to sense various pieces of information about the building 1000 . The information sensed by the sensing unit 120 may be information about the robot R traveling the building 1000, people located in the building 1000, obstacles, etc., and various environmental information related to the building (eg, For example, temperature, humidity, etc.).

As shown in FIG. 5 , the sensing unit 120 includes an image sensor 121, a microphone 122, a bio sensor 123, a proximity sensor 124, an illuminance sensor 125, an infrared sensor 126, a temperature At least one of the sensor 127 and the humidity sensor 128 may be included.

Here, the image sensor 121 may correspond to a camera. As reviewed in FIG. 3 , a camera corresponding to the image sensor 121 may be disposed in the building 1000 . In this specification, the same reference numeral “121” as that of the image sensor 121 is assigned to the camera.

Meanwhile, the number of cameras 121 disposed in the building 1000 is not limited. The types of cameras 121 disposed in the building 1000 may vary, and as an example, the camera 121 disposed in the building 1000 may be a closed circuit television (CCTV). Meanwhile, that the camera 121 is disposed in the building 1000 may mean that the camera 121 is disposed in the indoor space 10 of the building 1000 .

Next, the microphone 122 may be configured to sense various sound information generated in the building 1000 .

The biosensor 123 is for sensing biometric information and may sense biometric information (eg, fingerprint information, face information, iris information, etc.) of a person or animal located in the building 1000 .

The proximity sensor 124 may be configured to sense an object (such as a robot or a person) approaching the proximity sensor 124 or located around the proximity sensor 124 .

Furthermore, the illuminance sensor 125 is configured to sense the illuminance around the illuminance sensor 125, and the infrared sensor 126 has a built-in infrared sensor (LED) and uses it to measure the intensity of illumination of the building 1000 in a dark room or at night. photography can be performed.

Furthermore, the temperature sensor 127 may sense the temperature around the temperature sensor 127 , and the humidity sensor 128 may sense the temperature around the humidity sensor 128 .

Meanwhile, in the present invention, there is no particular limitation on the types of sensors constituting the sensing unit 120, and it is sufficient as long as the functions defined by each sensor are implemented.

Next, the output unit 130 is a means for outputting at least one of visual, auditory and tactile information to a person or robot R in the building 1000, and includes a display unit 131 and an audio output unit ( 132) and at least one of the lighting unit 133. Such an output unit 130 may be disposed at an appropriate location on the indoor space of the building 1000 according to needs or circumstances.

Next, the storage unit 140 may be configured to store various information related to at least one of the building 1000, robots, and facility infrastructure. In the present invention, the storage unit 140 may be provided in the building 1000 itself. Alternatively, at least a part of the storage unit 140 may mean at least one of the cloud server 20 and an external database. That is, it can be understood that the storage unit 140 suffices as long as it is a space where various information according to the present invention is stored, and there is no restriction on physical space.

Next, the controller 150 is a means for performing overall control of the building 1000, and can control at least one of the communication unit 110, the sensing unit 120, the output unit 130, and the storage unit 140. there is. The controller 150 may perform control of the robot by interworking with the cloud server 20 . Furthermore, the control unit 150 may exist in the form of a cloud server 20 . In this case, the building 1000 can be controlled together by the cloud server 20, which is the control unit of the robot R. Alternatively, the cloud server controlling the building 1000 is the cloud controlling the robot R. It may exist separately from the server 20. In this case, the cloud server 20 controlling the building 1000 and the cloud server 20 controlling the robot R communicate with each other to provide services by the robot R, move the robot, or maintain functions. , can be interlocked with each other for cleanliness maintenance, etc. Meanwhile, the control unit of the building 1000 may also be referred to as a “processor”, and the processor may be configured to process various commands by performing basic arithmetic, logic, and input/output operations.

As described above, at least one of the building 1000, the robot R, the cloud server 20, and the facility infrastructure 200 forms a network 40 based on a communication network, and within the building 1000 Various services using robots may be provided.

As described above, in the building 1000 according to the present invention, the robot R, the facility infrastructure 200 provided in the building, and the cloud server 20 can be organically connected so that various services are provided by the robot. there is. At least some of the robot R, the facility infrastructure 200, and the cloud server 20 may exist in the form of a platform for constructing a robot-friendly building.

Hereinafter, with reference to the contents of the building 1000, the building system 1000a, the facility infrastructure 200, and the cloud server 20 examined above, the process of the robot R using the facility infrastructure 200 is described in more detail. take a look at At this time, the robot R travels the indoor space 10 of the building 1000 or uses the facility infrastructure 200 for purposes such as performing missions (or providing services), driving, charging, maintaining cleanliness, and waiting. and move, and furthermore, the facility infrastructure 200 can be used.

In this way, the robot R travels in the indoor space of the building 1000 or moves using the facility infrastructure 200 to achieve the “purpose” based on a certain “purpose”, and furthermore, the facility infrastructure (200) can be used.

At this time, the purpose to be achieved by the robot may be specified based on various causes. As for the purpose to be achieved by the robot, there may be a first type of purpose and a second type of purpose.

Here, the purpose of the first type may be for the robot to perform its original mission, and the purpose of the second type may be for the robot to perform a mission or function other than the robot's original mission.

That is, the purpose to be achieved by the robot according to the first type may be to perform the original mission of the robot. This purpose can also be understood as the “task” of the robot.

For example, if the robot is a robot that provides serving service, the robot travels in the indoor space of the building 1000 or moves using the facility infrastructure 200 to achieve the purpose or task of providing the serving service. In addition, the facility infrastructure 200 may be used. In addition, when the robot is a robot that provides road guidance service, the robot travels in the indoor space of the building 1000 or moves using the facility infrastructure 200 to achieve the purpose or task of providing the road guidance service. In addition, the facility infrastructure 200 may be used.

Meanwhile, a plurality of robots operated for different purposes may be located in the building according to the present invention. That is, different robots capable of performing different tasks may be deployed in the building, and different types of robots may be deployed in the building according to the needs of the manager of the building and various subjects who have moved into the building.

For example, the building includes delivery, logistics, guidance, interpretation, parking assistance, security, crime prevention, security, policing, cleaning, quarantine, disinfection, laundry, beverage preparation, food preparation, serving, fire suppression, medical assistance, and entertainment services. Robots providing at least one of the services may be deployed. Services provided by robots may be various other than the examples listed above.

Meanwhile, the purpose of the second type is for the robot to perform a mission or function other than the robot's original mission, which may be a purpose unrelated to the robot's original mission. The purpose of the second type is not directly related to the robot performing its original mission, but may be an indirectly necessary mission or function.

For example, in order for a robot to perform its original task, sufficient power is required for operation, and the robot must maintain cleanliness in order to provide pleasant service to people. Furthermore, in order for a plurality of robots to operate efficiently in a building, sometimes there may be a situation where they wait in a certain space.

