This application relates to robotic lawnmowers and in particular to a system and a method for providing an improved marking of features for a robotic lawnmower.
Automated or robotic lawnmowers are becoming increasingly more popular. In a typical deployment work area, such as a garden, the work area is enclosed by a boundary wire with the purpose of keeping the robotic lawnmower inside the work area.
An electric control signal may be transmitted through the boundary wire thereby generating an (electro-) magnetic field emanating from the boundary wire. The robotic lawnmower is typically arranged with one or more (electro-) magnetic sensors adapted to sense the control signal.
The robotic lawnmower system may also be arranged with one or more guide wires for guiding the robotic lawnmower to specific areas, such as the charging station or a hard-to-reach area.
Such wires are most typically arranged in a garden by being submerged in the lawn or dirt. They are thus difficult to see, and a user may forget or simply not know about where the wire in questions is. This is especially true if only one person in a household oversaw the installation of the robotic lawnmower system, where the other persons in the household may not know where the wires are placed.
This presents a problem when performing garden work, or other types of work in the garden where a wire may be cut accidentally. Finding which wire and where the wire has been cut can be a very time-consuming task that even some users may not know how to perform, whereby an expensive technician may have to be called in.
Thus, there is a need for an improved manner of enabling a manner for performing work in a garden or other work area without risking to accidentally cut any wires.
As will be disclosed in detail in the detailed description, the inventors have realized a simple and elegant manner of enabling the robotic lawnmower to mark features, such as the wires, by adjusting the cutting height temporarily in locations where the feature is found. This provides an easy-to-see marking of the feature as the grass will be cut differently in the area of the feature. Furthermore, it is a temporary marking that will go away by itself after a few days or after the next (few) operation(s) as the grass will grow out and again be cut at the same height, whereby the markings will be gone.
It is therefore an object of the teachings of this application to overcome or at least reduce those problems by providing a robotic lawnmower system comprising a robotic lawnmower comprising one or more grass cutting devices, the robotic lawnmower being arranged to enter a feature marking mode indicating a feature to be marked; find the feature; adjust a cutting height (h1, h2) of at least one of the one or more grass cutting devices to generate a mowing pattern marking the feature.
It is also an object of the teachings of this application to overcome the problems by providing a method for use in a robotic lawnmower system comprising a robotic lawnmower comprising one or more grass cutting devices, the method comprising: entering a feature marking mode indicating a feature to be marked; finding the feature; adjusting a cutting height (h1, h2) of at least one of the one or more grass cutting devices to generate a mowing pattern marking the feature.
Other features and advantages of the disclosed embodiments will appear from the following detailed disclosure, from the attached dependent claims as well as from the drawings. Generally, all terms used in the claims are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the technical field, unless explicitly defined otherwise herein. All references to “a/an/the [element, device, component, means, step, etc.]” are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of the element, device, component, means, step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any method disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless explicitly stated.
The invention will be described in further detail under reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
The disclosed embodiments will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which certain embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Like reference numbers refer to like elements throughout.
It should be noted that even though the description given herein will be focused on robotic lawnmowers, the teachings herein may also be applied to, robotic ball collectors, robotic mine sweepers, robotic farming equipment, or other robotic lawnmowers where lift detection is used and where the robotic lawnmower is susceptible to dust, dirt or other debris.
The robotic lawnmower 100 may comprise charging skids for contacting contact plates (not shown in
The robotic lawnmower 100 also comprises one or more grass cutting devices 160. A grass cutting device 160 may comprise a rotating blade 160 driven by a cutter motor 165. The height of at least one of the one or more grass cutting device 160 is adjustable, as will be discussed below with referenced to
The robotic lawnmower 100 also has (at least) one battery 155 for providing power to the motor(s) 150 and/or the cutter motor 165.
The robotic lawnmower 100 also comprises a controller 110 and a computer readable storage medium or memory 120. The controller 110 may be implemented using instructions that enable hardware functionality, for example, by using executable computer program instructions in a general-purpose or special-purpose processor that may be stored on the memory 120 to be executed by such a processor. The controller 110 is configured to read instructions from the memory 120 and execute these instructions to control the operation of the robotic lawnmower 100 including, but not being limited to, the propulsion of the robotic lawnmower. The controller 110 may be implemented using any suitable, available processor or Programmable Logic Circuit (PLC). The memory 120 may be implemented using any commonly known technology for computer-readable memories such as ROM, RAM, SRAM, DRAM, FLASH, DDR, SDRAM or some other memory technology.
