KR960001808B1 - The planning method for best-fitted cleaning course of a - Google Patents

Abstract

The method comprises the steps of determining a reference direction to divide areas recognized to be cleaned; dividing a plurality of areas to be cleaned based on the reference direction; determining an optimal cleaning process; planning a cleaning path of the area in consideration of the optimal cleaning process; and performing the cleaning according to the optimal cleaning process.

Description

How to plan the optimal cleaning route for automatic driving cleaner

1 is a plan view showing the configuration of a known automatic traveling cleaner.

2 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a known automatic traveling cleaner.

3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a known automatic traveling cleaner control circuit.

4 is a view illustrating a distance sensing method with obstacles in the conventional automatic driving control method.

5 is a view showing a method of following a planned route in a conventional automatic driving control method.

6A, 6B, and 6C are views showing a cleaning process by the automatic travel control method.

7A is a block diagram of a specific type of cleaning area path determined by a conventional method.

(b) is a block diagram of the path | route when the area | region of said (a) figure is planned as an optimal path | route.

8 is a flowchart showing a route planning method of the present invention.

9 is a flowchart of a method for determining an optimal path direction in the present invention.

(A)-(d) of FIG. 10 is a figure which shows the area structure for each cleaning process by this invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

1: distance sensor 2: side brush

3: caster 4: inlet

5: suction motor 6: dust collecting chamber

7, 8: wheels 9, 10: wheel drive motor

11, 12: reduction gear 13, 14: encoder sensor

15, 16: battery 17: battery

18: control circuit 19: remote control transmitter

20: key control panel 21: remote control receiver

22: microcomputer 22A-22D: interface

22E: Central Processing Unit 22F: Clock Generator

22G: Interrupt Controller 22H: Memory

23: contact sensor 24: sensor circuit

25: drive circuit 26: position measuring unit

The present invention relates to a traveling control method of an automatic traveling cleaner that recognizes a region to be cleaned by itself, and automatically runs and cleans the region to be cleaned while avoiding obstacles such as walls or furniture. In particular, the entire cleaning space is divided into a plurality of regions. The present invention relates to a method for planning an optimal cleaning path of an automatic traveling cleaner that enables the optimal cleaning path by planning the directions of the paths to be cleaned independently according to the following areas.

1 and 2 is a view showing a schematic plan and cross-sectional configuration of a known automatic running cleaner, referring to this automatic running cleaner consists of the following components.

A plurality of distance sensors (1) are installed on the front, rear, and left and right sides of the cleaner provided with bumpers for cushioning the collision in all directions, and dust and dirt are disposed at both front corners of the cleaner. The brush 2 is driven to shake off.

Then, the caster 3 is located at the center of the floor in front of the cleaner to run the cleaner, and a suction port 4 for sucking dust and dirt from the bottom is formed behind the caster.

Above the suction port 4, a suction motor 5 for generating a suction force is located, and a dust collecting chamber 6 for filtering dust and dirt sucked by the suction force of the suction motor 5 is located.

Behind the cleaner are components for controlling the running of the cleaner.

That is, the left and right wheels 7 and 8 for driving the cleaner are supported on the left and right rear sides of the cleaner, and the wheel drive motors 9 and 10 are installed to drive the wheels, and the wheel drive motor 9 is provided. Reduction gears (11), (12) are provided to reduce the driving speed of the transmission (10) to the wheel.

In addition, encoder sensors 13 and 14 connected to the shafts of the wheel drive motors 9 and 10 to detect the rotational speed of the motor are provided, and power is supplied to the wheel drive motors 9 and 10. The batteries 15 and 16 to supply and the battery 17 which supplies electric power to the said suction motor 5 are provided.

Then, the control circuit 18 is provided to recognize the cleaning area by using the information detected by the various sensors, and to drive the various motors by using the recognition result to control driving and cleaning.

The cleaner configured as described above senses the distance between the obstacle and the cleaner using the distance sensor 1, recognizes the area to be cleaned by the control circuit 18 using the detected distance information, and uses the wheel cleaning motor 9 as the recognized cleaning area. Drive the wheels (7) and (8) to drive the wheels (7) and (10), and operate the suction motor (5) while driving to collect dust and dirt sucked into the suction port (4) in the dust collecting chamber (6). Let's do it.