As such, in the present invention, in order to achieve the second type of purpose, the robot can drive in the indoor space of the building 1000, move using the facility infrastructure 200, and furthermore, use the facility infrastructure 200. there is.

For example, the robot may use a charging facility infrastructure to achieve a purpose according to a charging function, and may use a washing facility infrastructure to achieve a purpose according to a washing function.

As such, in the present invention, the robot may drive in the indoor space of the building 1000, move using the facility infrastructure 200, and furthermore, use the facility infrastructure 200 in order to achieve a certain purpose.

Meanwhile, the cloud server 20 may appropriately control each of the robots located in the building based on information corresponding to each of the plurality of robots located in the building stored in the database.

Meanwhile, various information on each of a plurality of robots located in a building may be stored on the database, and information on the robot R may be very diverse. As an example, i) identification information for identifying the robot R disposed in the space 10 (eg, serial number, TAG information, QR code information, etc.), ii) task assigned to the robot R Information (eg, type of mission, operation according to the mission, target user information for the target of the mission, mission location, scheduled mission time, etc.), iii) driving route information set in the robot (R), iv) robot (R) location information, v) robot (R) status information (eg, power status, failure status, cleaning status, battery status, etc.), vi) image information received from a camera installed in the robot (R) , vii) motion information related to the motion of the robot R may exist.

Meanwhile, appropriate control of the robots may be related to control for operating the robots according to the first type of purpose or the second type of purpose described above.

Here, the operation of the robot may refer to control allowing the robot to drive in the indoor space of the building 1000, move using the facility infrastructure 200, and furthermore, use the facility infrastructure 200.

Movement of the robot may be referred to as driving of the robot, and therefore, in the present invention, the movement path and the travel path may be used interchangeably.

Based on the information about each robot stored in the database, the cloud server 20 assigns an appropriate task to the robots according to the purpose (or original task) of each robot, and performs the assigned task. control can be performed. At this time, the assigned task may be a task for achieving the first type of purpose described above.

Furthermore, the cloud server 20 may perform control to achieve the second type of purpose for each robot based on information about each robot stored in the database.

At this time, the robot that has received the control command for achieving the second type of purpose from the cloud server 20 moves to the charging facility infrastructure or washing facility infrastructure based on the control command, purpose can be achieved.

Meanwhile, in the following, the terms “purpose” or “mission” will be used without distinguishing between the first type and the second type of purpose. The purpose described below may be either a first type purpose or a second type purpose.

Similarly, the mission described below may also be a mission to achieve a first type of objective or a second type of objective.

For example, if there is a robot capable of providing serving service and there is a target (target user) to be served, the cloud server 20 allows the robot to perform a mission against serving to the target user, You can control the robot.

As another example, if there is a robot that requires charging, the cloud server 20 may control the robot to move to the charging facility infrastructure so that the robot performs a task corresponding to charging.

Therefore, in the following, a method for the robot to perform a purpose or mission using the facility infrastructure 200 under the control of the cloud server 20 without distinction between the first type purpose and the second type purpose is described in more detail. take a look at Meanwhile, in the present specification, a robot controlled by the cloud server 20 to perform a mission may also be named a “target robot”.

The server 20 in the cloud may specify at least one robot to perform the mission upon request or under its own judgment.

Here, it is possible that requests are received from various subjects. For example, the cloud server may receive requests from various entities such as visitors, managers, residents, workers, etc. located in the building in various ways (eg, user input through an electronic device or user input using a gesture method). Here, the request may be a service request for providing a specific service (or specific task) by the robot.

Based on the request, the cloud server 20 may specify a robot capable of performing the corresponding service among a plurality of robots located in the building 1000 . The cloud server 20 is i) the type of service that the robot can perform, ii) the task previously assigned to the robot, iii) the current location of the robot, iv) the state of the robot (ex: power state, cleanliness state, battery state, etc.) Based on this, it is possible to specify a robot capable of responding to the request. As described above, various information on each robot exists in the database, and the cloud server 20 may specify a robot to perform the mission based on the request based on the database.

Furthermore, the cloud server 20 may specify at least one robot to perform the mission based on its own judgment.

Here, the cloud server 20 may perform its own determination based on various causes.

As an example, the cloud server 20 may determine whether a service needs to be provided to a specific user or a specific space existing in the building 1000 . The cloud server 20 senses and receives data from at least one of a sensing unit 120 (see FIGS. 4 to 6) existing in the building 1000, a sensing unit included in the facility infrastructure 200, and a sensing unit provided in a robot. Based on the received information, it is possible to extract a specific target for which service needs to be provided.

Here, the specific object may include at least one of a person, space, or object. Objects may refer to facilities, objects, and the like located in the building 1000 . In addition, the cloud server 20 may specify the type of service required for the extracted specific target and control the robot to provide the specific service to the specific target.

To this end, the cloud server 20 may specify at least one robot to provide a specific service to a specific target.

The cloud server 20 may determine an object for which a service needs to be provided based on various determination algorithms. For example, the cloud server 20 may include at least one of a sensing unit 120 present in the building 1000 (see FIGS. 4 to 6), a sensing unit included in the facility infrastructure 200, and a sensing unit provided in a robot. Based on the information sensed and received from , the type of service such as road guidance, serving, stair movement, etc. may be specified. And, the cloud server 20 may specify a target for which the corresponding service is required. Furthermore, the cloud server 20 may specify a robot capable of providing a specified service so that the service is provided by the robot.

Furthermore, the cloud server 20 may determine a specific space in which a service needs to be provided based on various determination algorithms. For example, the cloud server 20 may include at least one of a sensing unit 120 present in the building 1000 (see FIGS. 4 to 6), a sensing unit included in the facility infrastructure 200, and a sensing unit provided in a robot. Based on the information sensed and received from, extracting a specific space or object requiring service provision, such as a target user for delivery, a guest requiring guidance, a contaminated space, a contaminated facility, a fire zone, etc., and the specific space or object A robot capable of providing the corresponding service can be specified so that the service is provided by the robot.

In this way, when a robot to perform a specific mission (or service) is specified, the cloud server 20 may assign a mission to the robot and perform a series of controls necessary for the robot to perform the mission.

At this time, a series of controls are i) setting the movement path of the robot, ii) specifying the facility infrastructure to be used to move to the destination where the mission is to be performed, iii) communication with the specified facility infrastructure, iv) control of the specified facility infrastructure , v) monitoring the robot performing the mission, vi) evaluating the driving of the robot, and vii) monitoring whether or not the robot has completed the mission.

The cloud server 20 may specify a destination where the robot's mission is to be performed, and set a movement path for the robot to reach the destination. When a movement route is set by the cloud server 20, the robot R may be controlled to move to a corresponding destination in order to perform a mission.

Meanwhile, the cloud server 20 may set a movement path for reaching a destination from a location where the robot starts (starts) performing the mission (hereinafter referred to as “mission performance start location”). Here, the position where the robot starts to perform the mission may be the current position of the robot or the position of the robot at the time when the robot starts to perform the mission.