The robotic lawnmower 100 may further be arranged with a wireless communication interface 115 for communicating with other devices, such as a server, a personal computer or smartphone, the charging station, and/or other rwts. Examples of such wireless communication devices are Bluetooth®, WiFi® (IEEE802.11b), Global System Mobile (GSM) and LTE (Long Term Evolution), to name a few.
The robotic lawnmower 100 is also arranged with a user interface 125 for receiving user commands and/or instructions through. The user interface 125 may comprise one or more physical buttons and a display. Alternatively or additionally the user interface 125 may comprise a touch screen arranged to present virtual buttons. Alternatively or additionally the user interface 125 is remote to the robotic lawnmower 100, for example part of a user device (such as a smartphone, a tablet computer or other computer), wherein the commands received through the user interface 125 are forwarded to the robotic lawnmower 100 via the communications interface 115.
For enabling the robotic lawnmower 100 to navigate with reference to a boundary wire emitting a magnetic field caused by a control signal transmitted through the boundary wire, the robotic lawnmower 100 is further configured to have at least one magnetic field sensor 170 arranged to detect the magnetic field (not shown) and for detecting the boundary wire and/or other navigation wires. The sensors 170 may also be used for receiving (and possibly also sending) information to/from a signal generator (will be discussed with reference to
The robotic lawnmower 100 may further comprise one or more sensors for deduced navigation 175. Examples of sensors for deduced reckoning are odometers, accelerometers, gyroscopes, and compasses to mention a few examples.
In one embodiment, the robotic lawnmower 100 may further comprise at least one navigation sensor, such as a beacon navigation sensor and/or a satellite navigation sensor 190. The beacon navigation sensor may be a Radio Frequency receiver, such as an Ultra Wide Band (UWB) receiver or sensor, configured to receive signals from a beacon, such as a Radio Frequency beacon (referenced 240 in
The use of such a navigation sensor 190 enables the robotic lawnmower 100 to navigate the work area according to a map stored in the memory 120, or possibly received through the communications interface 115.
In embodiments, where the robotic lawnmower 100 is arranged with a navigation sensor, the magnetic sensors 170 are optional.
The robotic lawnmower system 200 may also comprise a charging station 210 which in some embodiments is arranged with a signal generator 215 and a boundary wire 220. The signal generator is arranged to generate a control signal 225 to be transmitted through the boundary wire 220. In some embodiments, the robotic lawnmower system 200 also comprises one or more guide wires 230 and the signal generator is arranged to generate a (different) control signal 235 to be transmitted through the guide wire 230. By utilizing different control signals for different wires, the robotic lawnmower 100 may differentiate between the wires and adapt its operation and/or navigation accordingly. The control signal(s) generates and emits a magnetic field when being transmitted through the boundary wire (or other wire) that may be detectable by the magnetic field sensors 170 of the robotic lawnmower 100.
The boundary wire 220 is arranged to enclose a work area 205, in which the robotic lawnmower 100 is supposed to serve.
The robotic lawnmower system 200 may also optionally comprise at least one beacon 240 to enable the robotic lawnmower to navigate the work area using the beacon navigation sensor(s) 190.
The work area 205 is in this application exemplified as a garden, but can also be other work areas as would be understood. The garden contains a number of obstacles (O), exemplified herein by a number (3) of trees (T) and a house structure (H). The trees are marked both with respect to their trunks (filled lines) and the extension of their foliage (dashed lines).
As is discussed in the summary above, the inventors have realized that by adjusting the cutting height a temporary marking of a feature may be achieved in a very simple and elegant way. This will now be discussed in greater detail with simultaneous reference to
To instruct the robotic lawnmower 100 to mark a feature, a feature marking mode may be initiated by a user, for example through the user interface 125. Alternatively or additionally, the feature marking mode may be initiated as a scheduled operation by the controller 110. In all circumstances, the controller will receive an indication to enter the 1010 feature marking mode and do so. There may be several commands available to a user for selecting which feature is to be found. For example, there may be an option to mark the feature the guide wire 230 (as will be discussed with reference to
It should be noted that for some features, the feature marking mode is part of the normal operation mode, or at least arranged to operate in parallel to the normal operating mode. This enables for providing updates on a condition and how it changes. For example, a user may be interested in how the situation with interference changes from one operation to another and thus instruct the robotic lawnmower 100 to mark areas where significant interference is detected regularly or in all operations.
