CN108879807A

CN108879807A - Charging pile, pile-finding method using the charging pile, and charging control system

Info

Publication number: CN108879807A
Application number: CN201710558334.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 贺航; 黄明运; 张志淳; 刘晓明
Original assignee: Beijing Rockrobo Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Rockrobo Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-07-10
Filing date: 2017-07-10
Publication date: 2018-11-23
Also published as: TWI680623B; TW201909515A; WO2019011081A1

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a charging pile, a pile-finding method using the charging pile, and a charging control system, wherein the charging pile includes: a controller and at least two signal transmitting devices; wherein the control The controller controls the at least two signal transmitting devices to transmit optical signals according to the set optical signal transmitting sequence, and encodes the transmitted optical signals; wherein, the optical signals transmitted by each signal transmitting device are encoded to form corresponding radiation codes The radiation coding area formed by the optical signals emitted by adjacent signal transmitting devices partially overlaps in the radiation range. Through the embodiment of the present invention, the automatic cleaning equipment reduces the blind area between the charging pile and the automatic cleaning equipment with a relatively low cost and a relatively simple structure, and improves the pile-finding efficiency of the automatic cleaning equipment.

Description

Charging pile, pile searching method using charging pile and charging control system

Technical Field

The embodiment of the invention relates to the technical field of artificial intelligence, in particular to a charging pile, a pile searching method using the charging pile and a charging control system.

Background

The automatic cleaning equipment is one kind of intelligent household appliances, and various automatic cleaning operations are realized by means of an artificial intelligence technology, so that convenience is provided for the life of people. The automatic cleaning equipment uses the rechargeable battery as a power supply, and can be separated from an external power supply in the cleaning process, so that the free cleaning operation is realized. When the electric quantity of the rechargeable battery is lower than a certain level, the automatic cleaning equipment needs to identify the corresponding charging pile and returns the identified charging pile to charge.

At present, automatic cleaning equipment realizes charging pile's discernment and return through automatic pile searching setting more. For example, in one existing implementation: in automatic cleaning equipment's the active area, fill and install infrared transmitter on the electric pile, install corresponding infrared receiver on the automatic cleaning equipment, the outside transmission signal of transmitter forms the region of returning a journey, and the receiver is received the transmission signal and is walked in order to get into the region of returning a journey and orientation and fill electric pile to make automatic cleaning equipment and fill the electric pile butt joint and charge. The regional area of returning a journey is great then makes self-cleaning equipment receive emission signal more easily to get into this area of returning a journey and align with charging pile, present area of returning a journey has increased the far field area on the basis of near field area, enlarges the far field area on the basis of near field area promptly, thereby has enlarged the regional area of returning a journey.

However, with the increase of the area of the return area, the accuracy of the return of the automatic cleaning device in the return area with such a large area is reduced, and it is not guaranteed that the automatic cleaning device performs more accurate return. At this time, the automatic cleaning device is often required to create a pile searching and returning map, and for this reason, corresponding operation, storage and sensing devices capable of meeting performance requirements need to be added, so that the cost and complexity of the automatic cleaning device are increased.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a charging pile, a pile searching method applying the charging pile and a charging control system, which can realize accurate pile searching and pile returning actions of automatic cleaning equipment at lower cost and simpler structure under the condition of not creating a pile searching and pile returning map.

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a charging pile including: the device comprises a controller and at least two signal transmitting devices; the controller controls at least two signal transmitting devices to transmit optical signals according to a set optical signal transmitting sequence and codes the transmitted optical signals; the optical signals emitted by each signal emitting device are coded to form a corresponding radiation coding region, and the radiation coding regions formed by the optical signals emitted by adjacent signal emitting devices are partially overlapped in a radiation range.

Optionally, the at least two signal emitting devices include a first signal emitting device and a second signal emitting device, and the charging pile further includes a spacing device, the spacing device is disposed on a center line between the first signal emitting device and the second signal emitting device, so that the first signal emitting device and the second signal emitting device are symmetrical about the center line.

Optionally, the first signal transmitting device and the second signal transmitting device respectively comprise at least two signal emitters, the first signal transmitting device comprises a first signal emitter and a second signal emitter, the second signal transmitting device comprises a third signal emitter and a fourth signal emitter, the first signal emitter and the fourth signal emitter are symmetrical about the center line, and the second signal emitter and the third signal emitter are symmetrical about the center line.

Optionally, the optical signal emitted by the first signal emitting device is encoded to form a first radiation encoding region, and the optical signal emitted by the second signal emitting device is encoded to form a second radiation encoding region; the spacing device partially shields the optical signal emitted by the first signal emitting device and the optical signal emitted by the second signal emitting device, so that the first radiation coding region and the second radiation coding region are partially overlapped on a radiation range.

Optionally, the second signal emitter and the third signal emitter which are adjacent to two sides of the spacer device are vertically arranged forwards, and the first signal emitter and the fourth signal emitter which are far away from the spacer device are respectively arranged at a set angle with the adjacent signal emitting devices.

Alternatively, the set angle is 45 degrees.

Optionally, the at least two signal transmitting devices include an odd number of signal transmitting devices, and the odd number of signal transmitting devices are symmetrically arranged with a center line of one of the signal transmitting devices as a symmetry line.

Optionally, the light signal emission sequence instructs the at least two signal emitting devices to alternately or sequentially emit light signals, the coding of which differs.

Optionally, in one period, the light signal emission sequence instructs each of the at least two signal emitting devices to emit light signals of at least two intensities, and in one time interval in one period, each signal emitting device emits light signals of only one intensity.

Optionally, in one period, the light signal emitting sequence instructs each of the at least two signal emitting devices to emit light signals of the same intensity, and in one time interval in one period, each signal emitting device emits light signals of only one intensity.

Optionally, in the same time interval of one period, the at least two signal emitting devices emit light signals synchronously, the intensity of the synchronous emitted light signals is the same, and the codes are the same, so that the near-field radiation encoding area is formed.

Optionally, the spacing means is a shutter plate.

According to another aspect of the embodiment of the invention, a method for searching a pile in a charging pile is further provided, and the method for searching the pile in the charging pile comprises the following steps: analyzing the received optical signal sequence from the charging pile to obtain an optical signal coding sequence corresponding to the optical signal sequence; and determining the current area of the equipment according to the optical signal coding sequence and the stored area and coding sequence comparison table.

Optionally, the method further comprises: analyzing the received optical signal sequence from the charging pile to acquire light source direction information; and adjusting the movement direction of the equipment according to the area and the light source direction information.

Optionally, analyzing the received optical signal sequence from the charging pile, and obtaining the coding sequence of the optical signal includes: and analyzing the coded sequence of the optical signal according to a pre-stored time period to obtain the coded sequence of the optical signal of each period.

Optionally, wherein the adjusting the moving direction of the device according to the area information and the light source direction information comprises: estimating the position of a symmetrical center line of the signal transmitting device according to the area information and the light source direction information; adjusting the position of the device such that the alignment line of the device coincides with the position of the center line of symmetry; make equipment along the motion of symmetry central line, make the interface that charges of equipment and fill electric pile's the joint that charges and join together.

Optionally, before parsing the received optical signal sequence from the charging pile, the method further includes: receiving a sequence of optical signals from a charging post by a plurality of optical receivers, wherein the plurality of optical receivers includes at least two large angle optical receivers and an alignment optical receiver for alignment with the charging post; alternatively, the plurality of light receivers includes a full angle light receiver and an alignment light receiver for aligning with the charging post.

According to still another aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, there is also provided an automatic cleaning apparatus including: at least two large-angle light receivers and a processor; the automatic cleaning device comprises a charging pile, at least two large-angle light receivers, a control circuit and a control circuit, wherein the at least two large-angle light receivers are arranged on a shell of the automatic cleaning device according to a set angle and used for receiving light signals from the charging pile; the processor is used for executing the operation corresponding to the charging pile searching method.

Optionally, the automatic cleaning apparatus further comprises an alignment light receiver for aligning with the charging post; the three large-angle light receivers and the aligning light receiver are uniformly arranged on the peripheral wall of the shell of the automatic cleaning device.

According to still another aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, there is also provided an automatic cleaning apparatus including: a full-angle optical receiver and a processor; the all-angle receiver is arranged on a shell of the automatic cleaning equipment according to a set angle and used for receiving an optical signal from the charging pile; the processor is used for executing the operation corresponding to the charging pile searching method.