The cloud server 20 may generate a movement path of a robot to perform a mission based on a map (or map information) corresponding to the indoor space 10 of the building 1000 .

Here, the map may include map information for each space of the plurality of floors 10a, 10b, 10c, ... constituting the indoor space of the building.

Furthermore, the movement route may be a movement route from a mission performance start location to a destination where the mission is performed.

In the present invention, such map information and moving routes are described as being related to an indoor space, but the present invention is not necessarily limited thereto. For example, the map information may include information on an outdoor space, and the movement path may be a path leading from an indoor space to an outdoor space.

As shown in FIG. 8, the indoor space 10 of the building 1000 may be composed of a plurality of different floors 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d, ..., and the mission start location and destination are the same. It can be located on a floor or on different floors.

The cloud server 20 may use map information on the plurality of floors 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d, ..., to create a movement path of a robot to perform a service within the building 1000.

The cloud server 20 may specify at least one facility that the robot must use or pass through to move to a destination among facility infrastructures (a plurality of facilities) disposed in the building 1000 .

For example, when the robot needs to move from the first floor 10a to the second floor 10b, the cloud server 20 specifies at least one facility 204, 205 to assist the robot in moving between floors, and It is possible to create a movement route including the point where the equipment is located. Here, the facility for assisting the robot to move between floors may be at least one of a robot-only elevator 204, a common elevator 213, and an escalator 205. In addition, various types of facilities assisting the robot to move between floors may exist.

As an example, the cloud server 20 checks a specific floor corresponding to the destination among the plurality of floors 10a, 10b, 10c, ... of the indoor space 10, and the robot's mission start position (ex: service Based on the position of the robot at the time of starting the corresponding task), it may be determined whether the robot needs to move between floors to perform the service.

Further, the cloud server 20 may include a facility (means) for assisting the robot to move between floors on the movement path based on the determination result. At this time, the facility for assisting the robot to move between floors may be at least one of a robot-only elevator 204, a shared elevator 213, and an escalator 205. For example, when the robot needs to move between floors, the cloud server 20 may create a movement path so that a facility assisting the robot to move between floors is included in the movement path of the robot.

As another example, the cloud server 20, when the robot-only passages 201 and 202 are located on the movement path of the robot, uses the robot-only passages 201 and 202 to move the robot. A movement path can be created including the point where (201, 202) is located. As described above with reference to FIG. 3 , the robot passage may be formed of at least one of a first passage (or first type passage) 201 and a second passage (or second type passage) 202 . The first exclusive passage and the second exclusive passage 201, 202 may be provided together on the same floor or may be provided on different floors. The first exclusive passage 201 and the second exclusive passage 202 may have different heights relative to the floor of the building.

Meanwhile, the cloud server 20 may control the driving characteristics of the robot on the robot-only passage to be changed based on the type of the robot-only passage used by the robot and the degree of congestion around the robot-only passage. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 8 , when the robot travels in the second exclusive passage, the cloud server 20 may change the driving characteristics of the robot based on the degree of congestion around the exclusive passage for the robot. Since the second exclusive passage is a passage accessible to humans or animals, safety and movement efficiency are considered together.

Here, the driving characteristics of the robot may be related to the driving speed of the robot. Furthermore, the degree of congestion may be calculated based on an image received from at least one of a camera (or image sensor) 121 disposed in the building 1000 and a camera disposed in the robot. Based on these images, the cloud server 20 may control the traveling speed of the robot to be less than or equal to a predetermined speed when the path where the robot is located and the passage dedicated to the robot in the direction of travel is congested.

In this way, the cloud server 20 uses the map information for the plurality of floors 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d, ..., to generate a movement path of a robot to perform a service within the building 1000, and at this time , At least one facility that the robot must use or pass through to move to a destination among facility infrastructures (a plurality of facilities) disposed in the building 1000 may be specified. And, it is possible to create a movement route that includes at least one specified facility on the movement route.

Meanwhile, a robot traveling in the indoor space 10 to perform a service may sequentially use or pass through at least one facility along a movement path received from the cloud server 20 and drive to a destination.

Meanwhile, the order of facilities to be used by the robot may be determined under the control of the cloud server 20 . Furthermore, the order of facilities to be used by the robot may be included in the information on the movement path received from the cloud server 20 .

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 7, in the building 1000, robot-specific facilities (201, 202, 204, 208, 209, 211) exclusively used by robots and shared facilities (205, 206) jointly used by humans , 207, 213) may be included.

Robot-exclusive facilities exclusively used by robots include facilities (208, 209) that provide functions necessary for robots (ex: charging function, washing function, standby function) and facilities used for robot movement (201, 202, 204 , 211).

When the robot creates a movement path, the cloud server 20 causes the robot to move (or pass) using the robot-exclusive facility when there is a robot-exclusive facility on the path from the mission start position to the destination. You can create a movement path that That is, the cloud server 20 may create a movement path by giving priority to facilities dedicated to the robot. This is to increase the efficiency of the movement of the robot. For example, the cloud server 20 may create a movement path including the robot-specific elevator 204 when both the robot-specific elevator 204 and the common elevator 213 exist on the movement path to the destination. there is.

As described above, the robot traveling in the building 1000 according to the present invention can travel in the indoor space of the building 1000 to perform its duties using various facilities provided in the building 1000.

The cloud server 20 may communicate with a control system (or control server) of at least one facility used or scheduled to be used by the robot for smooth movement of the robot. As described above with reference to FIG. 4, the unique control systems for controlling the facilities communicate with at least one of the cloud server 20, the robot R, and the building 1000 so that the robot R uses the facilities. Appropriate control can be performed for each facility to

Meanwhile, there is a need for the cloud server 20 to secure location information of the robot within the building 1000 . That is, the cloud server 200 may monitor the location of robots traveling in the building 1000 in real time or at preset time intervals. The cloud server 1000 provides location information on all of the plurality of robots traveling in the building 1000. or, if necessary, selectively monitoring the location information of only a specific robot.The location information of the robot being monitored can be stored on a database in which the information of the robot is stored, and the location information of the robot changes over time. can be continuously updated.

Methods for estimating the positional information of the robot located in the building 1000 can be very diverse. Hereinafter, an embodiment of estimating the positional information of the robot will be described.

9 to 11 are conceptual diagrams for explaining a method of estimating the position of a robot traveling in a robot-friendly building according to the present invention.

As an example, as shown in FIG. 9, the cloud server 20 according to the present invention receives an image of the space 10 using a camera (not shown) provided in the robot R, and receives It is made to perform Visual Localization to estimate the position of the robot from the image. At this time, the camera is configured to capture (or sense) an image of the space 10, that is, an image of the robot R's surroundings. Hereinafter, for convenience of description, an image acquired using a camera provided in the robot R will be named “robot image”. In addition, the image acquired through the camera disposed in the space 10 will be named “space image”.

