1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic traveling cleaner having an auto-traveling function in a main body of the cleaner and automatically performing cleaning of a surface to be cleaned.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, a cleaner has been developed in which a movement function is added to the cleaner so as to aim improvement of operability during the cleaning. Particularly, in recent years, development of an automatic traveling cleaner of a so-called self-inducing type obtained by mounting a microcomputer or the like and various sensors thereon is attracting people's attention. An automatic traveling cleaner of this type (hereinafter, simply referred to also as cleaner), when started to operate, begins to travel along a straight line by means of wheels driven by a driving motor. During the traveling, the cleaner measures the distance to obstacles such as furniture with a plurality of sensors or the like, confirms the step difference of the surface to be cleaned so as to travel by side stepping the step difference, and sucks the dust adhering to the surface to be cleaned by using a suction port and a brush or the like disposed in the bottom part of the main body, thereby automatically performing cleaning of the surface to be cleaned.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 06-113984 discloses an automatic traveling cleaner that executes automatic cleaning by being made to learn the information necessary for cleaning in advance, and continues cleaning while evading the obstacles by sensing the distance to the obstacles with the use of a sensor.
However, in a conventional automatic traveling cleaner, it was not possible to discriminate the objects placed on the surface to be cleaned, so that all the objects placed on the surface to be cleaned were sucked.
Therefore, when an elongate entangling object such as a cord is placed, such an object may be erroneously sucked through the suction port by the cleaner while traveling and is entangled to reduce the suction power through the suction port, thereby raising a possibility of obstructing the cleaning work.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the aforementioned problems and, therefore, aims to provide an automatic traveling cleaner that avoids suction of an object that may possibly obstruct a cleaning work by discriminating the object placed on a surface to be cleaned.
According to the present invention, an automatic traveling cleaner that performs cleaning via a cleaning suction port disposed on a bottom surface and having a predetermined area includes a suction unit which performs suction via the cleaning suction port, a sensor unit which is disposed on the bottom surface, is placed ahead of the cleaning suction port in a movement direction, and detects an object on a surface to be cleaned, and a control unit which controls suction operation of the suction unit in accordance with a detection result from the sensor unit. The sensor unit includes a determination region which is disposed ahead of the cleaning suction port in the movement direction and has an area larger than the predetermined area, a first sensor band which can detect the object in a region having a dimension larger than a maximum dimension of the cleaning suction port along a direction orthogonal to a movement direction, and a second sensor band which can detect the object in a region having a dimension larger than a maximum dimension of the cleaning suction port along the movement direction. The first sensor band is disposed ahead of the determination region in the movement direction and near to an outer circumference of the determination region in the direction orthogonal to the movement direction. The second sensor band is disposed near to an outer circumference of the determination region in the movement direction. Each of the first sensor band and the second sensor band has a plurality of sensors that detect the object for each predetermined region thereof. The control unit gives a command for stoppage of suction of the suction unit in accordance with the number of sensors that have reacted among the plurality of sensors of at least one of the first sensor band and the second sensor band when the object continues to be detected for a predetermined period of time by at least one of the first sensor band and the second sensor band. The automatic traveling cleaner further includes a roller which is disposed on the cleaning suction port, and a roller drive unit which controls rotation of the roller. The control unit gives a command for stoppage of rotation of the roller to the roller drive unit when the object continues to be detected for a predetermined period of time by at least one of the first sensor band and the second sensor band. The second sensor band has a first subsensor band and a second subsensor band that are disposed along the movement direction are disposed respectively on a left side and a right side of the determination region, and can detect the object in the region having the dimension larger than the maximum dimension of the cleaning suction port along the movement direction. One of the first subsensor band and the second subsensor band operates in accordance with the movement direction.
According to the present invention an automatic traveling cleaner that performs cleaning via a cleaning suction port disposed on a bottom surface and having a predetermined area includes a suction unit which performs suction via the cleaning suction port, a sensor unit which is disposed on the bottom surface, is placed ahead of the cleaning suction port in a movement direction, and detects an object on a surface to be cleaned, and a control unit which controls suction operation of the suction unit in accordance with a detection result from the sensor unit.
