This application claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2021-0108516 filed on Aug. 18, 2021, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.
The present disclosure relates to a robot cleaner.
There may be a case in which a glass of water is dropped from the table to the floor while eating at home in the bright daylight and small pieces of broken glass are scattered on the floor. Although an attempt to remove such small pieces of broken glass that have been scattered on the floor is performed, some pieces of the broken glass are too small in size and thus may not be viewed by the human eyes regardless of being in a very bright environment. As a result, the his/her foot may be injured by pieces of broken glass which has not been removed. Incidentally, he/she goes to the kitchen to drink water that night, he/she remembers breaking the glass during the day, he/she illuminates the floor using a lighting function of the mobile phone without turning on the kitchen lighting. At this time, he/she views a very small size of light may twinkle on the floor in that situation. He/she realizes that an object that exhibits such light is a piece of the glass of water which has been broken during the day. In other words, a very small size of object, such as a piece of glass, may not be viewed by the human eyes in a bright environment. However, when illumination is applied toward the object in an overall dark environment, the object may be easily sensed due to the reflection of light from the object. In addition, when the illumination of the mobile phone is applied toward the floor at various different angles, the light reflection of a piece of glass, which has not been sensed at a certain angle, may be likely sensed at angles different from the certain angle. The present inventor(s) completed the present disclosure in consideration of the above circumstances.
As the related art, there is a robot cleaner disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2009-0119637 (entitled: Robot cleaner and Control Method thereof, published on Nov. 19, 2009, by LG Electronics).
The conventional robot cleaner as described above includes the illumination part configured to illuminate the floor surface, the light receiving sensor configured to measure the brightness of the floor surface, and an image capturing/storing means configured to capture the image of the floor surface and store the same in the memory. In the conventional technology described above, the movement displacement of the robot cleaner is measured using the above-described components. On the other hand, the present disclosure uses not only the same or similar components as those in the conventional technology but also additional components which are not provided in the conventional technology, thus providing new and advantageous effects, which are hard to be achieved and predicted by the conventional technology.
An object of the present disclosure is to provide a robot cleaner capable of sensing and removing a small object having a plurality of reflective surfaces which may not be viewed by human eyes, such as a piece of broken glass, in a more efficient manner.
The present disclosure relates to a robot cleaner. The robot cleaner according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes: a light receiving sensor configured to measure a brightness of a floor surface; an illumination part configured to irradiate the floor surface with light; a rotation device connected to the illumination part and configured to adjust a rotational angle of the illumination part; an capturing part configured to capture an image of the floor surface; a memory part that stores the image of the floor surface captured by the capturing part; a driving part including an electric motor and wheels; a vacuum suction part configured to perform a vacuum suction by being supplied with power from the electric motor; and a control part.
The control part determines an operation in a capturing mode when a value input from the light receiving sensor is determined to be equal to or lower than a predetermined value. In the capturing mode, the control part is configured to: control the driving part to move to a first position; control the illumination part, the rotation device, and the capturing part to capture the image of the floor surface multiple times while changing the rotational angle of the illumination part to which electric power is applied; and combine a plurality of images captured at the changed rotational angles and store the combined image in the memory part as a first image relating to the first position.
Subsequently, in the same manner as that performed at the first position, the control part controls the driving part to move to a second position, control the capturing part, the rotation device, and the capturing part to capture the image of the floor surface the multiple times, combine a plurality of images obtained by capturing the image of the floor surface the multiple times, and store the combined image in the memory part as a second image relating to the second position.
Further, after the capturing at a final position is completed, the control part combines all images from the first image relating to the first position to a final image obtained at the final position, and produces the combined image as a full image of the floor surface.
When the control part controls the illumination part, the rotation device, and the capturing part to capture the image of the floor surface the multiple times while changing the rotational angle of the illumination part to which the electric power is applied, the control part controls the capturing part to capture a light reflection pattern of lights reflected from an object having a plurality of reflective surfaces when the illumination part irradiates the object with the light at the changed rotational angles, and controls the memory part to store a combined image obtained by combining a plurality of images captured at the changed rotational angles.
Further, the robot cleaner according to the present disclosure may further include other additional configurations.
According to the present disclosure, it is possible to provide a robot cleaner capable of sensing and remove a small object having a plurality of reflective surfaces that may not be viewed by human eyes, such as a piece of broken glass, in a more effective manner.
The following detailed explanation of the present disclosure will be provided with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate certain embodiments in which the present disclosure may be carried out as an example. These embodiments will be described in detail so that those skilled in the art can carry out the present disclosure. It should be understood that various embodiments of the present disclosure need not be mutually exclusive but not necessarily mutually exclusive. For example, certain shapes, structures, and characteristics described herein may be implemented with changes from an embodiment to other embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure in connection with an embodiment. It should also be understood that the location or placement of individual components in each disclosed embodiment can be varied without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the following detailed description is not intended to be taken as a restrictive sense, and the scope of the present disclosure is limited only by the appended claims along with all ranges which are equivalent to those claimed.