As shown in (a) of FIG. 9 , the cloud server 20 is configured to acquire a robot image 910 through a camera (not shown) provided in the robot R. Also, the cloud server 20 may estimate the current location of the robot R using the obtained robot image 910 .

The cloud server 20 compares the robot image 910 with the map information stored in the database, and as shown in (b) of FIG. 9, the location information corresponding to the current location of the robot R (eg, “3rd floor A area (3, 1, 1)”) can be extracted.

As described above, in the present invention, the map of the space 10 may be a map prepared based on Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) by at least one robot moving the space 10 in advance. In particular, the map of the space 10 may be a map generated based on image information.

That is, the map of the space 10 may be a map generated by a vision (or visual) based SLAM technology.

Therefore, the cloud server 20 provides coordinate information (for example, (3rd floor, area A (3, 1)) as shown in (b) of FIG. , 1,)) In this way, the specified coordinate information may soon be the current location information of the robot (R).

At this time, the cloud server 20 compares the robot image 910 obtained from the robot R with a map generated by the vision (or visual) based SLAM technology to estimate the current location of the robot R. can In this case, the cloud server 20 i) specifies an image most similar to the robot image 910 by using an image comparison between the robot image 910 and images constituting a pre-generated map, and ii) the specified The location information of the robot R may be specified by acquiring location information matched to the image.

In this way, as shown in (a) of FIG. 9 , when the robot image 910 is obtained from the robot R, the cloud server 20 uses the acquired robot image 910 to determine the current location of the robot. can be specified. As described above, the cloud server 20 provides location information (eg, coordinates) corresponding to the robot image 910 from map information previously stored in a database (eg, it can also be named “reference map”). information) can be extracted.

Meanwhile, in the above description, an example of estimating the position of the robot R in the cloud server 20 has been described, but as discussed above, the position estimation of the robot R may be performed by the robot R itself. . That is, the robot R may estimate the current position based on the image received from the robot R itself in the manner described above. Then, the robot R may transmit the estimated location information to the cloud server 20 . In this case, the cloud server 20 may perform a series of controls based on location information received from the robot.

In this way, when the location information of the robot R is extracted from the robot image 910, the cloud server 20 can specify at least one camera 121 disposed in the indoor space 10 corresponding to the location information. can The cloud server 20 may specify the camera 121 disposed in the indoor space 10 corresponding to the location information from matching information related to the camera 121 stored in the database.

These images can be used not only for estimating the position of the robot, but also for controlling the robot. For example, the cloud server 20 obtains a robot image 910 obtained from the robot R itself and a camera 121 disposed in a space where the robot R is located for control of the robot R. The image can be output together with the display unit of the control system. Therefore, a manager who remotely manages and controls the robot R from inside or outside the building 1000 can obtain not only the robot image 910 obtained from the robot R, but also the image of the space where the robot R is located. In consideration of, it is possible to perform remote control on the robot (R).

As another example, position estimation of a robot traveling in the indoor space 10 may be performed based on a tag 1010 provided in the indoor space 10, as shown in FIG. 10(a).

Referring to FIG. 10 , location information corresponding to a point to which the tag 1010 is attached may match and exist in the tag 1010 , as shown in (b) of FIG. 10 . That is, tags 1010 having different identification information may be provided at a plurality of different points in the indoor space 10 of the building 1000, respectively. Identification information of each tag and location information of a point where the tag is attached may match each other and exist in a database.

Furthermore, the tag 1010 may include location information matched to each tag 1010 .

The robot R may recognize the tag 1010 provided in the space 10 by using a sensor provided in the robot R. Through this recognition, the robot R can determine the current location of the robot R by extracting location information included in the tag 1010 . Such extracted location information may be transmitted from the robot R to the cloud server 20 through the communication unit 110 . Accordingly, the cloud server 20 may monitor the locations of the robots traveling in the building 20 based on the location information received from the robot R that has sensed the tags.

Furthermore, the robot R may transmit identification information of the recognized tag 1010 to the cloud server 20 . The cloud server 20 may monitor the location of the robot within the building 1000 by extracting location information matched to the identification information of the tag 1010 from the database.

Meanwhile, the term of the tag 1010 described above may be variously named. For example, this tag 1010 can be variously named as a QR code, a barcode, an identification mark, and the like. On the other hand, the term of the tag reviewed above can be used by replacing it with “marker”.

Hereinafter, a method of monitoring the robot R using an identification mark provided on the robot R among the methods of monitoring the position of the robot R located in the indoor space 10 of the building 1000 will be looked at. see.

Previously, it was seen that various information about the robot R can be stored in the database. Various information about the robot R may include identification information (eg, serial number, TAG information, QR code information, etc.) for identifying the robot R located in the indoor space 10.

Meanwhile, identification information of the robot R may be included in an identification mark (or identification mark) provided to the robot R, as shown in FIG. 11 . This identification mark can be sensed or scanned by the building control system 1000a or the facility infrastructure 200 . As shown in (a), (b) and (c) of FIG. 11 , identification marks 1101, 1102, and 1103 of the robot R may include identification information of the robot. As shown, the identification mark (1101, 1102, 1103) is a barcode (barcode, 1101), serial information (or serial information, 1102), QR code (1103), RFID tag (not shown) or NFC tag (not shown) ) and so on. Barcode (1101), serial information (or serial information, 1102), QR code (1103), RFID tag (not shown) or NFC tag (not shown) is provided (or attached) with an identification mark It may be made to include identification information of the robot.

The robot identification information is information for distinguishing each robot, and may have different identification information even if the robots are of the same type. Meanwhile, the information constituting the identification mark may be configured in various ways other than the barcode, serial information, QR code, RFID tag (not shown) or NFC tag (not shown) discussed above.

The cloud server 20 extracts identification information of the robot R from an image received from a camera installed in the indoor space 10, a camera installed in another robot, or a camera provided in facility infrastructure, and ), the location of the robot can be identified and monitored. Meanwhile, a means for sensing the identification mark is not necessarily limited to a camera, and a sensing unit (eg, a scanning unit) may be used according to the shape of the identification mark. Such a sensing unit may be provided in at least one of the indoor space 10 , robots, and facility infrastructure 200 .

As an example, when an identification mark is sensed from an image captured by a camera, the cloud server 20 may determine a location above the robot R from an image received from the camera. At this time, the cloud server 20 is based on at least one of location information where the camera is placed and location information of the robot in the image (precisely, location information of a graphic object corresponding to the robot in the image taken by the robot as a subject) , the robot R can grasp the location.

On the database, identification information on cameras disposed in the indoor space 10 may be matched with location information on locations where cameras are disposed. Accordingly, the cloud server 20 extracts location information matched with the identification information of the camera that has taken the image from the database, so that the robot R can extract the location information.