Preferably, the sensor unit includes a determination region which is disposed ahead of the cleaning suction port in the movement direction and has an area larger than the predetermined area, a first sensor band which can detect the object in a region having a dimension larger than a maximum dimension of the cleaning suction port along a direction orthogonal to the movement direction, and a second sensor band which can detect the object in a region having a dimension larger than a maximum dimension of the cleaning suction port along the movement direction. The first sensor band is disposed ahead of the determination region in the movement direction and near to an outer circumference of the determination region in a direction orthogonal to the movement direction. The second sensor band is disposed near to an outer circumference of the determination region in the movement direction.
In particular, the control unit gives a command for stoppage of suction of the suction unit when the object continues to be detected for a predetermined period of time by at least one of the first sensor band and the second sensor band.
In particular, each of the first sensor band and the second sensor band has a plurality of sensors that detect the object for each predetermined region thereof. The control unit gives a command for stoppage of suction of the suction unit in accordance with the number of sensors that have reacted among the plurality of sensors of at least one of the first sensor band and the second sensor band when the object continues to be detected for a predetermined period of time by at least one of the first sensor band and the second sensor band.
In particular, the automatic traveling cleaner according to the present invention further includes a roller which is disposed on the cleaning suction port, and a roller drive unit which controls rotation of the roller. Herein, the control unit gives a command for stoppage of rotation of the roller to the roller drive unit when the object continues to be detected for a predetermined period of time by at least one of the first sensor band and the second sensor band.
In particular, the second sensor band has a first subsensor band and a second subsensor band that are disposed in the movement direction are disposed respectively on a left side and a right side of the determination region, and can sense a dimension larger than the maximum dimension of the cleaning suction port along the movement direction. One of the first subsensor band and the second subsensor band operates in accordance with the movement direction.
The automatic traveling cleaner according to the present invention gives a command for stoppage of suction of the suction unit when the object continues to be detected for a predetermined period of time by at least one of the first sensor band and the second sensor band. In other words, the cleaner stops suction of the suction unit by discriminating an elongate object such as a cord which is an object that continues to be detected for the predetermined period of time. This can evade decrease or the like in the suction power of the suction unit that is generated by entanglement, and the cleaning work can be carried out efficiently and safely.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. Here, in the drawings, identical or corresponding parts will be denoted with the same reference numerals and the description thereof will not be repeated.
Referring to
Left wheel 23 and right wheel 24 are each driven independently, and wheel 22 controls the direction driving. In the forward movement, left wheel 23 and right wheel 24 operate to proceed the cleaner in the forward direction. In turning the direction, wheel 22 rotates so as to achieve a desired movement direction while left wheel 23 and right wheel 24 operate to turn the direction.
Each of sensor bands 26 to 28 has a plurality of sensors sn. In
In the bottom surface part, a sensing region 25 having an area larger than the area of the suction port is disposed ahead of suction port 21 in the movement direction. Sensor bands 26 to 28 are disposed so as to surround this sensing region 25. Specifically, sensor bands 26 and 27 are disposed respectively on the left side and on the right side near to the outer circumference of sensing region 25 along the movement direction. Sensor band 28 is disposed near to the outer circumference of sensing region 25 along the direction perpendicular to the movement direction. Sensor band 28 is disposed ahead of sensing region 25 in the movement direction.
Referring to
Here, the traveling of the cleaner will be described.
With reference to
Specifically, the cleaning work is started, for example, at an end of the inside of room 30, and cleaner 20 proceeds forward at a constant speed. At that time, control unit 2 gives a command so that cleaner 20 may travel along a desired path of cleaning in accordance with the sensing result on the position and the speed obtained in position/speed detection unit 3. Further, when a forward wall of the room is sensed by a forward sense unit (not illustrated) that senses the front, the cleaner turns the direction, and proceeds at a constant speed again by being shifted by a predetermined position. When cleaner 20 is started at the cleaning start position of the cleaning region, driving control unit 5 is driven by control of control unit 2 along the cleaning path in the contents stored in the storage unit, whereby the cleaning can be performed automatically up to the cleaning end position.
Here, with reference to the flowchart of
With reference to
When the sensor bands do not react in step S1, the flow stays in step S1 until the sensors react. On the other hand, when the sensor bands react in step S1, the flow proceeds to the next step S2.