As the feature marking mode is entered, the robotic lawnmower identifies which feature it is to find. An indication of which feature that is to be marked is received along with the command to enter the feature marking mode. In one embodiment, there may be several feature marking modes that may operate in parallel, thereby enabling the robotic lawnmower 100 to mark more than one type of feature. The robotic lawnmower 100 then proceeds to find 1020 or detect the feature. The manner of how the feature is found or detected varies with the type of feature which will be discussed in further detail below. As the feature has been detected or found, the robotic lawnmower adjusts 1030 the cutting height to mark the feature generating a mowing pattern. Optionally for some features, the robotic lawnmower 100 then proceeds by following 1040 the feature so that the mowing pattern marking the feature extends along or around the feature.
The boundary wire 220 may also be marked where it is laid to form “islands” as it has been around for example the trees T in
Alternatively to the robotic lawnmower 100 following the wire to be marked, the robotic lawnmower 100 may be arranged to mark the feature each time the feature is detected. Over time, this will provide the same mowing pattern. Such marking may take longer time, but may be done in parallel with or simultaneous with normal operation, thereby saving time overall.
To enable the robotic lawnmower 100 to mark such an area, the robotic lawnmower 100 is arranged to detect that a satellite reception signal received by the satellite navigation sensor (or other signal received by other sensor) has a signal strength that falls below a threshold value. Alternatively it may be determined that the received signal has a correlation that falls below a threshold confidence value. As this is detected, the robotic lawnmower 100 is arranged to adjust the cutting height and mark the location where this is detected. In one embodiment, the robotic lawnmower 100 may follow a path where it is detected that the signal received has the same or lower signal strength or correlation, whereby the border of the area is marked. In one embodiment, the robotic lawnmower 100 may simply mark the location and then resume operation, possibly utilizing an alternative navigation sensor, such as the deduced navigation sensor(s) 175. In such an embodiment the robotic lawnmower 100 is arranged to again mark a location where it is detected that the received signal exceeds the relevant threshold value again. Over time, this will provide a marking of the border of the area where signal reception is low. For the context of this application, a threshold value will be considered to be exceeded both when the relevant signal property fall below or raises above the corresponding threshold value. As in
Marking such an area may be beneficial for a user as the user may not be aware of where a supplemental navigation beacon 240 should best be placed. In the example of
A user may thus instruct the robotic lawnmower 100 to—either during operation or in a specific operation—to enter a mode where such features are marked. The features are beneficially selected using a map of the work area 205. The location of the feature(s) being saved as part of or in addition to the map. In one embodiment, the structural features may not even be part of the map, but the user may be enabled to by providing user input through the user interface, drawn in the location of such feature(s). The location may be an area or a line or a single location depending on the type of structural (or other) feature to be marked.
The location of the feature(s) to be marked are then provided to the robotic lawnmower 100 as part of the robotic lawnmower entering the feature marking mode, and the robotic lawnmower 100 finds the feature by finding the location of the feature(s). As the location is found, the robotic lawnmower 100 adapts the cutting height and generates the mowing pattern MP.
As in other examples given herein, the feature marking may be executed as a specific operation (wherein the robotic lawnmower 100 follows the location of the feature(s)) or in parallel with normal operation (wherein the robotic lawnmower 100 marks the location of the feature(s) each time it is passed), or as a combination thereof, perhaps starting as a parallel operation but ending as a specific operation to ensure the feature is marked.
It should be noted that this manner of marking features may be applied to any type of feature, the user wishes to mark. Possibly to mark an area where a shed is to be raised, marking an area where a flowerbed is to be planted, to give a few examples.
As discussed above, the boundary wire 220 may also be marked where it is laid to form “islands” as it has been around for example the trees T in
Returning to the example of
Should the mowing pattern be considered to not be visible enough or if the mowing pattern need to be visible for a longer time period, the mowing pattern MP may be filled in by a user for example by spraying it to make it more visible. As discussed in relation to
As has also been indicated above, the robotic lawnmower may be arranged to find and mark more than one feature, the feature marking modes thus not being exclusive to one another.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2050847-9 | Jul 2020 | SE | national |