As another example, when the identification mark is sensed by the scan unit, the cloud server 20 may determine the location of the robot R from scan information sensed by the scan unit. On the database, identification information on the scan unit disposed in the indoor space 10 may be matched with location information on a place where the scan unit is disposed. Accordingly, the cloud server 20 extracts location information matched to the scanning unit that has scanned the identification mark provided in the robot from the database, and the robot R can extract the location information.

As described above, in the building according to the present invention, it is possible to extract and monitor the position of the robot using various infrastructures provided in the building. Furthermore, the cloud server 20 can efficiently and accurately control the robot within the building by monitoring the position of the robot.

Prior to describing the robot control method according to the present invention, the robot included in the robot system according to the present invention will be described in more detail.

12 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a robot included in the robot system according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 12 , the robot may include a communication unit 1201, a storage unit 1202, a driving unit 1203, a control unit 1204, and a sensor unit. Since the communication unit 1201 and the storage unit 1202 have been described above, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The driving unit 1203 is configured to move the robot in space. The driving unit 1203 is configured to control at least one of a moving direction and a moving speed of the robot, and the controller 1204 controls the driving unit 1203 so that the robot can travel according to a set movement path.

The driving unit 1203 may be controlled by the control unit 1204 included in the robot and the cloud server 20. Unless otherwise limited in this specification, control of the robot by any one of the control unit 1204 and the cloud server 20 included in the robot is also possible by the other one.

Next, the control unit 1204 may be configured to control the overall operation of the robot related to the present invention. The control unit 1204 may process input or output signals, data, information, etc. through the components described above, or provide or process appropriate information or functions to the user. Unless otherwise limited in this specification, the control unit 1204 means a control unit provided in the robot.

On the other hand, the control unit 1204 generates a control command based on the occurrence of an obstacle related to the obstacle in the present invention, and utilizes at least one of the control command received from the server and the control command generated in the robot to avoid the path. generate Unless otherwise limited in this specification, the second control command and creation of the avoidance path are performed by the control unit 1204 provided in the robot.

Meanwhile, each robot may include at least one sensor, and the at least one sensor periodically senses the surrounding environment to generate sensing information. The robot transmits the generated sensing information to the server.

On the other hand, as described above, the present invention can set the driving path of the robot within the space using map information pre-stored in the server 20 . Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the server 20 utilizes a node map in setting a driving path of a robot will be described in more detail.

13 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a node map used for setting a moving path of a robot.

The server 20 may control the robot to move from the current location to a specific destination. Specifically, the present invention specifies the current location information and the destination location information of the robot, sets a route to reach the destination, and controls the robot to reach the destination by moving along the set route.

Accordingly, the present invention proposes map information (node map) for efficiently setting a robot driving path. However, the map information to be described later is merely an example of map information used to set a driving route of the robot, and the robot driving control method according to the present invention is not performed only by the map information described later.

As described above, a map (or map information) for a building may be stored in the server 20 . Referring to FIG. 13 , a map of a building stored in the server 20 may be in the form of a two-dimensional plan view, but is not limited thereto.

Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 13 , map information may include a plurality of nodes. In this specification, a 'node' means a point or area that becomes a unit target for the robot's movement. A node can contain two types of information.

First, nodes contain coordinate information. A single node specifies a specific coordinate or range of coordinates on the map. For example, a node may designate a circular area having a predetermined area on a map. To this end, the coordinate information included in the node may consist of specific coordinates or coordinate ranges. That is, each node corresponds to a different location of the building.

Second, nodes contain connection information. A single node contains information defining other nodes from which the robot can move. The connection information may include a unique number of another node to which the robot can move from the corresponding node or coordinate information designated by the other node.

The server 20 controls the robot to move from one node to another node, and controls the robot to reach the target point by repeating this process. In this specification, moving a robot to a specific node means that the robot moves within coordinate information or a range of coordinates designated by a specific node.

In the present invention, a movement path for moving the robot from the current position (S) to the destination (A) is set using the above-described location information estimation method and map information, and then transmitted to the robot. However, the method using the node map corresponds to an embodiment of controlling the driving of the robot, and the present invention may set the movement path of the robot using a method other than the node map described above. That is, the implementation method of the map (map) for setting the movement path of the robot can be very diverse.

In this specification, for convenience of description, it is described that the position, shape, etc. of the virtual obstacle is specified using the node map described above, but settings related to the virtual obstacle do not necessarily need to be made through the node map.

In the present invention, in performing control related to driving of the robot, it is possible to provide a robot control method and system that enable a plurality of robots traveling in a building to efficiently avoid virtual obstacles set in the building. Hereinafter, this will be described in more detail with accompanying drawings. 14 is a flowchart for explaining a robot control method according to the present invention, and FIGS. 15 and 16 are conceptual diagrams showing a robot control method according to the present invention.

First, a step of specifying a position of a virtual obstacle in the building is performed (S120).

The server 20 may receive the location of the virtual obstacle or receive the location of the virtual obstacle from a preset terminal. Specifically, the building manager may transmit the location of the virtual obstacle to the server 20 through a preset terminal so that the virtual obstacle is set in a specific area within the building.

The position of the virtual obstacle may be set to coordinates or a range of coordinates in the map, or may be set in units of the aforementioned nodes.

For example, specifying a location of a virtual obstacle may be performed by receiving a selection of at least one coordinate on a map from a user. A map in the building may be displayed on the screen information for specifying the position of the virtual obstacle. The user may specify the position of the virtual obstacle by selecting a position or range in which the virtual obstacle is to be installed in screen information.

For another example, position specification of the virtual obstacle may be performed by receiving a selection of at least one of a plurality of nodes from the user. A plurality of nodes together with a map in a building may be output on the screen information for specifying the position of the virtual obstacle. The user may specify the location of the virtual obstacle by selecting at least one of a plurality of nodes displayed on the screen information.

Next, a step in which the server 20 reflects virtual obstacle information on the virtual obstacle on the map using the specified location of the virtual obstacle proceeds (S120).

The server 20 uses the location of the specified virtual obstacle to generate virtual obstacle information about the virtual obstacle. Here, the virtual obstacle information includes information on at least one of obstacle position information defining the position of the specified virtual obstacle, the type of the virtual obstacle, the shape of the virtual obstacle, and the size of the virtual obstacle.

The obstacle location information included in the virtual obstacle information may define a specific line or a specific area on a map of a building. That is, the obstacle position information may define the position of the obstacle in the form of a line or plane.

For example, obstacle position information may define a line connecting a plurality of coordinates. Unlike this, the obstacle position information may include coordinate information of an edge of a certain area on the map to define an area in which the obstacle is installed.

In this specification, for convenience of explanation, the location of the obstacle defined by the obstacle location information is expressed as an 'area where a virtual obstacle is installed'.

Here, the position of the specified virtual obstacle and obstacle position information included in the virtual obstacle information may be different.