Optionally, the automatic cleaning apparatus further comprises an alignment light receiver for aligning with the charging post; the full-angle receiver and the alignment light receiver are uniformly arranged on the peripheral wall of the shell of the automatic cleaning device.

According to still another aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, there is also provided a charge control system including: aforementioned electric pile and aforementioned self-cleaning equipment fill.

Through the scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention, at least two signal transmitting devices capable of transmitting optical signals are arranged in the charging pile. With this arrangement, the radiation range of the optical signal emitted by the signal emitting device can be divided into a plurality of regions including the radiation overlapping region and the respective radiation regions other than the overlapping region. Different codes are carried out on different optical signals transmitted by the signal transmitting device, so that in the pile searching and pile returning process of the automatic cleaning equipment, after the optical signals are received, the current area can be determined according to the codes of the optical signals, and then subsequent operation is carried out, if the automatic cleaning equipment continues to advance along the current direction or advances after changing the direction, the automatic cleaning equipment finally realizes pile returning.

Therefore, according to the scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention, on one hand, extra pile searching and returning settings do not need to be provided for the automatic cleaning equipment, the automatic cleaning equipment does not need to have the capability of creating a coordinate map, and any signal transmitting device with a light signal transmitting function, such as an infrared light transmitting device, can realize the scheme of the embodiment of the invention, so that the blind area between the charging pile and the automatic cleaning equipment is reduced, and the pile searching efficiency of the automatic cleaning equipment is improved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a charging pile according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a sectional view of the charging pile shown in fig. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of the radiation encoded regions of an optical signal in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

fig. 4 and 5 are schematic diagrams of arrangement structures of optical signal emitting devices according to another embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a radiation encoding region of an optical signal of the optical signal transmitting device of FIGS. 4 and 5;

fig. 7 and 8 are schematic structural views of an automatic cleaning device according to a second embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic view of an automatic cleaning apparatus according to an embodiment of the second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 and 11 are schematic diagrams of pile searching and returning processes of automatic cleaning equipment according to a second embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic view of an automatic cleaning apparatus according to yet another embodiment of the second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 13 is a flowchart illustrating steps of a pile finding method for a charging pile according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

1. charging piles; 101. a first signal transmitting device; 102. a second signal transmitting device; 1011. a first signal transmitter; 1012. a second signal transmitter; 1021. a third signal transmitter; 1022. a fourth signal transmitter; 108. a spacing device; 1081. a baffle plate; 111. a housing; 110. a controller; 112. a light-transmitting portion; 113. a charging connector; 2. an automatic cleaning device; 201. a processor; 202. aligning the optical receiver; 203. a large-angle optical receiver; 204. a full-angle optical receiver; m, a symmetrical central line of the signal processing device; m2, alignment line of the automatic cleaning device; j1, first near field region; y1, first far field region; j2, second near field region; y2, second far field region; j3, third near field region; y3, third far field region; j4, fourth near field region; y4, fourth far field region; JD1, first near field overlap region; YD1, a first far-field overlap region; JD2, second near field overlap region; YD2, a second far-field overlap region; JD3, third near field overlap region; YD3, a third far-field overlap region.

Detailed Description

The following detailed description of embodiments of the invention is provided in conjunction with the accompanying drawings (like numerals indicate like elements throughout the several views) and examples. The following examples are intended to illustrate the invention but are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

It will be understood by those of skill in the art that the terms "first," "second," and the like in the embodiments of the present invention are used merely to distinguish one element, step, device, module, or the like from another element, and do not denote any particular technical or logical order therebetween.

Example one

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, schematic structural diagrams of a charging pile according to a first embodiment of the invention are shown.

The charging pile 1 of the present embodiment includes a substantially L-shaped housing 111 disposed on a fixed object such as a floor or a wall, and a light-transmitting portion 112 is provided in the housing 111.

The charging pile further comprises a controller and at least two signal transmitting devices, wherein the controller controls the at least two signal transmitting devices to transmit optical signals according to a set optical signal transmitting sequence and codes the transmitted optical signals; the optical signals emitted by each signal emitting device are coded to form a corresponding radiation coding region, and the radiation coding regions formed by the optical signals emitted by adjacent signal emitting devices are partially overlapped in a radiation range.

The charging pile of the embodiment is provided with at least two signal transmitting devices, optical signals transmitted by each signal transmitting device are coded to form a corresponding radiation coding area, radiation coding areas formed by the optical signals transmitted by adjacent signal transmitting devices are partially overlapped on a radiation range, the radiation area is divided into different coding areas through coding, the matched automatic cleaning equipment can distinguish the area where the automatic cleaning equipment is located through analyzing coding, pile searching and pile returning operations can be further carried out according to the difference of the areas, pile searching and pile returning maps do not need to be additionally created, corresponding hardware does not need to be added, any signal transmitting device with a function of transmitting optical signals such as an infrared light transmitting device can be adopted, and the cost of the charging pile and the automatic cleaning equipment can be effectively reduced on the basis of ensuring the performance of accurately searching and returning the piles.

In an alternative embodiment, the at least two signal emitting devices include a first signal emitting device 101 and a second signal emitting device 102, and the charging pile 1 further includes a spacing device 108, wherein the spacing device 108 is disposed on a center line M between the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102, so that the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102 are symmetrical about the center line M.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 1 to 3, the charging pile 1 includes a first signal emitting device 101, a second signal emitting device 102, and a spacing device 108, where the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102 are disposed in a light-transmitting portion 112 at intervals, and light signals emitted by the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102 can be emitted through the light-transmitting portion 112. The spacing means 108 is disposed on a center line M between the first signal transmitting means 101 and the second signal transmitting means, so that the centers of the first signal transmitting means 101 and the second signal transmitting means 102 are symmetrical.

The charging pile 1 further comprises a controller 110, the controller 110 is installed in the charging pile 1, and the controller 110 controls the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102 to emit light signals according to a set light signal emitting sequence and codes the emitted light signals. The optical signal emitted by the first signal emitting device 101 is encoded to form a first radiation encoding region, and the optical signal emitted by the second signal emitting device 102 is encoded to form a second radiation encoding region. In the present embodiment, the first signal transmitting apparatus 101 and the second signal transmitting apparatus 102 each include one signal transmitter. However, in other embodiments, the first signal transmitting apparatus 101 and the second signal transmitting apparatus 102 may also include a plurality of signal transmitters, respectively, and the embodiment including a plurality of signal transmitters will be described later.

The spacing means 108 partially blocks the optical signal emitted by the first signal emitting means 101 and the optical signal emitted by the second signal emitting means 102. Specifically, the spacing device 108 is used for partially shielding the optical signal emitted by the first signal emitting device 101 toward the second signal emitting device 102 and the optical signal emitted by the second signal emitting device 102 toward the first signal emitting device 101, so that the first radiation encoding area and the second radiation encoding area partially overlap in the radiation range. In particular, the first and second radiation encoding regions are in the form of two fan-shaped regions, and the two fan-shaped regions form a fan-shaped overlapping region in front of the spacing means. The sector overlap region is symmetrical with respect to the median line M.

In one alternative, the spacer 108 may be implemented as a light shield, which is simple, inexpensive, and inexpensive to implement as compared to other spacers 108. The function of the spacer 108 will be described in detail later.

Alternatively, the first signal transmitting device 101 and the second signal transmitting device 102 may be any suitable device capable of transmitting light signals, including but not limited to: devices that emit infrared light, devices that emit visible light, and the like. Preferably, in the embodiment of the present invention, a signal transmitting device that transmits infrared light is selected. On one hand, the stability of the infrared light is better, the price is cheap, and the realization cost is low; on the other hand, compared with visible light which is visible to human eyes and is easily influenced by the environment, infrared light is not easily interfered by other light sources and is invisible, and user experience is better.

The controller 110 encodes the optical signals transmitted by the first signal transmitting apparatus 101 and the second signal transmitting apparatus 102, so that the encoded optical signals can be received in the area irradiated by the optical signals transmitted by the first signal transmitting apparatus 101, and the corresponding encoded optical signals can be received in the area irradiated by the optical signals transmitted by the second signal transmitting apparatus 102.

Alternatively, the optical signals emitted by the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102 have different codes. Therefore, the signal receiving equipment can conveniently judge the source of the optical signal according to the code, and further can preliminarily judge the position of the signal receiving equipment.

