Patent Application
20180004212
The present invention relates to a guide-type virtual wall system, which belongs to the technical field of the manufacture of small household electric appliances.
In modern life, the application of robots has become more and more popular. It is expected that there is a virtual wall signal to restrict the robot from entering a certain area in practical operations. In the prior art, there are two main methods to form a virtual wall: (1) a method using a magnetic boundary, that is, a magnetic stripe is attached to the boundary of a restricted area, and when the robot detects the magnetic stripe, it keeps away from the magnetic stripe, which is relatively complicated to operate; and (2) a method using an active emitting device (for example, in the U.S. Pat. No. 7,579,803B2, an emitting device is used to emit an infrared signal, an ultrasonic signal, or the like, and when the robot detects these signals, it keeps away from these signals), although this method is easy to operate, a part of the area covered by the signal may be missed. Further, the virtual wall is used to form an absolute restriction on the restricted area in both of the above methods. However, in practical operations, the robot sometimes needs to cross over the virtual wall to enter the restricted area, but neither of the existing technical solutions can achieve such operation.
To overcome the deficiencies in the prior art, the present invention aims to provide a guide-type virtual wall system, which is capable of restricting the robot from entering a certain area without missing the area where the virtual wall locates and also enables the robot to cross over the virtual wall to enter the restricted area when required.
The technical objective of the present invention is realized through the following technical solutions:
A guide-type virtual wall system comprises a beacon and a robot, wherein a transmission module of the beacon directionally transmits a first signal, an area covered by the first signal defines a beacon signal area, and the robot comprises a beacon signal receiving module corresponding to the beacon signal transmission module. When the robot enters the beacon signal area and the beacon signal receiving module detects the first signal, the robot advances towards the direction of the beacon until it detects a second signal, and then the robot crosses over or exits from the beacon signal area.
Preferably, the beacon signal transmission module is provided with a plurality of sub-signal transmission modules, and each of the sub-signal transmission modules transmits a sub-signal in a direction different from each other.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the first signal or the second signal is provided with certain encoded information, and when the robot detects the second signal, the robot determines whether to cross over or exit from the beacon signal area based on the encoded information.
Preferably, the plurality of sub-signals are provided with different encoded information.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, when the robot detects the second signal, the robot exits from the beacon signal area.
Preferably, the robot further comprises an obstacle detecting module, and the second signal is generated when the robot detects an obstacle.
Preferably, the obstacle detecting module is an infrared sensor, an ultrasonic sensor or a travel switch.
According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, the guide-type virtual wall system further comprises a second signal generator provided on one side close to the beacon or provided on the beacon, and the robot is provided with a corresponding second signal sensor, the second signal being generated by the second signal generator.
Preferably, an area covered by the signal generated by the second signal generator defines a second signal area, and the beacon is provided within the second signal area.
Preferably, the second signal generator is a passive device or an active device.
Preferably, the passive device is an electronic tag, a magnetic stripe or a color card, and the active device is an infrared transmitter, an ultrasonic transmitter, or a radio wave transmitter.
Preferably, the beacon signal transmission module is an infrared transmission module or an ultrasonic transmission module.
Preferably, the infrared transmission module or the ultrasonic transmission module comprises one or more emission sources.
Preferably, the robot is a floor cleaning robot, an air purification robot or a monitoring robot.
The present invention also provide a guide-type virtual wall system comprising a beacon and a robot, wherein a transmission module of the beacon directionally transmitting a first signal, an area covered by the first signal defines a beacon signal area, and the robot comprises a beacon signal receiving module corresponding to the beacon signal transmission module. When the robot enters the beacon signal area and the beacon signal receiving module detects the first signal, the robot advances towards or away from the direction of the beacon until it detects a second signal, and then the robot crosses over or exits from the beacon signal area, the second signal being generated when the robot walks for a certain distance or when the robot detects an obstacle.
The present invention is advantageous in that, by additionally providing a second signal in the virtual wall system, it is enabled not only that the robot is restricted from entering a certain area without missing the area where the virtual wall locates, but also that the robot is allowed to cross over the virtual wall to enter the restricted area when required.
The technical solution of the present invention now will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.