The driving force of the wheel driving motors 9 and 10 is reduced by the speed reduction gears 11 and 12 and supplied to the wheels 7 and 8, and the caster 3 helps the cleaner to run.

In addition, the control circuit 18 drives the brush 2 to clean the dust and dirt off the floor, and the cleaner travels the distance of the wheel drive motor detected by the encoder sensors 13 and 14. It calculates using rotation speed.

When operating as described above, the power of the wheel drive motor (9), (10) is supplied from the battery (15), (16), the power of the suction motor (5) is supplied from the battery (17).

3 shows a configuration of a known control circuit 18 that is in charge of traveling control as described above.

Referring to FIG. 3, the automatic traveling cleaner control circuit includes a remote controller transmitter 19 for remotely controlling the cleaner, a key manipulation unit 20 for controlling the cleaner by manual key operation, and a remote controller receiver for receiving a remote controller transmission signal. 21, a microcomputer 22 that receives a cleaner control command based on the key operation or a remote controller signal, controls the driving of the cleaner using information detected by various sensors, and a contact sensor 23 that detects a collision of the cleaner. ), A sensor circuit 24 for inputting a signal sensed by the distance sensor 1 and the contact sensor 23 to the microcomputer 22 and a wheel driving motor 9 by outputting a motor driving signal of the microcomputer 22. ), A driving circuit 25 for driving (10), and the position measuring circuit for supplying a signal measuring the position of the cleaner to the microcomputer (22) composed of the encoder sensors (13), (14), and gyro sensors. It consists of 26.

The microcomputer 22 includes input / output interfaces 22A-22D through which various data and control signals are inputted and outputted, a central processing unit 22E responsible for cleaning area recognition and running control of a cleaner, and the central processing unit 22E. A clock generator 22F for supplying an operation clock to the control panel, an interrupt controller 22G for controlling interrupts of the central processing unit 22E by inputting a signal input from the position measuring unit 26, and the center. It consists of the memory | storage device 22H which stores the data and program of the processing apparatus 22E.

The cleaner control operation by the control circuit 18 configured as described above is as follows.

First, when the user places the vacuum cleaner at any position of the cleaning space surrounded by the wall and turns on the power, the central processing unit 22E outputs the driving control signal to the motor driving circuit 25 through the input / output interface 22C. In response to the drive control signal, the motor driving circuit 25 drives the side brush 2, drives the suction motor 5, and also drives the left and right wheel driving motors 9 and 10 to drive the wheels ( 7) It drives driving (8).

In order to input a user's command to the cleaner, the remote controller transmitter 19 or the key manipulation unit 20 is used, and when the remote controller transmitter 19 is used, the remote controller receiver 21 receives a remote controller signal and receives an input / output interface ( The command is transmitted to the central processing unit 22E via 22B, and when the key operation unit 20 is used, the command is directly transmitted through the input / output interface 22B.

As described above, the cleaner moves forward as the wheel moves, and the central processing unit 22E of the microcomputer 22 measures the distance between the wall and the obstacle in each direction of the cleaner by using the distance sensor 1. From this, the right and left wheels 7 and 8 drive speeds are set and controlled, the contact sensor 23 detects a collision with an obstacle, and the position measuring unit 26 uses the encoder sensors 13 and ( 14) and the gyro sensor and the like to find out the angle and distance traveled by the cleaner, and measure the current position of the cleaner from this to provide the location information of the cleaner to the central processing unit 22E through the interrupt controller 22G.

The microcomputer 22 then runs the vacuum cleaner in parallel with the wall as follows.

Using the distance sensor 1 attached to the cleaner, as shown in FIG. 4, the distance S0-S6 to the walls and obstacles on the left and front sides of the cleaner is obtained, and this distance information S0-S6 is obtained. A fuzzy rule and a purge value, which are used as a purge input and a traveling speed and direction of the cleaner as a purge output, are defined to follow the wall well so that the cleaner runs along the wall in parallel.

While traveling along the wall, the position coordinates of the wall located on the left side of the cleaner are calculated, and the position coordinates are stored in the storage unit 22H to recognize the inside of the polygon created by the segments connecting the position coordinates as the cleaning space. The area in which the cleaning space is reduced by a predetermined distance is recognized as the remaining cleaning space.