Alternatively, the optical signal emitting sequence may instruct the signal emitting device to emit the optical signal cyclically according to a certain period, for example, in a period, the signal emitting device may emit the optical signal according to a set time interval, the set time interval may be set by a person skilled in the art according to actual needs, for example, the signal is emitted every t seconds, and t may be any suitable time such as 0.1 second, 0.2 second, 0.5 second, and the embodiment of the present invention does not limit a specific emitting time interval. However, the optical signal transmission sequence is not limited to transmitting signals at regular time intervals, and other transmission rules may be adopted.

Alternatively, as a feasible way of the optical signal transmission sequence, the optical signal transmission sequence may instruct the first signal transmission device 101 and the second signal transmission device 102 to transmit the optical signals cyclically with a period of 2t, i.e. the first signal transmission device 101 transmits the optical signal encoded as a, the second signal transmission device 102 transmits the optical signal encoded as B, a and B adopt different codes.

In this way, the light radiation coding area around the charging pile 1 is divided into: a first region where only the a signal can be received, a second region where only the B signal can be received, and an overlapping region where both the a and B signals can be received. Like this, with fill electric pile 1 complex automatic cleaning equipment just can judge the position at present through the code time series of the light signal who discerns. For example, if the automatic cleaning device can only periodically receive the signal a, it can be determined that the automatic cleaning device is in the first area, and similarly, if the automatic cleaning device can only periodically receive the signal B, it can be determined that the automatic cleaning device is in the second area; if the automatic cleaning device can alternately receive the A signal and the B signal, the automatic cleaning device is in the overlapping area.

Alternatively, the controller 110 may also control the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102 to emit the light signals with the same or different intensities cyclically in the order indicated by the light signal emitting sequence, and each signal emitting device emits the light signal with only one intensity in a time interval in one period. In a time interval in which all signal transmitting devices transmit signals, each signal transmitting device only transmits signals with one intensity, so that the problem that signals with different intensities are continuously transmitted by one signal transmitting device in one time interval to cause mutual interference among the signals with different intensities can be avoided. A cycle may comprise one or at least two time intervals.

Optionally, the light signal emission sequence instructs each signal emission device to emit light signals of at least two intensities within one period. Preferably, each signal emitting device emits light signals with different intensities every two adjacent times. That is, a period is divided into at least two time intervals, each signal emitting device emits an optical signal with only one intensity in one time interval, and the intensities of the optical signals emitted by the same signal emitting device are different in different adjacent time intervals.

For example, when the controller controls the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102 to emit light signals with different intensities every two adjacent times according to the light signal emitting sequence, in each period, the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102 sequentially emit a1, B1, a2 and B2 at intervals of t seconds, wherein a1 and a2 may adopt the same or different codes, and the light intensities of a1 and a2 are different (i.e., the irradiation ranges are different); the B1 and B2 may adopt the same or different codes, and the light intensity of the B1 and B2 is different (i.e. the irradiation range is different). The intensity of the a1 and B1 light signals is the same (intense light); the intensity of the a2 and B2 optical signals is the same (low light). The period as referred to herein refers to the time taken for all signal emitting devices to emit a complete cycle of all light signals at different intensities. Wherein, A1 and B1 are first time intervals, and A2 and B2 are second time intervals.

In another mode, the modes a1, B2, a2 and B1 can be adopted, wherein a1 and B2 are first time intervals, and a2 and B1 are second time intervals. That is, in a time interval, the intensity of the signals emitted by different signal emitters may be different, but each signal emitter still only emits a signal with one intensity, and the intensity of the optical signal emitted by each signal emitter in two adjacent time intervals is different.

For another example, the controller 110 may further control the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102 to sequentially emit a1, B1, a2, B2, A3, and B3 at intervals of t seconds in each 6t period when the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102 emit light signals with three different intensities of strong, medium, and weak, respectively. Wherein A1, B1 is the first time interval, A2, B2 is the second time interval, A3, B3 is the third time interval. Wherein, a1, a2 and A3 can adopt the same or different codes, and the light intensities of a1, a2 and A3 are different (namely different irradiation ranges), preferably adopt the order of strong, medium and weak, but are not limited to the above; b1, B2, B3 may adopt the same or different codes, and B1, B2, B3 have different light intensities (i.e. different irradiation ranges), preferably adopt the order of strong, medium and weak, but are not limited thereto. Preferably, the strong, medium and weak intensity grades of A1, A2, A3 and B1, B2 and B3 are basically the same. Adopt three kinds or more intensity to emit optical signal, can carry out more meticulous division to filling electric pile 1 region around, self-cleaning equipment can carry out more accurate judgement to the current position according to the code time sequence of received optical signal, and then more reasonable planning movement path improves and seeks a stake efficiency.

In the embodiment of the invention, the general industry standard for distinguishing the intensities of strong light and weak light can be adopted, and the self-defining setting can also be carried out according to the actual situation, for example, the optical signal with the intensity larger than the first set intensity is set as a strong light signal, and the optical signal with the intensity smaller than the second set intensity is set as a weak light signal; the first set intensity is greater than the second set intensity, and the specific intensity standard is set by a person skilled in the art according to actual needs, so that the strong light signal and the weak light signal can be clearly distinguished.

Alternatively, the spacing device 108 may be any suitable device having a function of blocking the optical signal so as to block the optical signal emitted by the second signal emitting device 102 to the first signal emitting device 101 side and block the optical signal emitted by the first signal emitting device 101 to the second signal emitting device 102 side. The device can be set by a person skilled in the art according to actual needs to have a certain length, so that a first illumination code area is formed by the light signal emitted by the first signal emitting device 101, and a second illumination code area is formed by the light signal emitted by the second signal emitting device 102, and the two illumination code areas partially overlap in an illumination range. The partially overlapped range can be set by a person skilled in the art according to actual requirements, is convenient to be recognized by automatic cleaning equipment, and is not easy to interfere with other areas.

Hereinafter, the charging pile 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention is described as an example.

In the present example, the controller 110 controls the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102 to emit light signals with two different intensities respectively, and in each period of 4t, the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102 sequentially emit a1, B1, a2 and B2 at intervals of t seconds, wherein a1 and a2 may adopt the same or different codes, and a1 is a strong light signal, a2 is a weak light signal, and the intensity of a2 is about 1/4 of that of a 1; b1 and B2 can adopt the same or different codes, B1 is a strong light signal, B2 is a weak light signal, and the intensity of B2 is about 1/4 of that of B1

In this case, a2 and B2 form the near field radiation encoding region, and a1 and B1 form the far field illumination region. The purpose of dividing the region into a near-field radiation encoding region and a far-field radiation encoding region is to enable the charging equipment to identify the distance between the charging equipment and the charging pile 1, and then more accurate control is performed on the movement direction and the direction. Specific components of the near field radiation encoding regions and the far field radiation encoding regions are described below in conjunction with FIG. 3.

In the case of emitting weak light, the near-field radiation encoding region includes a first near-field region J1 formed by the individual irradiation of the first signal emitting device 101, a second near-field region J2 formed by the individual irradiation of the second signal emitting device 102, and a first near-field overlapping region JD1 formed by the cross irradiation of the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102. As shown in fig. 2 in particular, wherein the first near field region J1 can receive the a2 signal but cannot receive the B2 signal due to the obstruction by the spacing device 108; the second near field region J2 can receive B2 light but cannot receive A2 signals; the first near-field overlap region JD1 receives both the a2 and B2 signals.

In the case of emitting strong light, three regions are similarly formed outside the near-field radiation encoding region in addition to the above-described near-field radiation encoding region in the far-field radiation encoding region, including a first far-field region Y1 formed by the individual irradiation of the first signal transmission device 101, a second far-field region Y2 formed by the individual irradiation of the second signal transmission device 102, and a first far-field overlapping region YD1 formed by the cross irradiation of the first signal transmission device 101 and the second signal transmission device 102. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the three intense light radiation encoding regions actually formed are the region formed by the first near-field region J1 and the first far-field region Y1, the region formed by the second near-field region J2 and the second far-field region Y2, and the region formed by the first near-field overlap region JD1 and the first far-field overlap region YD 1. As shown in fig. 3, the first far-field area Y1 can receive a1 signal but cannot receive a2 signal, the second far-field area Y2 can receive B1 signal but cannot receive B2 signal, and the first far-field overlap area YD1 can receive both a1 signal and B1 signal but cannot receive a2 and B2 signals. In addition, since the irradiation range of strong light can cover the irradiation range of weak light, the first near field region J1 can receive an a1 signal in addition to the a2 signal; the second near field region J2 may receive a B1 signal in addition to the B2 signal; the first near-field overlap region JD1 is received with signals from a2, B2, a1 and B1.