For example, while the location of the specified virtual obstacle is a plurality of points on a map, obstacle location information included in virtual obstacle information may define a line connecting the plurality of points.

As another example, while the location of the specified virtual obstacle is a plurality of points on the map, obstacle location information included in the virtual obstacle information may define a specific area on the map.

For another example, the location information of the obstacle may include at least one node information. Specifically, the location information of the obstacle may include information on a plurality of nodes, and a virtual line connecting the plurality of nodes or a virtual plane including each of the plurality of nodes may be defined as an area where the obstacle is installed.

The server 20 updates the virtual obstacle information on the map. Accordingly, the map includes information about virtual obstacles installed at locations corresponding to the obstacle location information.

Next, a step of specifying at least one robot that satisfies a predetermined distance condition with respect to the virtual obstacle among robots located in the building is performed (S130), and the specified robot avoids the virtual obstacle and runs, Transmitting the virtual obstacle information to the specified robot (S140) is performed.

The server 20 transmits virtual obstacle information to a plurality of robots traveling in a building. At this time, in order to minimize unnecessary communication, virtual obstacle information may be transmitted only to some of the plurality of robots.

Specifically, the server 20 may selectively transmit virtual obstacle information only to robots that satisfy a preset distance condition among robots located in a building.

In one embodiment, the preset distance condition may be a robot located within a preset distance from an area where a virtual obstacle is installed. The server 20 periodically monitors the position of the robot located in the building, and when the robot approaches within a predetermined distance from the area where the virtual obstacle is installed, it may transmit virtual obstacle information to the robot.

In another embodiment, the preset distance condition may be that an area where a virtual obstacle is installed is located on a path where the robot is scheduled to travel. When a virtual obstacle is installed, the server 20 may transmit the virtual obstacle information to a robot scheduled to travel to an area where the virtual obstacle is installed.

In another embodiment, the server 20 may specify a robot to transmit virtual obstacle information to based on the mission of the robot. Specifically, the server 20 may specify a robot that cannot approach an area beyond the virtual obstacle as a robot that avoids the virtual obstacle and travels based on a task assigned to each robot that drives the building. That is, the server 20 distinguishes between a robot capable of accessing the area beyond the virtual obstacle and a robot that cannot access the area beyond the virtual obstacle based on the task assigned to the robot, and transmits virtual obstacle information only to the robot unable to access the area beyond the virtual obstacle. can Even if a robot capable of approaching an area beyond a virtual obstacle approaches the virtual obstacle within a preset distance, the server 20 may not transmit virtual obstacle information to the robot.

Meanwhile, there may be a plurality of virtual obstacles located in the building. When a plurality of virtual obstacles are located in the building, at least one robot that needs to avoid is specified for each virtual obstacle for each of the plurality of virtual obstacles, and at least one robot that needs to avoid among the plurality of virtual obstacles is specified for each of the specified robots. Information about the virtual obstacle may be transmitted. The server 20 determines a preset distance condition for each of a plurality of robots and a plurality of virtual obstacles, and then specifies a robot that needs to avoid each of a plurality of virtual obstacles.

Meanwhile, the robot receiving the virtual obstacle information avoids the virtual obstacle based on the virtual obstacle information and sensing information collected from a sensor included in the robot. Specifically, upon receiving virtual obstacle information, a specific robot controls driving of the robot to reach a destination by driving in an area other than the area in which the virtual obstacle is installed.

In one embodiment, the specific robot determines the current location of the specific robot using image information collected from an image sensor included in the robot, and using obstacle position information included in the virtual obstacle information, At least one of a distance between a virtual obstacle based on the current position of the robot and the specific robot and a direction in which the virtual obstacle is located is specified. When a virtual obstacle is located on the driving path of the specific robot, the specific robot can avoid the virtual obstacle by correcting the driving direction.

For example, referring to FIG. 15 , a location of a virtual obstacle may be specified through a plurality of nodes 1521 included in a map. An area where the virtual obstacle 1520 is located may be specified as a line connecting a plurality of nodes 1521 . When a specific robot approaches an area where a virtual obstacle 1520 is located while driving along a preset driving path 1511 within a preset distance, the server 20 transmits virtual obstacle information to the specific robot. The robot sets a new driving path 1512 to avoid the virtual obstacle 1520 using the received virtual obstacle information and a sensor included in the robot, and reaches a destination through the new driving path 1512.

As described above, the method and system for controlling a building and a robot driving a building according to the present invention store information related to a virtual obstacle in a server and share it with each of a plurality of robots operating in a building, so that the building manager can control the robot. You can easily set up the area where the access of the user should be restricted. Furthermore, the present invention transmits information related to virtual obstacles only to some robots close to virtual obstacles, thereby minimizing unnecessary communication between robots and servers.

Meanwhile, since the virtual obstacle is not actually located in space, it may pass through the virtual obstacle due to a positioning error of the robot. The present invention provides a robot control method that allows the robot to return outside the virtual obstacle when passing through it without avoiding the virtual obstacle.

The server 20 monitors the location of the specific robot that has transmitted information about the virtual obstacle, and determines whether the specific robot has passed the virtual obstacle based on the monitoring result. Thereafter, the server 20 updates the virtual obstacle in relation to the specific robot based on the determination result.

Specifically, the server 20 determines whether the specific robot passed the virtual obstacle by using the position of the specific robot monitored at different times. The server 20 may divide the first area and the second area based on the position of the virtual obstacle. The first area is an area where the specific robot is positioned before crossing the virtual obstacle, and the second area is an area corresponding to an area where the specific robot has crossed the virtual obstacle.

The first and second regions may be variable regions based on the position of the robot. Specifically, when the robot is located in the first direction with respect to the virtual obstacle, the first area is located in the first direction with respect to the virtual obstacle, and the second area is located in the first direction with respect to the virtual obstacle. It is located in the second direction, which is the opposite direction of In contrast, when the robot is located in the second direction with respect to the virtual obstacle, the first area is located in the second direction with respect to the virtual obstacle, and the second area is located in the second direction with respect to the virtual obstacle. It is located in the first direction, which is the opposite direction of

When the robot located in the first area travels to the second area beyond the virtual obstacle, the server 20 determines that it has passed the virtual obstacle, and updates the virtual obstacle.

In this case, the server 20 may change at least part of the position of the virtual obstacle in the building so that at least part of the virtual obstacle is located in the second area. That is, the server 20 changes at least a part of the position of the virtual obstacle based on the position of the robot after the robot passes the virtual obstacle.

Thereafter, the server 20 may transmit updated information on the virtual obstacle so that the specific robot, which has traveled to the second area beyond the virtual obstacle, returns from the second area to the first area.

The changed virtual obstacle is updated to prevent the robot from additionally traveling in the second area after passing through the existing virtual obstacle. Specifically, the updated virtual obstacle is formed to be spaced apart from the virtual obstacle by a specific distance along one direction of the virtual obstacle.