Hereinafter, various preferred embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings to enable those skilled in the art to easily implement the present disclosure.
First, a light receiving sensor 10 is a component configured to measure the brightness of a floor surface. The light receiving sensor 10 measures the brightness of the floor surface and transmits the measured signal to a control part 80, which will be described later. In order to accurately measure the brightness of the floor surface, the light receiving sensor 10 is preferably mounted on a lower end portion of the robot cleaner 100, which is adjacent to the floor surface. An illumination part 20 is a component configured to irradiate the floor surface with light and be turned on or off by controlling the application of electric power based on a signal provided from the control part 80. As one of the features of the present disclosure, the illumination part 20 is attached to the robot cleaner 100 through a rotation device 30 without attached to the robot cleaner 100 at a fixed illumination angle. The rotation device 30 may change the illumination angle of the illumination part 20 with respect to the floor surface. Further, the rotation device 30 operates to rotate the illumination part 20 based on a signal provided from the control part 80. The rotational angle of the illumination part 20 by the rotation device 30 may be determined in advance. For example, the illumination angle of the illumination part 20 may be changed in a range of 45 degrees to 135 degrees. The rotation device 30 is provided to sense an object to be removed on the floor surface, which is a main target of the robot cleaner 100 according to the present disclosure. As described in the Background section of the present disclosure, the robot cleaner 100 according to the present disclosure sets, a main object to be removed on the floor surface is a small piece of glass that may not be viewed by human eyes. However, the present disclosure is not necessarily limited to the small piece of glass. The present disclosure is applicable to sense and remove a small object having a plurality of reflective surfaces, such as a piece of glass. When such a small object having a plurality of reflective surfaces, such as a piece of glass, is placed on the floor surface, if irradiation with light is performed at a fixed irradiation angle, it may be difficult to sense the small object. When the object is irradiated with light at the fixed angle, a light reflected from the object may not be directed to observer's eyes or an image sensor attached to the robot cleaner 100. This makes it difficult to sense the object. When the object having a plurality of reflective surfaces, such as a piece of glass, is irradiated with light at a plurality of changed angles, light reflected from the object is likely to be directed to the observer's eyes or the image sensor attached to the robot cleaner 100. This makes it possible to increase the possibility of sensing the object. The rotation device 30 may be implemented with, for example, a step motor. The rotation device 30 may be implemented by another means other than the step motor as long as it can rotate a shaft connected to the illumination part 20. In consideration of the configuration of the illumination part 20 which irradiates the floor surface with light at a rotational angle while being connected to the rotation device 30, the illumination part 20 may be preferably configured to irradiate the floor surface with rectilinear light. An apparatus that generates and illuminates rectilinear light has been widely known before the effective filing date of the present disclosure, and therefore, a further description of a specific configuration of an illumination part for illuminating the rectilinear light will be omitted. Although the rotation device 30 has been described to rotate the illumination part 20 in the present embodiment described with reference to
In an embodiment illustrated in
As illustrated in
Next, a method of controlling the robot cleaner in the capturing mode according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, will be described with reference to
In an initial step, the robot cleaner 100 is in a standby state. The execution starting of the capturing mode as described above depends on the intensity of the brightness of the floor surface, which is measured by the light receiving sensor 10. When the intensity of the measured brightness is higher than a predetermined value, the robot cleaner 100 goes into the standby state again. When the intensity of the measured brightness is equal to or lower than the predetermined value, namely when light is dark, the robot cleaner 100 starts to operate in the capturing mode. As a first step during the operation in the capturing mode, the robot cleaner 100 moves to a first area along a predetermined movement route in the capturing mode (for example, a movement route as illustrated in
Next, a method of controlling the robot cleaner in the capturing mode according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, will be described with reference to
After the capturing mode is completed, the full image of the entire floor surface is stored in the memory part 50 as described above. Unlike the capturing mode, the operation starting in the cleaning mode is performed without the collection of signals input from the light receiving sensor 10. The cleaning mode may be automatically executed at a predetermined time zone set in advance by the user. Alternatively, the cleaning mode may be executed responsive to a clean operation instruction issued by the user even before a predetermined period of time or even if a time at which an automatic cleaning operation begins has not been set. In either case, when the cleaning mode is executed, the full image of the entire floor surface stored in the memory part 50 is loaded in a first step. As an example, the full image of the entire floor surface is as illustrated in
The embodiment of the present disclosure has been described in the above with the example in which the main object to be removed is, for example, a fragment of glass, but the present disclosure is applicable to sense a state in which a jewelry is on the floor surface in an efficient manner. This will be additionally described later. A jewelry sensing mode described here is not a mode which is set separately from the above-described capturing mode. The jewelry sensing mode may be additionally executed in addition to the capturing mode when it is determined that a jewelry having a high economic value is on the floor surface during the execution of the capturing mode.