In an alternative embodiment, the emission sequence of the optical signal in the time period of 4t (t takes 0.1 second) of one period is: a1, B1, a2, B2, the transmission interval being once every 0.1 second, if the optical signal received by the automatic cleaning apparatus at 0.1 second is a1 and the optical signal received by the automatic cleaning apparatus at 0.2 second is B1, it may be determined that the automatic cleaning apparatus is currently located in the first near-field overlap area JD1 or the first far-field overlap area YD1, and if the optical signal received at 0.3 second is a2, it may be determined that the automatic cleaning apparatus is currently located in the first near-field overlap area JD 1; if the automatic cleaning device does not receive the light signal at the 0.3 second, it may be determined that the automatic cleaning device is in the first far-field overlap region YD 1; and so on. For another example, if the optical signal received by the automatic cleaning apparatus at 0.1 second is a1, the optical signal is not received at 0.2 second, and the optical signal a2 is received at 0.3 second, it may be determined that the automatic cleaning apparatus is currently located in the first near field region J1; if the light signal received by the cleaning device at second 0.1 is a1 and no light signal is received at both seconds 0.2 and 0.3, then it may be determined that the automatic cleaning device is currently located in the first far field area Y1. Other cases are similar to the aforementioned cases, and are not described in detail herein. Reference may be made specifically to table 1 below.

TABLE 1 correspondence of different regions to code sequences received in one cycle

When automatic cleaning equipment and the 1 cooperation of the electric pile that fills of this embodiment, can judge self and fill electric pile 1's relative position according to the code and the sequence of receiving light signal. Specifically, taking the charging pile 1 above as an example, the automatic cleaning device determines that it is currently in the first near-field region J1, the first far-field region Y1, the second near-field region J2, the second far-field region Y2, the first near-field overlap region JD1, and the first far-field overlap region YD 1. When the automatic cleaning equipment judges the self-located area, the moving direction can be adjusted, so that the automatic cleaning equipment moves towards the direction and the position close to the center line M. For example, when the automatic cleaning apparatus is in the first near-field region J1, the first far-field region Y1, the second near-field region J2, or the second far-field region Y2, the moving direction may be adjusted to move toward the first near-field overlap region JD1 or the first far-field overlap region YD1, and finally, the moving direction is aligned with the center line M, and then, the moving direction is moved along the center line M to align the automatic cleaning apparatus with the charging pile 1, thereby achieving automatic docking charging of the automatic cleaning apparatus with the charging pile 1. The alignment means is not particularly limited, and any means suitable for achieving alignment quickly may be employed.

It can be seen that, with the solution of this embodiment, the first and second signal emitting devices capable of emitting optical signals and the spacing device capable of blocking optical signals between the first and second signal emitting devices are disposed in the charging pile 1. With this arrangement, the irradiation range of the optical signals emitted by the first and second signal emitting devices can be divided into a plurality of regions including irradiation overlapping regions of the two and respective radiation encoding regions other than the overlapping regions. Different codes are carried out on different optical signals transmitted by the signal transmitting device, so that in the pile searching and pile returning processes of the automatic cleaning equipment, after the optical signals are received, the currently located radiation code area can be determined according to the codes of the optical signals, and then subsequent operation is carried out, if the automatic cleaning equipment continues to advance along the current direction or the automatic cleaning equipment advances after changing the direction, the automatic cleaning equipment advances to an area close to the charging pile 1, and finally pile returning is achieved.

According to the charging pile 1 provided by the embodiment of the invention, on one hand, extra pile searching and returning settings do not need to be provided for automatic cleaning equipment, and the automatic cleaning equipment does not need to have the capability of creating a coordinate map, and any signal emitting device with a light signal emitting function, such as an infrared light emitting device, and any spacing device with a light signal shielding function, such as a light shielding plate, can realize the scheme of the embodiment of the invention, so that pile searching and returning of the automatic cleaning equipment are simple, and the realization cost is low.

Fig. 4 and 5 show a configuration structure of another signal emitting device of a charging pile 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the charging pile 1 includes two sets of signal emitting devices, and the principle of the charging pile 1 is similar to that of the two sets of signal emitting devices, except that in the foregoing embodiment, each signal emitting device includes one signal emitter, and in the embodiment, each signal emitting device includes at least two signal emitters. The structure and operation of the charging pile 1 will be further described below.

The first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102 are respectively arranged on two sides of the spacing device 108, and the first signal emitting device 101 and the second signal emitting device 102 are symmetrically arranged relative to the spacing device 108. Wherein the first signal transmitting apparatus 101 includes a first signal transmitter 1011 and a second signal transmitter 1012, and the second signal transmitting apparatus 102 includes a third signal transmitter 1021 and a fourth signal transmitter 1022; the first signal emitter 1011 and the fourth signal emitter 1022 are symmetrically disposed with respect to the central line M, and the second signal emitter 1012 and the third signal emitter 1021 are symmetrically disposed with respect to the central line M. The first signal emitter 1011 and the second signal emitter 1012, the other side is equipped with the third signal emitter 1021 and the fourth signal emitter 1022 and respectively emits A, B, C, D coded signals, and A, B, C, D coding is different.

Alternatively, as shown in fig. 5, the axes of the second signal emitter 1012 and the third signal emitter 1021 are arranged substantially parallel to the midline M, and the axes of the first signal emitter 1011 and the fourth signal emitter 1022 are arranged obliquely to the midline M at a predetermined angle in a direction away from the midline M, so that the four signal emitters form four radiation regions overlapping each other. Preferably, the first signal emitter 1011 and the fourth signal emitter 1022 remote from the spacer 108 are each disposed at a set angle, preferably 45 degrees, from the adjacent signal emitters, as shown in fig. 5. Specifically, the included angle between the axes of the first signal emitter 1011 and the second signal emitter 1012 is preferably 45 degrees, and the included angle between the axes of the third signal emitter 1021 and the fourth signal emitter 1022 is preferably 45 degrees. However, the predetermined angle is not limited to 45 degrees, and may be any other suitable angle.

Optionally, a baffle 1081 is further disposed at the front end of the spacer 108, the baffle 1081 is preferably disposed at an angle with respect to the spacer 108, preferably perpendicular to the spacer 108, and the baffle 1081 can effectively reduce signal interference between the optical signal emitting devices adjacent to the spacer 108, such as the second signal emitter 1012 and the third signal emitter 1021. Taking the embodiment as an example, the baffles 1081 are distributed at two sides of the spacer 108 in an isometric and symmetric manner, optionally, the baffles 1081 may also be fixed at two sides of the spacer 108 in an asymmetric manner, and the positions of the baffles 1081 on the spacer 108 may be appropriately adjusted, so that the shapes of the formed first radiation coding region and the second radiation coding region are correspondingly adjusted, so as to improve the alignment effect of the receiving lamp, and match with an automatic cleaning device to more accurately find the charging pile through the radiation coding region.

As shown in fig. 6, optionally, when the controller controls the first signal transmitter 1011, the second signal transmitter 1012, the third signal transmitter 1021 and the fourth signal transmitter 1022 to respectively transmit light signals at two different intensities, in each period of 8t, the first signal transmitter 1011, the second signal transmitter 1012, the third signal transmitter 1021 and the fourth signal transmitter 1022 sequentially transmit a1, B1, C1, D1, a2, B2, C2 and D2 at intervals of t seconds, wherein a1 and a2 may adopt the same or different codes, and the light intensities of a1 and a2 are different (i.e., the irradiation ranges are different); the B1 and the B2 can adopt the same or different codes, and the light intensity of the B1 and the light intensity of the B2 are different (namely the irradiation ranges are different); c1 and C2 can adopt the same or different codes, and the light intensity of C1 and C2 is different (namely the irradiation range is different); the D1, D2 may use the same or different codes, and the light intensities of D1, D2 are different (i.e., different illumination ranges). The intensities of the optical signals of a1, B1, C1 and D1 are the same, and the intensities of the optical signals of a2, B2, C2 and D2 are the same, so that one cycle is divided into two time intervals, wherein a1, B1, C1 and D1 are first time intervals, and a2, B2, C2 and D2 are second time intervals. Each signal emitting device emits light signals of only one intensity during each time interval.