In the first embodiment, the robot 12 advances towards the direction of the beacon 11 when detecting the first signal, i.e., the beacon signal. However, actually, the position from which the robot 12 enters the beacon signal area 13 is random, and thus in the present embodiment, the robot 12 may advance either towards or away from the direction of the beacon 11. As shown in
The present embodiment is different from the first and the second embodiments in that the second signal is not generated by the robot meeting an obstacle or when the robot having walked for a predetermined distance, and a second signal generator used to generate a second signal is additionally provided on one side close to the beacon or provided on the beacon, with the robot 12 being provided with a corresponding second signal sensor. An area covered by the signal generated by the second signal generator defines a second signal area 14, and the second signal generator may be an active device (e.g., an infrared transmitter, an ultrasonic transmitter or a radio wave transmitter) or a passive device (such as an electronic tag, a magnetic stripe or a color card). When the beacon signal receiving module on the robot 12 detects the first signal, the robot 12 advances towards the direction of the beacon 11 until it enters the second signal area 14 and the second signal sensor on the robot 12 detects the second signal, and then the robot 12 exits from the beacon signal area 13. It is to be noted that, here, the reason why the second signal generator is provided within the beacon signal area 13 on one side close to the beacon is that the directionally transmitted beacon signal is spindle-shaped, and thus it can be better guaranteed that the second signal can be detected by the robot if the robot 12 advances towards the direction of the beacon when detecting the first signal. As a more preferable embodiment, the beacon 11 may be provided within the second signal area 14 so as to prevent the beacon 11 from being deformed or damaged due to the collision between the robot and the beacon 11, that is, it corresponds to that the second signal forms a virtual protective cover outside the beacon.
The present embodiment differs from the third embodiment in that the first signal or the second signal is provided with certain encoded information which is capable of identifying a certain area such as a room. When the robot detects the second signal, the robot determines whether to cross over or exit from the beacon signal area based on the encoded information. Specifically, the robot can access the encoded information and the cleaning state information corresponding to each piece of the encoded information. When the robot detects certain encoded information, it may further extract the cleaning state information corresponding to such encoded information and perform a corresponding action based on the cleaning state information. For example, when the cleaning state information indicates that the area has been cleaned, the robot may exit from the beacon signal area, and when the cleaning state information indicates that the area has not been cleaned, the robot may cross over the beacon signal area. More specifically, the infrared transmission module or the ultrasonic transmission module that generates the first signal may transmit an infrared ray or an ultrasonic wave with the encoded information; the active device, such as an infrared transmitter, an ultrasonic transmitter or a radio wave transmitter, that generates the second signal may transmit an infrared ray, an ultrasonic wave, or a radio wave with the encoded information; the passive device, such as an electronic tag and a magnetic stripe, that generates the second signal may store the encoded information in advance, and then the robot 12 may read out the encoded information when entering the second signal area; and the color card can distinguish the rooms from each other through different colors that also constitute the encoded information.
The present embodiment is illustrated by a cleaning robot as an example. The robot 12 may access the room identification information and the cleaning state information of each room of the encoded information. Upon detecting the beacon signal, the robot 12 may advance towards the direction of the beacon, and when the robot reaches to the second signal area 14, it reads out the encoded information of the second signal (for example, the robot reaches to Room {circle around (1)}). Specifically, the robot may recognize that the room is Room {circle around (1)}, and further extract the stored cleaning state information for each room so as to determine whether Room {circle around (1)} has been cleaned or not. If it is determined that Room {circle around (1)} has been cleaned, the robot may not enter the room and exit from the beacon signal area 13, that is, the robot may leave the beacon signal area 13 from the same side as that when entering the beacon signal area 13. In other words, the robot 12 does not cross over the beacon signal area 13, but instead, it exits from such area along the initially entering direction. If it is determined that Room {circle around (1)} has not been cleaned, the robot enters Room {circle around (1)} so as to perform cleaning, and the robot 12 leaves the beacon signal area 13 from the opposed side to that when entering the beacon signal area 13. That is, the robot 12 has crossed over the beacon signal area 13. Upon completion of the cleaning, the robot may leave the room and update the cleaning state of Room {circle around (1)} to be “having been cleaned.”
The present embodiment differs from the fourth embodiment in that the beacon signal transmission module is provided with a plurality of sub-signal transmission modules, and each of the sub-signal transmission modules transmits a sub-signal in a direction different from each other. The first signal comprises two sub-signals transmitted in different directions. As shown in
It is additionally to be noted that, it may also be applied to the first embodiment, the second embodiment and the third embodiment that the first signal or the second signal carries with the encoded information as in the present embodiment. When the robot 12 enters the beacon signal area 13 and the beacon signal receiving module detects the first signal, the robot 12 advances towards the direction of the beacon 11 until it detects a second signal, and then the robot determines whether to cross over or exit from the beacon signal area based on the encoded information.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201410624374.0 | Nov 2014 | CN | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CN2015/093955 | 11/6/2015 | WO | 00 |
