CN102087529B - Movable device and control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A mobile device and a control method thereof. The first receiving device receives the ray from the base station to obtain the direction from the starting position of the mobile device to the base station as the target direction. The driving device drives the moving device to move from the initial position toward the target direction. When the mobile device encounters the first obstacle located in the target direction and within the target area, the second receiving device obtains the distance between the mobile device and the base station according to the ray as the intermediate distance. If the judging device judges that the intermediate distance is not equal to the preset distance, the driving device drives the moving device to bypass the first obstacle and move toward the target direction. If the judging device judges that the intermediate distance is equal to the preset distance, the driving device judges that the first obstacle is the base station and drives the mobile device to stop at the first obstacle.

Description

Mobile device and control method thereof

technical field

The invention relates to a mobile device, in particular to a mobile device capable of returning to a base station and a control method for returning to a base station.

Background technique

In recent years, robot devices have been widely used in human living environments, such as sweeping robot devices. The current sweeping robot needs to return to the docking station to park or charge when it completes the sweeping task or when the power is insufficient.

At present, in a mode of returning to the docking station, when the sweeping robot is moving or returning to the docking station, the sweeping robot walks a certain distance from the wall and along the wall to find the coded signal sent by the docking station to identify the docking station. When the sweeping robot detects this coded signal, it turns into a docking station in a specific mode to park or charge. If the sweeping robot does not detect the coded signal sent by the docking station, the sweeping robot will usually aimlessly or go around the wall to find the coded signal until it detects the coded signal and returns to the docking station successfully. .

Another mode of returning to the docking station is that the sweeping robot first follows the rays emitted by the docking station to the vicinity of the docking station, and then detects the distance and position of surrounding objects through ranging infrared rays or ultrasonic waves. However, ranging infrared or ultrasonic waves can only provide the distance and position of the detected object, but cannot confirm whether the object is a docking station. Therefore, it is necessary to detect the coded signal sent by the docking station to identify the docking station. A smooth return is achieved by repeatedly detecting objects and identifying stops.

In the above existing method of returning to the docking station, the sweeping robot needs to spend more time to find and identify the docking station, so as to know the position and direction of the docking station and return to the docking station.

Therefore, it is desired to provide a mobile device and a control method thereof, so as to enable the mobile device to return to the base station relatively quickly.

Contents of the invention

The present invention provides a control method, which is suitable for a mobile device, comprising the following steps: receiving rays from a base station; obtaining the direction from the starting position of the mobile device to the base station according to the rays as the target direction; making the mobile device start from The starting position moves toward the target direction; define the target area, wherein, when the mobile device is located in the target area, the distance between the mobile device and the base station can be obtained according to the ray; When the first obstacle is detected, the distance between the mobile device and the base station is obtained according to the ray as the intermediate distance; whether the intermediate distance is equal to the preset distance is judged; if the intermediate distance is not equal to the preset distance, the mobile device is bypassed by the first obstacle and continue to move towards the target direction; and if the intermediate distance is equal to the preset distance, then determine that the first obstacle is the base station and make the mobile device stop at the first obstacle.

The present invention also provides a mobile device, including a first receiving device, a second receiving device, a driving device, and a judging device. The first receiving means receives rays from the base station. The first receiving device obtains the direction from the starting position of the mobile device to the base station as the target direction according to the ray. The driving device drives the moving device to move from the initial position toward the target direction. The second receiving device receives the radiation. When the mobile device encounters the first obstacle located in the target direction and within the target area, the second receiving device obtains the distance between the mobile device and the base station according to the ray as the intermediate distance. The judging device judges whether the intermediate distance is equal to a preset distance. If the judging device judges that the intermediate distance is not equal to the preset distance, the driving device drives the moving device to bypass the first obstacle and continue to move toward the target direction. If the judging device judges that the intermediate distance is equal to the preset distance, the driving device judges that the first obstacle is the base station and drives the mobile device to stop at the first obstacle.

Description of drawings

1A and 1B show a mobile device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a diagram illustrating the operation of obtaining a target direction when the mobile device is located within the target area;

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating the operation of obtaining the target distance;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the operation of obtaining the target direction when the mobile device is outside the target area;

5 is a schematic diagram illustrating that a mobile device encounters an obstacle within a target area;

6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a mobile device encountering an obstacle outside a target area; and

7A and 7B illustrate a control method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Description of reference symbols

1 ~ mobile device;

2 ~ base station;

10A, 10B～the first receiving device;

11～second receiving device;

12 ~ driving device;

13 ~ judging device;

14 ~ monitoring device;

20 ~ light source;

OA ~ target area;

OB1, OB2～obstacles.