Further, a1, B1, C1 and D1 are all strong light signals; a2, B2, C2 and D2 are all weak light signals. Referring to the two signal transmitting apparatus embodiments described above, the relationship between each region and the code sequence of the received signal is as follows:

TABLE 2 correspondence of different regions to code sequences received in one cycle

In the case of emitting weak light, the near-field radiation encoding region includes a first near-field region J1 formed by the individual irradiation of the first signal emitter 1011, a second near-field region J2 formed by the individual irradiation of the second signal emitter 1012, a first near-field overlapping region JD1 formed by the cross irradiation of the first signal emitter 1011 and the second signal emitter 1012, a second near-field overlapping region JD2 formed by the cross irradiation of the second signal emitter 1012 and the third signal emitter 1021, a first near-field region J3 formed by the individual irradiation of the third signal emitter 1021, a second near-field region J4 formed by the individual irradiation of the fourth signal emitter 1022, and a third near-field overlapping region JD3 formed by the cross irradiation of the third signal emitter 1021 and the fourth signal emitter 1022. As shown in fig. 6 in particular, since the first signal emitter 1011 is disposed obliquely away from the center line M, the first near field region J1 can receive the a2 signal but cannot receive the B2 signal; the first near-field overlap region JD1 receives both the a2 and B2 signals; the second near field J2 can receive the B2 signal but cannot receive the a2 or C2 signal; the second near-field overlap region JD2 receives both the B2 and C2 signals; similarly, the third near field J3 can receive the C2 signal but cannot receive the B2 or D2 signal; the third near-field overlap region JD3 receives both the C2 and D2 signals; the fourth near field zone J4 can receive the D2 signal but cannot receive the C2 signal;

in the case of intense light emission, in far-field radiation encoding regions, in addition to the near-field radiation encoding regions described above, also formed outside the near field radiation encoding region are 7 regions including a first far field region Y1 formed by illumination of the first signal emitter 1011 alone, a second far field region Y2 formed by illumination of the second signal emitter alone, and a far-field overlap region YD1 formed by the cross illumination of the first signal emitter 1011 and the second signal emitter 1012, and a second far-field overlap region YD2 formed by the intersection of illumination by the second signal emitter 1012 and the third signal emitter 1021, a first far-field region Y3 formed by illumination by the third signal emitter 1021 alone, a second far-field region Y4 formed by illumination by the fourth signal emitter 1022 alone, and a third far-field overlap region YD3 formed by the cross illumination of the third 1021 and fourth 1022 signal emitters.

Those skilled in the art will understand that the seven intense light radiation encoding regions actually formed are the region formed by the first near-field region J1 and the first far-field region Y1, the region formed by the second near-field region J2 and the second far-field region Y2, the region formed by the first near-field overlap region JD1 and the first far-field overlap region YD1, the region formed by the second near-field overlap region JD2 and the second far-field overlap region YD2, the region formed by the third near-field region J3 and the third far-field region Y3, the region formed by the fourth near-field region J4 and the fourth far-field region Y4, and the region formed by the third near-field overlap region JD3 and the third far-field overlap region YD 3.

As shown in fig. 6, wherein the first far-field region Y1 can receive the a1 signal but cannot receive the a2 signal; the second far field region Y2 can receive the B1 signal but cannot receive the B2 signal; the first far-field overlap region YD1 can receive both the a1 and B1 signals, but cannot receive the a2 and B2 signals; the second far-field overlap region YD2 can receive both the B1 and C1 signals, but cannot receive the B2 and C2 signals; the third far field region Y3 can receive the C1 signal but cannot receive the C2 signal; the fourth far field region Y4 can receive the D1 signal but cannot receive the D2 signal; while the third far-field overlap region YD3 receives both the C1 and D1 signals, but not both the C2 and D2 signals. In addition, since the irradiation range of strong light can cover the irradiation range of weak light, the first near field region J1 can receive an a1 signal in addition to the a2 signal; the second near field region J2 may receive a B1 signal in addition to the B2 signal; the first near-field overlap region JD1 allows signals a2, B2, a1 and B1 to be received; the second near-field overlap region JD2 allows signals B2, C2, B1 and C1 to be received; the third near field region J3 may receive a C1 signal in addition to the C2 signal; the fourth near field region J4 may receive a D1 signal in addition to the D2 signal; the third near-field overlap region JD3 allows the reception of C2, D2, C1 and D1 signals.

It should be noted that the signal transmission sequence of the four signal transmitters is not limited to the above sequential cyclic transmission manner, and an alternate cyclic manner may also be adopted, for example, when transmitting light signals with two different intensities, in each period, the four signal transmitters sequentially transmit light signals of a1, C1, B1, D1, a2, C2, B2, D2, etc. according to a set time interval, that is, different signal transmitters transmit light signals with the same intensity in one time interval; in addition, the modes of a1, B2, C1, D2, a2, B1, C2 and D1 can also be adopted, namely, the intensities of the optical signals emitted by different signal emitting devices are not completely the same in one time interval. And so on. But is not limited thereto and any transmission means that can be realized in the art may be employed. In addition, the intensity level of the optical signal is not limited to two levels of intensity, and may be one level or three levels or more.

In addition, each group of signal emitting devices is not limited to include one or two signal emitters, and more signal emitters may be adopted.

As another alternative, it is also possible to use that in a time interval of one period, the at least two signal emitting devices synchronously emit light signals with low intensity, and the intensity of the synchronously emitted light signals is the same, and the codes are the same, so as to form the near-field radiation encoding area.

Taking the above four signal emitting devices as an example, in a period of 5t per cycle, the first signal emitter 1011, the second signal emitter 1012, the third signal emitter 1021 and the fourth signal emitter 1022 sequentially emit a1, B1, C1 and D1 at intervals of t seconds. A1, B1, C1 and D1 are strong light signals; the difference from the previous embodiment is that at time 5t, four signal emitters simultaneously emit a weak light signal E, whose code is different from a1, B1, C1, D1. Referring to the previous embodiment, the relationship between each region and the code sequence of the received signal is as follows in table 3:

TABLE 3 correspondence of different regions to code sequences received in one cycle

This has the advantage that the time of one cycle can be shortened from 8t to 5t, which can greatly improve the positioning efficiency. The signal E is only used to identify the regions currently belonging to the near field radiation encoding region and the far field radiation encoding region, while the more accurate region identification is identified by the intense light signals a1, B1, C1, D1.

In another embodiment not shown in the figures, the signal transmitting device may further include an odd number of signal transmitting devices, wherein the odd number of signal transmitting devices are symmetrically arranged with a center line of one of the signal transmitting devices as a symmetry line. Compared with the even number of signal transmitting devices, the technical signal transmitting device has the advantage that one signal transmitting device is arranged at the position of the central line M, so that the belt charging device can judge that the belt charging device is positioned near the central line M after receiving the signal transmitted by the middle signal transmitting device, and the operation of aligning the central line M is more rapid. The principles of area division and judgment of the odd number of signal transmission devices are basically the same as those of the above two embodiments.

Generally speaking, the stake of charging of this embodiment is through setting up more than two signal emission device, and encode the light signal of signal emission device transmission, and launch according to the light signal transmission sequence of setting for, according to the difference of the code of receiving the light signal, automatic cleaning equipment can carry out accurate discernment to the region of locating, and can have rapidly, discernment effectively and with signal emission device's symmetry central line M alignment, and then the efficient automatic action of accomplishing and charging the connection of stake and charging, the blind area between stake and the automatic cleaning equipment has been reduced promptly, automatic cleaning equipment's the efficiency of seeking a stake is improved.

On this basis, the stake of charging of this embodiment still through the signal of control signal transmitting device transmission different intensity, further divide the region into a plurality of levels from far to near such as near field, far field, and bonding strength and coding sequence can carry out more meticulous division to the region, can more effectual promotion self-cleaning equipment seek stake and return stake efficiency.

On this basis, the stake of charging of this embodiment has set up signal emission device on central line M, can more effectual guide self-cleaning equipment more accurate more swift alignment central line M, more effective promotion seek stake and return stake efficiency.

Example two

Corresponding to the charging pile shown in the first embodiment, the embodiment of the invention also provides automatic cleaning equipment matched with the charging pile of the first embodiment.

Referring to fig. 7 to 9, a schematic structural diagram of an automatic cleaning device 2 according to a second embodiment of the present invention is shown.

Referring to fig. 7 and 8, a schematic structural diagram of an automatic cleaning apparatus 2 in the present embodiment is exemplarily shown. Wherein, the automatic cleaning device 2 can be a sweeping robot, a mopping robot, etc. The robotic cleaning device 2 may include a processor 201, a sensing system, a drive system; in addition, the automatic cleaning apparatus 2 includes an apparatus main body, a cleaning system, an energy system, and a human-computer interaction system.