That is, in the case of cleaning the space of the shape as shown in FIG. 6, when starting from the R position and being parallel to the wall at the S position as shown in (a), this point is used as the position initialization and stop point, After storing the coordinates (*) of each position, the cleaning space remaining in the polygon ABCD is recognized as shown in (b).

Find the line segments that make up the recognized cleaning space (ABCD) as shown in (c) and draw a virtual parallel line at regular intervals parallel to these line segments to clean the line segment (AB) where the number of parallel lines is the minimum. Decide on

Once the path direction is determined, draw a parallel line with a constant width with this path direction, and then plan a path that alternates the parallel line from side to side as the cleaning path.

If the cleaning path is planned, cleaning is performed while following the path by driving the wheel drive motors 9 and 10. The tracking method of the planned path is shown in FIG. The current position is measured, and the fuzzy rule is inputted as the input of the purge control using the distance Δd separated from the planned path and the difference between the planned path direction and the direction of the cleaner as the input of the purge control. And define a purge value to follow the planned path so that the cleaner follows well without departing from the planned cleaning path.

When an obstacle appears in front of the cleaner as shown in FIG. 6C while following the planned path, the cleaner avoids the obstacle while following the planned path in the cleaning space as described above, and proceeds with cleaning to follow the final path. (22) turns off the side brush (2), suction motor (5), wheel drive motors (9), (10) and finishes cleaning.

As described above, in controlling the running of the automatic traveling cleaner, the following problem is caused in particular according to the conventional cleaning route planning method.

That is, the conventional cleaner cleaning path planning method has a cleaning area (polygonal AL) as shown in FIG. 7A when the path direction is fixed in only one direction with respect to the entire work space, especially a polygonal HIJK area. Since the path is constructed parallel to the short side, the number of paths (Pathn, n = 11) is greatly increased.

In the cleaning area of polygonal HIJK shape as shown in (a) of FIG. 7, if the path is constructed parallel to the long side as shown in (b), the number of paths (Pathn, n = 3) is reduced to obtain an optimal cleaning path. Although it can be done, if the cleaning path is planned by the above-described conventional method, it is necessary to repeat the direction of the unnecessary cleaner many times, and the cleaning needs to be carried out while reciprocating at a short distance. There is this.

Therefore, the present invention sets the cleaning path direction independently according to each divided cleaning area, thereby making it possible to plan an optimal cleaning path for the entire cleaning space, eliminating unnecessary cleaner direction reversal, and high cleaning efficiency. An object of the present invention is to provide an optimal cleaning route planning method of an automatic traveling cleaner that can be secured.

In order to achieve the above object, the optimum cleaning route planning method of the automatic traveling cleaner according to the present invention refers to FIG. A reference direction determination step of region division, an area division step of dividing the entire cleaning area into a plurality of areas based on the reference direction of the area division determined in the step, and an optimum path in the cleaning area divided in the area division step The cleaning process is performed while connecting the path direction determining step of determining the direction, the optimal path direction determined in the path direction determining step, and planning the cleaning path inside the area, and following the optimum cleaning path determined in the cleaning path planning step. It is a cleaning path planning method of the automatic traveling cleaner consisting of a cleaning step.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described the optimal cleaning path planning method of the automatic running cleaner of the present invention.

First, the vacuum cleaner is positioned at an arbitrary position in the cleaning space surrounded by the wall (see FIG. 10), and when the power is turned on, the vacuum cleaner is advanced while the suction motor is turned on as described in FIGS. You will drive.

That is, when the user places the cleaner at an arbitrary position in the cleaning space surrounded by the wall and turns on the power, the central processing unit 22E outputs a driving control signal to the motor driving circuit 25 through the input / output interface 22C. In response to the drive control signal, the motor driving circuit 25 drives the side brush 2, drives the suction motor 5, and also drives the left and right wheel driving motors 9 and 10 to drive the wheels ( 7) and (8) are driven to drive.