Here, one direction of the virtual obstacle means a direction in which the virtual obstacle extends. For example, when a virtual obstacle has a shape extending in a specific direction with a specific width or a line shape extending in a specific direction, the direction in which the virtual obstacle extends means the specific direction.

Meanwhile, the specific distance means a distance from the virtual obstacle in a direction perpendicular to a direction in which the virtual obstacle extends.

The specific distance may be determined based on at least one of a size of the specific robot and a traveling speed of the specific robot. The specific distance may increase as the robot moves farther away from the existing virtual obstacle.

Meanwhile, the map includes a plurality of nodes respectively corresponding to different locations of the building, and a robot located in the building may drive the building along at least some of the plurality of nodes. In this case, the virtual obstacle information may include node information about nodes respectively corresponding to the positions of the virtual obstacles.

When the virtual obstacle information includes node information, the virtual obstacle may be changed based on a plurality of nodes included in the map. Specifically, when updating the virtual obstacle, the server 20 may modify the nodes respectively corresponding to the positions of the virtual obstacle.

For example, when a virtual obstacle is set as a line connecting a plurality of nodes, the server 20 may change at least some of the plurality of nodes related to the virtual obstacle to other nodes. Accordingly, the location and shape of the virtual obstacle may vary. Referring to FIG. 16 , the server 20 may change two nodes among four nodes (four points through which 1620a passes) related to the virtual obstacle to other nodes. Accordingly, the position of a portion of the virtual obstacle is changed, and the shape of the virtual obstacle is changed.

At this time, the modification of the nodes respectively corresponding to the position of the virtual obstacle is performed on the nodes respectively corresponding to the position of the virtual obstacle, except for at least one of the nodes respectively corresponding to the position of the virtual obstacle. It may be to add at least one node different from Here, the at least one excluded node may be a node corresponding to a position where the specified robot has crossed the virtual obstacle, and the other at least one node may be a node included in the second area.

The node corresponding to the position beyond the virtual obstacle may be a node within a predetermined distance from the position of the robot when at least a part of the virtual obstacle is changed, or at least one node selected in descending order of distance.

Meanwhile, the added node may be a node located in the second area where the robot enters through the virtual obstacle. That is, the present invention changes the position of the virtual obstacle in consideration of the moving direction of the robot.

Meanwhile, when modifying the nodes, the number of modified nodes may be set in consideration of the distance the robot deviated from the existing virtual obstacle, the size of the robot, and the movable range of the robot.

For example, the number of nodes to be corrected may increase as the distance the robot deviate from the existing virtual obstacle increases and the size of the robot increases.

For another example, the narrower the moving range of the robot, the larger the number of modified nodes. Through this, the present invention enables the robot to return to the area before passing through the virtual obstacle without rapidly changing the traveling path and driving direction.

Referring back to FIG. 16 , when the robot travels in the first direction and passes the virtual obstacle 1620a, the server 20 transmits information related to the changed virtual obstacle 1620b to the robot. When the robot receives information related to the changed virtual obstacle 1620b, the robot cannot travel in the first direction any longer and changes the driving direction to avoid the changed virtual obstacle 1620b. As the robot runs avoiding the changed virtual obstacle 1620b, it returns to the area where the robot was located before passing the existing virtual obstacle 1620a.

Meanwhile, the server 20 may transmit a control command to stop the driving of the specified robot to the specified robot when the specified robot passes the virtual obstacle. In particular, when the robot passes through the updated virtual obstacle, the server 20 may determine that a problem has occurred in the function of the robot, stop the operation of the robot, and allow repair or recovery measures to be performed.

As described above, according to the present invention, when the robot passes through a virtual obstacle due to a positioning error, the position of the virtual obstacle is changed so that the robot returns to the position before passing the virtual obstacle. Through this, the present invention minimizes the robot's driving in the access-restricted area even if the robot enters an area where the robot's access is restricted, and at the same time induces the robot to naturally drive outside the access-restricted area.

Meanwhile, virtual obstacles may be installed in various locations in buildings in various forms. Hereinafter, the shape of the virtual obstacle and the location where the virtual obstacle is installed will be described in more detail.

17 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a shape of a virtual obstacle, and FIGS. 18 and 19 are conceptual diagrams illustrating virtual obstacles installed in a building.

In one embodiment, referring to (a) of FIG. 17 , virtual obstacles may be installed on a map by specifying a plurality of nodes by a user. Specifically, when a user selects a plurality of nodes arranged in a line to specify a position of a virtual obstacle, the virtual obstacle is installed based on the selected node.

Referring to (b) of FIG. 17 , an area where a virtual obstacle is located may have a line shape. Specifically, when a user selects a plurality of nodes, a virtual obstacle may be installed in the form of a line connecting the plurality of nodes.

Unlike this, referring to (c) of FIG. 17 , the area where the virtual obstacle is located may have a planar shape. Specifically, when a user selects a plurality of nodes, the virtual obstacle may be installed on a planar area extending in a direction in which the plurality of selected nodes are arranged and having a predetermined thickness.

Meanwhile, virtual obstacles may be installed in various locations within a building.

Meanwhile, referring to FIG. 18 , virtual obstacles may be installed around facilities installed in a building. For example, the virtual obstacle 1820 may be installed around a facility 1830 that is difficult to detect through a sensor included in the robot. Specifically, the virtual obstacle 1820 may be installed around a facility made of a transparent material (eg, a glass door) to prevent the robot from colliding with the facility.

In this case, the virtual obstacle 1820 may be installed to be spaced apart from the facility 1830 by a predetermined distance. The virtual obstacle 1820 may be installed based on the first node 1821 spaced apart from the facility 1830 by a predetermined distance. When the robot passes through the virtual obstacle 1820, the location of the virtual obstacle 1820 is changed to the second node 1821' located closer to the facility 1830 than the first node 1821 so that the robot can move through the facility ( 1830) is prevented from driving in the direction in which it is located. Through this, the present invention can prevent the robot from colliding with the facility by changing the location of the virtual obstacle to be adjacent to the facility even if the robot passes through the virtual obstacle due to a positioning error or the like.

Meanwhile, referring to FIG. 19 , a virtual obstacle may be installed in an arbitrary area of a building. For example, the virtual obstacle 1820 may be installed around a temporarily placed structure 1930 in a building. Specifically, when a structure 1930 is arranged for an event held in a building, there is no information about the structure 1930 on the map, so it is possible to prevent a robot from entering the area where the structure 1930 is installed. does not exist.

When it is desired to prevent the robot from entering a specific area (hereinafter referred to as an entry prohibition area) in a building, virtual obstacles may be installed around the entry prohibition area. In this case, the virtual obstacle 1920 may be installed to be spaced apart from the entry prohibited area by a predetermined distance. The virtual obstacle 1920 may be installed based on the first node 1921 spaced a predetermined distance from the entry prohibited area. When the robot passes through the virtual obstacle 1920, the position of the virtual obstacle 1920 is changed to the second node 1921' located closer to the entry prohibition area than the first node 1921, so that the robot can enter the entry prohibition area. It prevents driving in the direction in which it is located. Through this, according to the present invention, even if the robot passes through a virtual obstacle due to a positioning error or the like, it is possible to minimize the driving time in the entry prohibition area and induce the robot to rapidly depart from the entry prohibition area.