Wherein the device body includes a forward portion and a rearward portion, having an approximately circular shape (both front and rear are circular), and may have other shapes including, but not limited to, an approximately D-shape with a front and rear circle.

The perception system comprises three large-angle light receivers 203 and an alignment light receiver 202; preferably, the sensing system may further include a bumper (not shown), a cliff sensor (not shown) and other sensors, such as an infrared sensor (not shown), a magnetometer (not shown), an accelerometer (not shown), a gyroscope (not shown), a odometer (not shown), etc., located at a forward portion of the device body, to provide corresponding information of the automatic cleaning device 2 to the processor 201.

The forward portion of the device body may carry a bumper that detects one or more events (or objects) in the travel path of the robotic cleaning device 2 via a sensor system, such as an infrared sensor, as the robotic cleaning device 2 is propelled across the floor surface by the drive wheel modules of the drive system during cleaning, and the robot may respond to the events (or objects) detected by the bumper, such as obstacles, walls, by controlling the drive wheel modules to cause the robotic cleaning device 2 to respond to the events (or objects), such as to move away from the obstacles.

The processor 201 is disposed on a circuit board in the device body, and includes a computing processor, such as a central processing unit, an application processor, which communicates with a non-transitory memory, such as a hard disk, a flash memory, and a random access memory. On the one hand, in conjunction with the evaluation of the processing of the light signals received by the three large-angle light receivers 203 and/or the alignment light receiver 202, the radiation coding region in which the automatic cleaning device 2 is currently located is determined; on the other hand, the working state of the automatic cleaning device 2 can be comprehensively judged by combining distance information and speed information fed back by the buffer, the cliff sensor and other sensors such as infrared sensors, magnetometers, accelerometers, gyroscopes, odometers and other sensing devices, for example, when a threshold is passed, a carpet is put on, the automatic cleaning device is positioned at the cliff, the upper part or the lower part of the automatic cleaning device is clamped, a dust box is full, the automatic cleaning device is taken up and the like, and specific next-step action strategies can be provided according to different conditions, so that the working of the automatic cleaning device 2 is more in line with the requirements of an owner, and better user experience is achieved.

The drive system may steer the robotic cleaning device 2 across the floor based on drive commands having distance and angle information, such as x, y, and angular components. The drive system includes drive wheel modules that can control both the left and right wheels, preferably including a left drive wheel module and a right drive wheel module, respectively, for more precise control of the motion of the machine. The left and right drive wheel modules are opposed along a transverse axis defined by the apparatus body. In order for robotic cleaning device 2 to be able to move more stably or with greater mobility over a floor surface, robotic cleaning device 2 may include one or more driven wheels, including but not limited to universal wheels. The driving wheel module comprises a traveling wheel, a driving motor and a control circuit for controlling the driving motor, and can also be connected with a circuit for measuring driving current and a milemeter. The driving wheel module can be detachably connected to the equipment main body, and is convenient to disassemble, assemble and maintain. The drive wheel may have a biased drop-type suspension system, be movably secured, e.g., rotatably attached, to the apparatus body, and receive a spring bias biased downward and away from the apparatus body. The spring bias allows the drive wheel to maintain contact and traction with the floor surface with a certain landing force while the cleaning elements of the robotic cleaning device 2 also contact the floor surface with a certain pressure.

The cleaning system may be a dry cleaning system and/or a wet cleaning system. As a dry cleaning system, the main cleaning function is derived from a sweeping system composed of a rolling brush structure, a dust box structure, a fan structure, an air outlet, and connecting members therebetween. The rolling brush structure with certain interference with the ground sweeps the garbage on the ground and winds the garbage to the front of a dust suction opening between the rolling brush structure and the dust box structure, and then the garbage is sucked into the dust box structure by the air with suction generated by the fan structure and passing through the dust box structure. The dry cleaning system can also include an edge brush having an axis of rotation that is angled relative to the floor for moving debris into the roller brush area of the cleaning system.

The energy system carried by the self-cleaning appliance 2 includes a rechargeable battery on the main body of the appliance. The rechargeable battery may include a nickel-metal hydride battery, a lithium battery, and the like. The charging battery can be connected with a charging control circuit, a battery pack charging temperature detection circuit and a battery under-voltage monitoring circuit, and the charging control circuit, the battery pack charging temperature detection circuit and the battery under-voltage monitoring circuit are connected with the single chip microcomputer control circuit. Automatic cleaning device 2 charges through setting up the charging electrode and being connected with charging pile 1 in equipment body side or below.

The man-machine interaction system comprises keys on a panel of the equipment main body, and the keys are used for a user to select functions; the machine control system can further comprise a display screen and/or an indicator light and/or a loudspeaker, wherein the display screen, the indicator light and the loudspeaker show the current state or function selection item of the machine to a user; and a mobile phone client program can be further included.

The automatic cleaning device 2 provides energy for the automatic cleaning device 2 through an energy system, interacts with a user through a human-computer interaction system, receives an operation instruction of the user, and the processor 201 acquires and processes information required in the cleaning process according to the operation instruction of the user and the sensing system, and drives the automatic cleaning device 2 to move through a driving system so as to use the cleaning system to perform corresponding cleaning operation.

Referring to fig. 9, in a preferred implementation, the sensing system may include an alignment light receiver 202 and three large angle light receivers 203 disposed around the alignment light receiver 202,

the number of the alignment optical receivers 202 is two, and the alignment optical receivers 202 are high-alignment precision small-angle receivers which can receive optical signals in a small angle range for precise pile alignment operation. The alignment light receiver 202 is arranged in the direction opposite to the charging combination position of the automatic cleaning device 2, after the alignment light receiver 202 is aligned with the symmetrical center line M of the signal transmitting device, the alignment line M2 of the automatic cleaning device 2 is aligned with the symmetrical center line M of the signal transmitting device, the charging interface of the automatic cleaning device 2 can be accurately aligned with the charging connector 113 of the charging pile 1, and therefore accurate butt joint of the automatic cleaning device 2 and the charging pile 1 is guaranteed, and charging joint is completed.

In a specific arrangement, three large-angle light receivers 203 may be arranged in the other three directions of the automatic cleaning apparatus 2 where the alignment light receiver 202 is not arranged, preferably, three large-angle light receivers 203 and the alignment light receiver 202 (two in one group) are arranged every 90 degrees as shown in fig. 9, but in practical application, the uniformity is not absolute uniformity, and may be within a suitable error range, such as arranging the alignment light receiver 202 at a 0-degree position, arranging a first large-angle light receiver 203 at an 85-degree position, arranging a second large-angle light receiver at a 180-degree position, arranging a third large-angle light receiver at a 270-degree position, and the like, and only the substantial uniformity needs to be maintained. Preferably, the centers of the three large-angle light receivers 203 and the center of the alignment light receiver 202 are located on the same cross section. Preferably, the alignment light receiver is disposed right in front of the automatic cleaning apparatus 2, and the three large-angle light receivers 203 are disposed on the left side, the right side, and the rear side of the automatic cleaning apparatus 2, respectively.

The large-angle optical receiver 203 may accept a range of angles of the optical signal. Preferably, three large-angle light receivers 203 are arranged such that the reception range substantially covers the circumferential range of the automatic cleaning apparatus 2. That is, no matter which direction of the circumferential direction the optical signal is irradiated from, at least one of the large-angle optical receivers 203 can receive the optical signal.

The processor 201 in the embodiment of the present invention is configured to analyze the optical signals received by each of the large-angle optical receivers 203, obtain codes of the optical signals, and compare and analyze the codes of the optical signals. The automatic cleaning device 2 further includes a memory, in which a comparison table (specifically, refer to table 1 and table 2 in the first embodiment) of the region and the coding sequence of the optical signal and the time length of the period of the light signal emitted by the charging pile 1 are pre-stored, so that when the wide-angle light receiver receives the optical signal, the processor first identifies the coding sequence of the optical signal, analyzes the coding sequence of the received optical signal in one period according to the time sequence of the received optical signal, compares the coding sequence of the received optical signal with the comparison table pre-stored in the memory, and finds out the corresponding region from the comparison table according to the coding sequence, thereby obtaining the accurate region where the automatic cleaning device 2 is currently located.