In order to input a user's command to the cleaner, the remote controller transmitter 19 or the key manipulation unit 20 is used, and when the remote controller transmitter 19 is used, the remote controller receiver 21 receives a remote controller signal and receives an input / output interface ( The command is transmitted to the central processing unit 22E via 22B, and when the key operation unit 20 is used, the command is directly transmitted through the input / output interface 22B.

As described above, the cleaner moves forward as the wheel moves, and the central processing unit 22E of the microcomputer 22 measures the distance between the wall and the obstacle in each direction of the cleaner by using the distance sensor 1. From this, the right and left wheels 7 and 8 drive speeds are set and controlled, the contact sensor 23 detects a collision with an obstacle, and the position measuring unit 26 includes an encoder sensor 13, ( 14) and the gyro sensor and the like to find out the angle and distance traveled by the cleaner, and measure the current position of the cleaner from this to provide the location information of the cleaner to the central processing unit 22E through the interrupt controller 22G.

The microcomputer 22 then runs the vacuum cleaner in parallel with the wall as follows.

Using the distance sensor 1 attached to the cleaner, as shown in FIG. 4, the distances S0-S6 to the walls and obstacles on the left and front sides of the cleaner are obtained, and then the distance information S0-S6 is obtained. A fuzzy rule and a purge value, which are used as a purge input and a traveling speed and direction of the cleaner as a purge output, are defined to follow the wall well so that the cleaner runs along the wall in parallel.

While traveling along the wall, as shown in Fig. 10A, after calculating the position coordinates P0-PN of the wall located on the left side of the cleaner, the position coordinates P0-PN are stored in the storage device 22H. The inside of the polygon created by the line segments connecting the position coordinates P0-PN in turn is recognized as the cleaning space, and the area in which the cleaning space is reduced by a predetermined distance is recognized as the remaining cleaning space.

In this way, a path for cleaning the entire recognized cleaning space is planned as follows.

[First step [STEP 1]; Determining Reference Direction of Region Segmentation

Referring to (b) of FIG. 10, setting of the reference direction for dividing the entire cleaning space into a plurality of regions is performed by connecting successive position coordinates P0-PN and comparing similar inclinations of adjacent straight lines. The coordinate values having are stored in the same coordinate group, and then the effective straight lines representing the coordinate values are found best.

An imaginary parallel line is drawn at regular width intervals parallel to the effective straight line thus obtained, and an effective straight line in which the number of the parallel lines is minimum is determined in the reference direction of the area division.

A process of determining the reference direction of such region division is shown in FIG. 9.

In FIG. 9, the step ST A to the step ST F is a process of obtaining the valid straight line, and the step ST G to the step H is a step of determining the reference direction.

That is, in step STEP A, the initial condition is set by position coordinates P (N) = P (0), P (N + 1) = P (1), i = 0, and in step STEP B) Select three consecutive points (P (i), P (i + 1), P (i + 2)) with these position coordinates, and find the slope of a straight line connecting two adjacent points. Increases +1.

In the next step (STEP C), the degree of similarity of the slopes of the two straight lines is determined based on a constant reference value. If the slopes are not similar, the memory of the new coordinate group is allocated to the memory, and if the slopes are similar, the three points are the same. It is stored in the coordinate group (STEP D).

In step STEP E, verify whether the above steps (STEP B-STEP D) are executed until i + N, i.e., all coordinate information, and if executed, obtain a valid straight line representing points in the same coordinate group. (STEP F).

Subsequently, in step STEP G, virtual parallel lines are drawn at regular width intervals in the same direction as the effective straight line obtained in step STEP F, and the number of the parallel lines is obtained.

Then, the effective straight line is searched for the minimum number of parallel lines obtained in the step (STEP G), the effective straight line is selected as the optimal path direction and stored.

In this way, when the reference direction of the area division is determined, the next step (STEP 2) is executed.

[Step 2 [STEP 2]]

An imaginary parallel line is drawn as shown in (b) of FIG. 10 at a constant width interval parallel to the reference direction determined in the first step.

[STEP 3]; Zone Division]

As shown in (c) of FIG. 10, the position difference [Delta] s between the start points of two consecutive virtual parallel lines and the position difference [Delta] e between the end points are obtained, and then the two position differences [Delta] s, [Delta] e are calculated. Compared to a certain value, the cleaning space is divided into N areas by storing the location coordinates P0-PN by dividing the same area into smaller areas and different areas, respectively.