In step S2, it is determined whether the sensor bands continue to react for a predetermined period of time. When the reaction of the sensor bands ends within the predetermined period of time in step S2, it is determined that the suction is possible (step S2#a), and the flow returns to the first step S1. This predetermined period of time is set within the period of time from the time when the sensor band 28 in
On the other hand, when the sensor bands continue to react for the predetermined period of time in step S2, it is determined that the suction is dangerous (step S2#). In accordance therewith, in the next step S3, control unit 2 gives a command for stoppage of the suction of suction unit 8 (step S3).
Next, in step S4, the flow stays until the reaction of the sensor bands ends. When the reaction of the sensor bands ends, the flow proceeds to the next step, and control unit 2 gives a command for operation of the suction of suction unit 8 after a fixed period of time passes (step S5). This restarts the cleaning work, and in the next step S6, it is determined whether the cleaning work is finished. When the cleaning work is finished in step S6, the operation of the cleaner is ended (step S7). If the cleaning work is not finished yet in step S6, the flow returns to the first step S1.
Here, this fixed period of time is a period of time until the object that has been regarded as being dangerous on the surface to be cleaned passes by, and is set in accordance with the speed of the cleaner.
Here, although not illustrated, together with the commands for stoppage of the suction of suction unit 8 and operation of the suction of suction unit 8, control unit 2 gives commands for stoppage of the rotation and restart of the rotation of brush 29 to brush control unit 7.
Therefore, the suction through suction port 21 or suction by rotation operation of brush 29 in accordance with the rotation of brush motor 6 is stopped, thereby preventing suction of an object that is regarded as being dangerous when being sucked.
With reference to
In this example, as described in
With reference to
In this example, as described in
With reference to
In this example, as described in
In this case, depending on the sucking power, the object 52 may be sucked through the lateral side. Therefore, supposing that object 52 is an elongate cord-shaped object such as object 50, the sucking of suction unit 8 is stopped, whereby the danger of sucking the object through suction port 21 can be evaded with certainty.
On the other hand, supposing that object 52 is not an elongate cord-shaped object such as object 50 and is simply normal rubbish, the object can be sucked through suction port 21 in the next cleaning path after the direction is turned. For example, the determination such as in
Here, as described above, in the above-mentioned determination method, sensor bands 27 and 28 are used in the cleaning path L1, and sensor bands 26 and 28 are used in the cleaning path L2.
By an automatic traveling cleaner according to the embodiment of the present invention, the danger of entangling an elongate cord-shaped object in the suction port can be evaded with certainty, so that the cleaning work can be carried out efficiently and safely by differentiating normal rubbish from others.
In the above-described embodiment, a determination method of differentiating an elongate cord-shaped object to perform the cleaning work safely has been described. On the other hand, when the object is large compared with suction port 21, there is little danger of sucking the object through suction port 21.
As a modification of the embodiment, a determination method of differentiating a large object that has no possibility of being sucked will be described.
With reference to the flowchart of
With reference to
In step S2a, it is determined whether a predetermined number or more of the sensors are reacting. When the predetermined number or more of the sensors are reacting in step S2a, it is determined that the suction of the object through suction port 21 is impossible (step S2b), and the cleaning work is continued (step S2c). Then, the flow proceeds to step S6.
When the predetermined number or more of the sensors do not react, the flow proceeds to step S2#, where it is determined that the suction is dangerous. The subsequent processing procedures are the same as described with reference to the flowchart of
In the modification of the embodiment of the present invention, the cleaning work is continued when a predetermined number or more of the sensors are reacting. In other words, the object is considered to be a large object because the predetermined number or more of the sensors are reacting. Therefore, in this case, suction of the object is considered to be impossible because the object is too large compared with the size of suction port 21. By this, it is not necessary to stop the suction by suction unit 8, so that the cleaning work can be carried out more efficiently. Here, the predetermined number of the sensors can be set in accordance with the size, shape, or the like of suction port 21, or the suction power of suction unit 8.
This allows determination of whether the suction through suction port 21 is possible or impossible, thereby achieving an efficient cleaning work.
Here, in the above-described embodiment, a method of discriminating an object has been described in which a rectangular sensing area 25 having a larger area than the area of suction port 21 in the movement direction of suction port 21 is provided, and the object is discriminated by using the flowcharts described in
Although the present invention has been described and illustrated in detail, it is clearly understood that the same is by way of illustration and example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation, the spirit and scope of the present invention being limited only by the terms of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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JP2004-022992 | Jan 2004 | JP | national |