Jewelry, such as diamond, is cut to have a very large number of surfaces. There are many different methods to cut jewelry. A round cut, which is a representative diamond cutting method, cuts a diamond stone corner to have a total of 58 surfaces. Even with any cutting methods, the jewelry is generally cut to have dozens of reflective surfaces. The jewelry having such a large number of reflective surfaces exhibits a light reflective property which is clearly distinct from other objects in the capturing mode according to the present disclosure. The capturing mode according to the present disclosure is executed when the intensity of the brightness of the floor surface is equal to or lower that the predetermined value. Thus, it is possible to clearly sense the light reflected from the jewelry having a large number of reflective surfaces compared to other objects. That is, in the capturing mode according to the present disclosure, a jewelry that reflects the light irradiated from the illumination part 20 in many different directions even in a dark environment in which the brightness is equal to or lower than a predetermined level, may be clearly sensed. The capturing part 40 captures an image of the jewelry, which is produced through the light reflection in many different directions. The control part 80 determines a position at which the image is captured by the capturing part 40. This position may be stored in the control part 80 or the memory part 50. Further, at the end of the capturing mode, information about the fact that the jewelry is sensed and the position at which the image is captured by the capturing part 40 may be displayed on the digital display window provided in the robot cleaner 100 to notify the information of the user. Further, it is possible to sense the jewelry in a more reliable manner using the illumination part 20, which is one of the features of the present disclosure. When an object, which exhibits a special reflection pattern and thus is primarily presumed to be a jewelry, is sensed, the control part 80 may rotate the illumination part 20 finely around a position of the object to obtain an image for each rotation position. For example, in the case in which the illumination part 20 is rotated at three rotational angles of 45 degrees, 90 degrees, and 135 degrees around an nth area, when an object presumed to be a jewelry at the rotational angle of 90 degrees is sensed, the control part 80 may rotate the illumination part 20 again to capture an image of the object before moving to an (n+1)th area. In an embodiment, the capturing may be performed at further fine rotational angles of, for example, 85 degrees, 90 degrees, and 95 degrees. By sensing a pattern of reflected lights that changes drastically with a fine change in the illumination angle of the illumination part 20 configured to mainly perform an irradiation the rectilinear light, it is possible to more reliably determine that the object is a jewelry. When the object presumed to be a jewelry is sensed, the robot cleaner 100 may be controlled so as not to operate in the cleaning mode. As the related art, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2021-0089040A1 (entitled: Obstacle Recognition Method for Autonomous Robots, published by AI Incorporated) discloses a method of sensing a jewelry. The method disclosed in the above document includes comparing an image of an object captured by an image sensor with images of a very large number of template objects, including a jewelry, which are stored in an object dictionary, and determining if an object on the floor surface matches any one of the template objects stored in the object dictionary. The determination using such an image comparison requires a significant amount of computing power. In practice, in an embodiment of the technique disclosed in the above document, in order to complement a limited computing power of the robot cleaner itself, the image comparison is performed in a remote computer by utilizing a cloud computing. However, the conventional method determines if the object is a jewelry by using only the image of the object instead of the light reflective properties and comparing the image of the object with the images of the template objects. This results in a degradation of the accuracy of the jewelry identification. In the present disclosure, the illumination is applied to the object even in the dark environment, and the special reflection pattern of lights reflected from the object by the illumination the object is used to determine if the object is a jewelry. This makes it possible to identify the jewelry in a more reliable manner with a relatively small computing power.
While the capturing mode, the cleaning mode and the jewelry sensing mode have been described as the features of the present disclosure, the robot cleaner 100 according to the present disclosure may be executed even in other modes other than these modes. The robot cleaner 100 according to the present disclosure may be operated in a conventional general vacuum cleaning mode, for example, a mode in which the vacuum suction is performed along a predetermined path while avoiding obstacles. The operation mode may further include the conventional general vacuum cleaning mode in addition to the capturing mode, the cleaning mode and the jewelry sensing mode described above.
While the present disclosure has been described in the foregoing by way of embodiments and drawings which are defined with specific matters such as specific components and the like, this is only the one provided to aid in a more general understanding of the present disclosure, and the present disclosure is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications and variations can be made from the substrate to those skilled in the art to which the present disclosure pertains.
Accordingly, the spirit of the present disclosure should not be defined as limited to the embodiments described above, and all that have been equivalently or equivalently modified with the claims to be described below, as well as those to be within the scope of the spirit of the present disclosure.
100: robot cleaner
10: light receiving sensor
20: illumination part
30: rotation device (for illumination part)
40: capturing part
50: memory part
60: driving part
70: vacuum suction part
80: control part
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2021-0108516 | Aug 2021 | KR | national |