In addition, the wide-angle light receiver 203 can recognize the direction of the light source in addition to receiving the light signal. As shown in fig. 10, the large angle light receiver 203 detects the direction of the light source and sends a direction signal to the processor, which compares and analyzes the direction signal and identifies the angle θ 1 between the direction of the light source and the alignment line M2 of the automatic cleaning device 2. Therefore, the processor can adjust the position and the movement direction of the processor according to the two parameters of the area and the included angle theta 1, and then the processor is accurately aligned with the symmetrical center line M of the signal transmitting device.

The pile finding and returning process of the automatic cleaning device 2 will be described in detail with reference to fig. 10 and 11, taking an embodiment in which the charging pile 1 employs two signal emitting devices as an example.

The three large angle light receivers 203 of the automatic cleaning device 2 detect the light signals in real time and the processor analyzes the detected light signals. As shown in fig. 10, at this time, the left large-angle optical receiver 203 receives the optical signal and sends the optical signal to the processor, and in one period 4t, the processor determines that the code sequence of the optical signal received by the left large-angle optical receiver 203 is B1, and then the processor accesses the look-up table to obtain that the region corresponding to the signal with the code sequence B1 is the second far-field region Y2. In this way, the processor obtains the exact area in which the robotic cleaning device 2 is currently located.

Meanwhile, the large-angle light receiver 203 on the left side also detects the direction of the light source. Specifically, the processor determines the angle θ 1 between the light emitted by the second signal emitting device 102 toward the left large-angle light receiver 203 and the alignment line M2 of the automatic cleaning device 2 according to the light source direction detected by the left large-angle light receiver 203. The processor, in conjunction with the current location area and the angle θ 1, can then determine the current direction of the alignment line M2 of the robot cleaner 2.

After obtaining the information of the located area and direction, the processor may further control the traveling system to adjust the moving direction, so that the automatic cleaning device 2 moves toward the symmetric centerline M of the signal transmitting device, and correct the moving direction in real time according to the information of the area and direction detected by the three large-angle light receivers 203 during the moving process, thereby continuously adjusting the moving direction and the angle of the self. After the automatic cleaning device 2 is moved to the vicinity of the center line of symmetry M of the signal transmission means, the position of the automatic cleaning device 2 is adjusted so that the alignment light receiver 202 faces the charging post 1, and the alignment light receiver 202 is accurately aligned with the first signal transmission means 101 and the second signal transmission means 102 so that the alignment line M2 of the automatic cleaning device 2 coincides with the center line of symmetry M of the signal transmission means, as shown in fig. 11. Under the condition that the alignment line M2 of the automatic cleaning equipment 2 is kept to be coincident with the symmetrical center line M of the signal transmitting device, the processor controls the walking system to enable the automatic cleaning equipment 2 to continuously move towards the charging pile 1, and finally, the charging interface of the automatic cleaning equipment 2 is connected with the charging connector of the charging pile 1 to finish pile searching and pile returning actions.

Alternatively, when more than two large-angle light receivers 203 receive the light signals, the processor analyzes and compares the coded sequence of the light signals of each large-angle light receiver and the included angle θ 1, and determines the area where each large-angle light receiver 203 is located and the direction where the alignment line M2 of the automatic cleaning device 2 is located, so as to obtain more accurate information of the area where the large-angle light receiver 203 is located and the direction.

When the automatic cleaning device 2 is matched with the charging pile 1 with four or more signal transmitting devices in an even number, the pile searching and returning principle of the automatic cleaning device 2 is basically the same as that of the charging pile 1 with two signal transmitting devices, and the description is not repeated.

When the number of the signal emitting devices is odd and the charging pile 1 with one signal emitting device arranged on the symmetrical center line M of the signal emitting devices is matched, the automatic cleaning equipment 2 enables the aligning light receiver 202 to align to the signal emitting device in the middle when the pile is searched and returned, compared with the scheme that the aligning light receiver 202 aligns to the signal emitting devices on two sides of the spacing device 108, the aligning can be realized more accurately and quickly, and the efficiency of searching and returning the pile is improved.

In another embodiment, the sensing system of the robotic cleaning device 2 may also employ a full angle light receiver 204 in cooperation with the alignment light receiver 202. As shown in fig. 12, compared with the scheme of multiple large-angle light receivers 203, the advantage of using the full-angle light receiver 204 is that 1 full-angle light receiver can complete the reception of all light signals and the judgment of the light source direction in the circumferential range, and there is no need to provide multiple large-angle light receivers 203, so that the appearance and the circuit design of the automatic cleaning device 2 can be simplified, and the production cost of the automatic cleaning device 2 can be reduced. The pile-seeking and pile-returning principle of the full-angle optical receiver 204 is basically the same as that of the large-angle optical receiver 203, and the description thereof is not repeated.

Automatic cleaning equipment 2 of this embodiment, the regional and code sequence LUT of prestoring in the memory, fill electric pile 1 signal period, processor 201 obtains the code sequence of light signal through wide-angle light receiver 203 or full angle light receiver 204, and obtain the direction of light source, and then judge self relative position and the direction of self for filling electric pile 1, then adjustment direction of motion and self angle, and aim at signal emission device's symmetry central line M through aiming at light receiver 202, make self alignment central line M2 and signal emission device's symmetry central line M, and then guarantee automatic cleaning equipment 2 and fill the accurate joint of electric pile 1, the blind area between electric pile and the automatic cleaning equipment has been reduced, automatic cleaning equipment's pile finding efficiency has been improved.

EXAMPLE III

The embodiment provides a pile searching method for a charging pile based on the automatic cleaning equipment shown in the second embodiment.

As shown in fig. 13, the method for searching the pile for the charging pile of the embodiment includes the following steps:

step S41: analyzing the received optical signal sequence from the charging pile to obtain an optical signal coding sequence corresponding to the optical signal sequence;

step S42: comparing the obtained coding sequence with the stored region and the coding sequence comparison table, and determining the current region of the equipment;

the apparatus herein is an automated cleaning apparatus. According to the pile searching method for the charging pile, the coding sequence of the optical signal is obtained, the obtained coding sequence is compared with a prestored area and a coding sequence comparison table, and the area is determined; the self-cleaning equipment only needs to store the comparison table of the area and the coding sequence, does not need to have the capability of creating a coordinate map, and can efficiently and accurately realize pile searching and pile returning of the self-cleaning equipment with lower cost.

Optionally, the pile searching method for the charging pile further includes the following steps:

step S43: analyzing the received optical signal sequence from the charging pile to acquire light source direction information;

step S44: and adjusting the movement direction of the equipment according to the area and the light source direction information.

Wherein the step S43 can be performed prior to the steps S41, S42, or in synchronization with the steps S41, S42, or after the steps S41, S42.

According to the method for searching the pile for the charging pile, the coding sequence of the optical signal is obtained, the obtained coding sequence is compared with a prestored area and a coding sequence comparison table, and the area where the coding sequence is located is determined; and then combining the area information with the acquired light source direction information to deduce a required movement direction, and further adjusting the movement direction of the equipment according to the required movement direction to further realize pile searching and pile returning actions of the equipment.

Optionally, in step S41, the acquiring the coded sequence of the optical signal includes: and analyzing the coded sequence of the optical signal according to a pre-stored time period to obtain the coded sequence of the optical signal of each period.

Because, fill electric pile's light signal and launch according to predetermined cycle, so self-cleaning equipment when resolving light signal, only need to in a cycle light signal's coding sequence carry out the analysis compare can, need not to carry out the analysis to whole received light signal coding sequences, can reduce the operand, improve analysis efficiency.

Optionally, when the signal emitting device of the charging post emits the light signal with different intensity, the determining of the located area in step S42 further includes determining a distance from the automatic cleaning device to the charging post. Specifically, the accessible is to the analysis of coding sequence, judges whether self-cleaning equipment is in near field region or far field region, and then can judge self-cleaning equipment apart from filling electric pile's approximate distance to can follow accurate direction of motion adjustment control to self-cleaning equipment.

Optionally, in step S44, the moving direction is adjusted according to the area information and the light source direction information, specifically, the automatic cleaning device estimates the position of the symmetric centerline M of the signal transmitting device according to the area information and the light source direction information, adjusts its position such that the alignment line M2 of the automatic cleaning device coincides with the estimated position of the symmetric centerline M of the signal transmitting device, and then controls the automatic cleaning device to move along the symmetric centerline M of the signal transmitting device, so that the charging interface of the automatic cleaning device is engaged with the charging connector of the charging post.