[Step 4] [STEP 4]; Determination of Optimal Path Direction Inside Each Area]

With respect to each of the N areas divided in the third step, the effective straight line direction in which the number of parallel lines is minimized is obtained in the same manner as in FIG. 9, and the optimal path direction for each area is as shown in (c) of FIG. You decide.

[Step 5] [STEP 5]; Generation and Determination of Paths in an Area]

The parallel lines are drawn at regular width intervals in parallel with the optimal path direction obtained in the fourth step to find the points that meet the outside of the cleaning space.

Among the points obtained, as shown in (d) of FIG. 10, the starting point alternates between the starting point and the ending point, and the end point is determined as the optimal cleaning path for each divided region.

[Step 6 [STEP 6]]

The steps 4 and 5 are performed for all areas divided in the third step, so that there are no unplanned cleaning areas.

In this way, after dividing the entire area to be cleaned into divided cleaning areas, the optimal cleaning path is best planned for the shape of the divided areas.

Thereafter, as described above, the position of the cleaner is measured, and the distance Δd deviated from the planned path of the cleaner, and the difference Δt between the planned path direction and the direction of the cleaner as a purge input, and the traveling speed of the cleaner ( v) and direction (w) are controlled so that the cleaner follows the planned route by purge control with the purge output, and the cleaner stops after following the last set route.

As described above, according to the optimum cleaning path planning method of the automatic traveling cleaner of the present invention, since the direction of the cleaning path is set independently according to each area, the optimal path can be planned for the entire cleaning space.

In addition, according to the present invention, because the optimum cleaning path is planned, it is possible to eliminate the phenomenon in which the cleaner repeats unnecessary direction reversal, to efficiently clean a narrow and long space, and to clean the cleaner in a suitable manner according to the type of cleaning area. There is an effect that cleaning can be performed while driving.

In addition, according to the present invention, since the optimum cleaning path is planned and followed, the cleaning time can be shortened, and the occurrence of cleaning failure can be prevented, thereby improving the reliability of the device.

Claims (5)

Determining the reference direction of the area division to recognize the space to be cleaned by dividing the space to be cleaned and to determine the reference direction for dividing the area of the recognized space, and based on the reference direction of the area division determined in the step, A cleaning path in the area by connecting an area dividing step of dividing into an area, a path direction determining step of determining an optimal path direction inside the cleaning area divided in the area dividing step, and an optimum path direction determined in the path direction determining step. And a cleaning step of cleaning while following the optimal cleaning path determined in the cleaning path planning step. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the reference direction of the area division comprises: obtaining a slope of a straight line by connecting position coordinates of the entire entire cleaning space, and comparing a slope of two adjacent straight lines obtained in the step to obtain a similar slope. Storing the coordinate values to be formed in the same coordinate group, obtaining an effective straight line representative of the coordinate values in the same coordinate group, and drawing parallel lines having a constant width interval in the same direction as the effective straight line obtained in the step And determining an effective straight line in which the number of parallel lines obtained in the step is the minimum, in the optimal region division reference direction. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the path direction comprises: obtaining a slope of a straight line by connecting the position coordinates of the entire entire cleaning space for each area divided in the area dividing step; Comparing the slopes of two straight lines to store coordinate values having similar slopes in the same coordinate group, obtaining a valid straight line representing coordinate values in the same coordinate group, and Drawing a parallel line with a constant width interval in the same direction to obtain the number of parallel lines, and determining an effective straight line in which the number of parallel lines obtained in the step is the minimum as the optimal path direction. How to plan your optimal cleaning path. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the parallel lines are drawn at regular width intervals in parallel with the direction of the effective straight line where the number of parallel lines obtained in the step is at a minimum, and the magnitude of the positional difference between the start points of the two consecutive parallel lines or between the end points. Therefore, the optimal cleaning path planning method of the automatic traveling cleaner, characterized in that for executing the area dividing step of dividing the cleaning space. 4. A cleaning path planning step is executed by drawing a parallel line at a constant width interval parallel to the optimum cleaning path direction determined in the step, and finding a path connecting the starting and ending points of the parallel line by zigzag. Cleaning route planning method of automatic traveling cleaner.