Meanwhile, the present invention described above is executed by one or more processes in a computer and can be implemented as a program that can be stored in a computer-readable medium.

Furthermore, the present invention described above can be implemented as computer readable codes or instructions in a medium on which a program is recorded. That is, various control methods according to the present invention may be integrated or individually provided in the form of a program.

On the other hand, the computer-readable medium includes all types of recording devices in which data that can be read by a computer system is stored. Examples of computer-readable media include Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Disk (SSD), Silicon Disk Drive (SDD), ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage device, etc. there is

Furthermore, the computer-readable medium may be a server or cloud storage that includes storage and can be accessed by electronic devices through communication. In this case, the computer may download the program according to the present invention from a server or cloud storage through wired or wireless communication.

Furthermore, in the present invention, the above-described computer is an electronic device equipped with a processor, that is, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and there is no particular limitation on its type.

On the other hand, the above detailed description should not be construed as limiting in all respects and should be considered as illustrative. The scope of the present invention should be determined by reasonable interpretation of the appended claims, and all changes within the equivalent scope of the present invention are included in the scope of the present invention.

Claims (19)

A method for controlling a robot traveling in a building based on a map of the building,
specifying a location of a virtual obstacle in the building;
reflecting virtual obstacle information on the virtual obstacle on the map by using the specified location of the virtual obstacle;
specifying at least one robot that satisfies a preset distance condition with respect to the virtual obstacle among robots located in the building; and
and transmitting the virtual obstacle information to the specified robot so that the specified robot avoids the virtual obstacle and travels. According to claim 1, Monitoring the position of the specified robot;
Based on the monitoring result, determining whether the specified robot has passed the virtual obstacle; and
Based on the determination result, the robot control method characterized in that performing an update on the virtual obstacle in relation to the specified robot. According to claim 2,
As a result of the determination, when the specified robot passes the virtual obstacle as it travels to an area beyond the virtual obstacle, the virtual obstacle is updated,
said building,
A first area where the specified robot was located before crossing the virtual obstacle; and
The specified robot includes a second area corresponding to the area beyond the virtual obstacle,
In the step of performing an update on the virtual obstacle in relation to the specified robot,
and changing at least a portion of a position of the virtual obstacle in the building so that at least a portion of the virtual obstacle is located in the second area. According to claim 3,
The position of the virtual obstacle is updated to be located closer to the second area than to the first area, with the specified robot interposed therebetween. According to claim 3,
Information on the updated virtual obstacle to the specified robot so that the specified robot, which has traveled to the second area beyond the virtual obstacle, returns from the second area to the first area along the updated virtual obstacle. Robot control method characterized in that it comprises the step of transmitting. According to claim 3,
The map includes a plurality of nodes respectively corresponding to different locations of the building,
The robot located in the building drives the building along at least some of the plurality of nodes,
The virtual obstacle information,
Robot control method characterized in that it comprises node information on nodes respectively corresponding to the position of the virtual obstacle. According to claim 6,
In the step of performing an update on the virtual obstacle in relation to the specified robot,
Robot control method, characterized in that for performing the modification of the nodes respectively corresponding to the position of the virtual obstacle. According to claim 7,
Modification of the nodes respectively corresponding to the position of the virtual obstacle,
Excluding at least one of the nodes corresponding to the position of the virtual obstacle, at least one node different from the nodes corresponding to the position of the virtual obstacle is added,
At least one excluded node is a node corresponding to a position where the specified robot crossed the virtual obstacle,
The other at least one node is a robot control method, characterized in that the node included in the second area. According to claim 8,
The updated virtual obstacle is a robot control method, characterized in that formed to be spaced apart from the virtual obstacle by a specific distance along one direction of the virtual obstacle. According to claim 9,
the specific distance,
Robot control method, characterized in that determined based on at least one of the size of the specified robot and the traveling speed of the specified robot. According to claim 2,
As a result of the determination, when the specified robot passes through the virtual obstacle, the robot control method further comprising the step of transmitting a control command to stop the running of the specified robot to the specified robot. According to claim 1,
In the step of specifying at least one robot that satisfies the preset distance condition,
A robot control method, characterized in that for specifying at least one robot located within a predetermined distance from the virtual obstacle or scheduled to travel around the virtual obstacle among the robots traveling on the building. According to claim 1,
In the step of specifying at least one robot that satisfies the preset distance condition,
A robot control method according to claim 1 , wherein a robot that cannot approach an area beyond the virtual obstacle is specified as a robot that avoids the virtual obstacle and travels based on a task assigned to each robot that travels the building. According to claim 13,
If there are a plurality of virtual obstacles located in the building,
At least one robot that needs to avoid is specified for each virtual obstacle for each of a plurality of virtual obstacles;
A method for controlling a robot, characterized in that information about at least one virtual obstacle that needs to be avoided among the plurality of virtual obstacles is transmitted to each of the specified robots. In a building where a robot controlled by a cloud server drives,
said building,
A communication unit for receiving driving and control commands of the robot from the cloud server and transmitting them to the robot;
The cloud server,
Specify the location of the virtual obstacle in the building,
Using the specified location of the virtual obstacle, virtual obstacle information for the virtual obstacle is reflected on the map;
Specifying at least one robot that satisfies a predetermined distance condition to the virtual obstacle among robots located in the building,
The building characterized in that the virtual obstacle information is transmitted to the specified robot so that the specified robot avoids the virtual obstacle and travels. According to claim 15,
The cloud server,
Based on the monitoring result, it is determined whether the specified robot has passed the virtual obstacle, and based on the determination result, an update is performed on the virtual obstacle in relation to the specified robot. According to claim 16,
The cloud server,
Transmitting information on the updated virtual obstacle to the specified robot so that the specified robot, which has traveled to the area beyond the virtual obstacle, returns to the area before crossing the virtual obstacle along the updated virtual obstacle. characterized building. In a robot that drives a building,
main body;
a driving unit provided in the main body;
a sensing unit provided in the main body and sensing an obstacle around the main body;
a communication unit that communicates with the cloud server;
A control unit controlling the driving unit to drive the building based on at least one of information received from the cloud server and information collected through the sensing unit;
The control unit,
When the information received from the cloud server includes information on the virtual obstacle, the robot characterized in that for controlling the driving unit not to move to an area beyond the virtual obstacle. According to claim 18,
The control unit,
The robot characterized in that the driving unit is controlled to avoid the virtual obstacle based on the information on the virtual obstacle independently of an obstacle being detected around the main body through the sensing unit.

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