The above method is suitable for the scheme of using the full-angle optical receiver in the second embodiment, and the case where one of the large-angle optical receivers receives the optical signal in the plurality of large-angle optical receivers.

For the automatic cleaning equipment adopting a plurality of large-angle light receivers, under the condition that more than two large-angle light receivers receive light signals, respectively limiting the light signals received by each large-angle light receiver in a step S41 and a step S42, respectively analyzing the area information (the area information of different large-angle light receivers may be the same or different), of each large-angle light receiver, then combining the area information of each large-angle light receiver and the corresponding light source direction information determined in the step S43, more accurately judging the current position and direction of the automatic cleaning equipment, further adjusting the position of the automatic cleaning equipment, enabling the alignment line M2 of the automatic cleaning equipment to coincide with the estimated position of the symmetrical center line M of the signal transmitting device, and then controlling the automatic cleaning equipment to move along the symmetrical center line M of the signal transmitting device, make automatic cleaning device's the interface that charges and fill electric pile's the joint that charges and engage.

In the embodiment of the invention, the direction can be selected at will when the direction of the automatic cleaning equipment is changed, so that the automatic cleaning equipment can still move to the charging pile finally through multiple direction adjustments even if the automatic cleaning equipment cannot move to the charging pile along the current moving direction at one time.

Example four

The fourth embodiment provides a control system for charging a charging pile, which comprises the charging pile of the first embodiment and the automatic cleaning equipment of the second embodiment.

In this embodiment, the automatic cleaning device is matched with the charging pile, and the time length of a signal emission period of the charging pile and a comparison table of the region and the coding sequence are stored in the automatic cleaning device. The charging pile emits light signals according to the scheme described in the first embodiment, and the automatic cleaning equipment conducts pile searching and pile returning operations according to the scheme described in the second embodiment and the third embodiment.

Through this embodiment, in the control system that the electric pile charges that fills of this embodiment, automatic cleaning equipment need not to have and establishes to seek a stake and return a stake map function, only needs to obtain its code that corresponds after receiving the light signal, and then knows the radiation area of the light signal at present place, confirms whether need to change the route and advance, fills electric pile until finally arriving, has reduced the blind area between electric pile and the automatic cleaning equipment of filling, has improved automatic cleaning equipment's the efficiency of seeking a stake.

It should be noted that, according to the implementation requirement, each component/step described in the embodiment of the present invention may be divided into more components/steps, and two or more components/steps or partial operations of the components/steps may also be combined into a new component/step to achieve the purpose of the embodiment of the present invention.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and method steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present embodiments.

The above embodiments are only for illustrating the embodiments of the present invention and not for limiting the embodiments of the present invention, and those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and area of the embodiments of the present invention, so that all equivalent technical solutions also belong to the scope of the embodiments of the present invention, and the patent protection area of the embodiments of the present invention should be defined by the claims.

Claims

1. A charging pile is characterized by comprising a controller and at least two signal transmitting devices;

the controller controls the at least two signal transmitting devices to transmit optical signals according to a set optical signal transmitting sequence and codes the transmitted optical signals;

the optical signals emitted by each signal emitting device are coded to form a corresponding radiation coding region, and the radiation coding regions formed by the optical signals emitted by the adjacent signal emitting devices are partially overlapped in a radiation range.

2. The charging pole of claim 1, wherein said at least two signal emitting devices comprise a first signal emitting device and a second signal emitting device, and further comprising a spacer disposed on a centerline between said first signal emitting device and said second signal emitting device such that said first signal emitting device and said second signal emitting device are symmetrical about said centerline.

3. The charging pole according to claim 2, wherein the first signal emitting device and the second signal emitting device respectively comprise at least two signal emitters, the first signal emitting device comprises a first signal emitter and a second signal emitter, the second signal emitting device comprises a third signal emitter and a fourth signal emitter, the first signal emitter and the fourth signal emitter are symmetrical about the center line, and the second signal emitter and the third signal emitter are symmetrical about the center line.

4. The charging pile according to claim 2, wherein the optical signal emitted by the first signal emitting device is encoded to form a first radiation encoding region, and the optical signal emitted by the second signal emitting device is encoded to form a second radiation encoding region;

the spacing device partially shields the optical signal emitted by the first signal emitting device and the optical signal emitted by the second signal emitting device, so that the first radiation coding region and the second radiation coding region partially overlap in a radiation range.

5. A charging pile according to claim 3, characterised in that the second and third signal emitters immediately adjacent the sides of the spacer are disposed vertically forwardly and the first and fourth signal emitters remote from the spacer are disposed at a set angle (θ) to the adjacent signal emitters respectively.

6. A charging pile according to claim 5, characterised in that the set angle (θ) is 45 degrees.

7. The charging pole according to claim 1, wherein the at least two signal emitting devices comprise an odd number of signal emitting devices, and the odd number of signal emitting devices are symmetrically arranged with a center line of one of the signal emitting devices as a symmetry line.

8. The charging pole according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein said light signal emitting sequence instructs said at least two signal emitting means to emit light signals alternately or sequentially, said light signals being encoded differently.

9. The charging pole of claim 8, wherein the light signal emitting sequence instructs each of the at least two signal emitting devices to emit light signals of at least two intensities during a period, and each signal emitting device emits light signals of only one intensity during a time interval during a period.

10. The charging pole of claim 8, wherein the light signal emitting sequence instructs each of the at least two signal emitting devices to emit light signals of the same intensity during a period, and each signal emitting device emits light signals of only one intensity during a time interval during a period.

11. The charging pile according to claims 1-7, characterized in that said at least two signal emitting devices emit light signals synchronously within the same time interval of a cycle, said synchronously emitted light signals having the same intensity and the same code, thus forming a near field radiation encoding region.

12. The charging pile according to any one of claims 3-6, characterised in that the spacing means is a light screen on which a baffle is arranged.

13. A method for pile finding of a charging pile, which is the charging pile according to any one of claims 1 to 12, the method comprising:

analyzing the received optical signal sequence from the charging pile to obtain an optical signal coding sequence corresponding to the optical signal sequence;

and determining the current area of the equipment according to the optical signal coding sequence and the stored area and coding sequence comparison table.

14. The method of claim 13, characterized in that the method further comprises: analyzing the received optical signal sequence from the charging pile to acquire light source direction information; and adjusting the movement direction of the equipment according to the area and the light source direction information.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein analyzing the sequence of the received optical signals from the charging post to obtain the coded sequence of the optical signals comprises: and analyzing the coded sequence of the optical signal according to a pre-stored time period to obtain the coded sequence of the optical signal of each period.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the adjusting the direction of motion of the device based on the region information and the light source direction information comprises:

estimating the position of a symmetrical center line (M) of the signal transmitting device according to the area information and the light source direction information;

adjusting the position of the device such that the alignment line (M2) of the device coincides with the position of the symmetry middle line (M);

moving the device along the symmetry center line (M) such that the charging interface of the device engages the charging connection of the charging post.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein prior to said parsing the sequence of received optical signals from the charging post, the method further comprises: receiving a sequence of optical signals from the charging post via a plurality of optical receivers, wherein,

the plurality of optical receivers comprises at least two large angle optical receivers and an alignment optical receiver for aligning with the charging post; or,

the plurality of light receivers includes a full angle light receiver and an alignment light receiver for aligning with the charging post.

18. An automated cleaning apparatus, characterized in that the automated cleaning apparatus comprises at least two large angle light receivers and a processor;

the at least two large-angle light receivers are arranged on a shell of the automatic cleaning equipment according to a set angle and used for receiving light signals from the charging pile;

the processor is configured to perform operations corresponding to the charging pile finding method according to any one of claims 13 to 17.

19. The robotic cleaning device of claim 18, further comprising an alignment light receiver for aligning with the charging post;

the three large-angle light receivers and the aligning light receiver are uniformly arranged on the peripheral wall of the shell of the automatic cleaning device.

20. An automatic cleaning apparatus, characterized in that the automatic cleaning apparatus comprises: a full-angle optical receiver and a processor;

the full-angle receiver is arranged on a shell of the automatic cleaning equipment according to a set angle and used for receiving an optical signal from the charging pile;

21. The automated cleaning apparatus of claim 20, further comprising an alignment light receiver for aligning with the charging post;

the full-angle receiver and the alignment light receiver are uniformly arranged on the peripheral wall of the shell of the automatic cleaning device.

22. A charge control system characterized by: comprising a charging pile according to any one of claims 1 to 12 and an automatic cleaning device according to any one of claims 18 to 21.