Detailed ways

In order to make the above-mentioned purpose, features and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, a preferred embodiment is specifically cited below and described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1A illustrates a mobile device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1A , the mobile device 1 can be a mobile robot, such as a sweeping robot, which can move freely or along a predetermined route, and can return to the base station 2 to park or charge when the task is completed or the power is insufficient. Referring to FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B , the mobile device 1 includes at least one first receiving device 10 , one second receiving device 11 , a driving device 12 , and a judging device 13 . In the embodiment of FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B , two first receiving devices 10A and 10B are taken as an example for illustration. Both the first receiving devices 10A and 10B and the second receiving device 11 receive the radiation from the light source 20 of the base station 2 . The light source can emit infrared rays and is realized by infrared emitting diodes. Although the first receiving device 10A and 10B and the second receiving device 11 all receive the rays from the light source 20, since the first receiving device and the second receiving device have different lenses, the first receiving device and the second receiving device pick up And the analyzed rays have different characteristics and components.

The first receiving devices 10A and 10B retrieve coded signals carried on the radiation and used to identify the identity of the base station 20 . When the mobile device 1 rotates so that any one of the first receiving devices 10A and 10B receives the radiation from the light source 20 , the first receiving device identifies the identity of the base station 20 according to the coded signal. Referring to FIG. 2 , in this embodiment, the first receiving device 10A receives the radiation from the light source 20 as an example for illustration. At this time, the first receiving device 10A having recognized the identity of the base station 20 can obtain the target direction pointing to the base station 20 from the current starting position of the mobile device 10 . The driving device 12 drives the moving device 1 to move from the initial position to the target direction _DIR .

The second receiving device 11 also receives radiation from the light source 20 . Referring to FIG. 1B , the second receiving device 11 has a window 110 which stores a plurality of distance values, and each distance value corresponds to a voltage value. Referring to FIG. 3 , when the mobile device 1 enters the target area OA, the mobile device 1 rotates on the spot so that the second receiving device 11 receives the rays from the light source 20. At this time, the second receiving device 11 can obtain a The voltage value is detected, and at this time, the distance D _IS between the mobile device 1 and the base station 20 can be obtained by looking up the window 110 according to the detected voltage value. In the embodiment of FIG. 3 , the distance D _IS refers to the minimum distance between the second receiving device 11 of the mobile device 1 and the light source 20 .

In the embodiment of the present invention, "the mobile device 1 enters the target area OA" is described by taking the mobile device 1 entering the entire target area OA as an example. In other embodiments, “the mobile device 1 enters the target area OA” may mean that the center of the mobile device 1 enters the target area OA, or the second receiver 11 of the mobile device 1 enters the target area OA.

In the embodiment of FIG. 3, the second receiving device 11 can obtain the distance between the mobile device 1 and the base station 20 according to the rays from the light source 20 only in the target area OA, but the first receiving devices 10A and 10B are not limited to Target area OA. The first receiving devices 10A and 10B can also obtain the direction from the current location of the mobile device 10 to the base station 20 according to the coded signal carried by the rays outside the target area OA. In the embodiment of FIG. 2 , when the mobile device 1 enters the target area OA, the first receiving device 10A obtains the starting position as an example for illustration. However, in other embodiments, as shown in FIG. 4 , when the mobile device 1 is located outside the target area OA (that is, the initial position is located outside the target area OA), the first receiving device 10A or 10B can still Encode the signal to obtain the direction from the current location of the mobile device 10 to the base station 20 as the target direction. The second receiving device 11 obtains the distance between the mobile device 1 and the base station 20 according to the rays from the light source 20 until the mobile device 1 moves towards the target direction and enters the target area OA.

During the movement of the mobile device 1 towards the target direction, if an obstacle is encountered, the judging device 13 in FIG. 1B judges whether the obstacle is the base station 20 or not. The term "encounter" mentioned in this article means that the surfaces of two objects are in contact with each other, or that the two objects are relatively close to each other but not in contact with each other. In other words, the word "encounter" means that the surface of the mobile device 1 touches the surface of the obstacle, or that the surface of the mobile device 1 does not touch the surface of the obstacle when the mobile device 1 moves to a position quite close to the obstacle.

Referring to FIG. 3 and FIG. 5 , assuming that the mobile device 1 moves toward the target direction and moves into the target area OA and encounters an obstacle OB 1 located in the target direction, the second receiving device 11 obtains a After detecting the voltage value, the second receiving device 11 then looks up the window 110 according to the detected voltage value to obtain the distance between the mobile device 1 and the base station 2 (referred to as the intermediate distance). Next, the judging device 13 judges whether the intermediate distance is equal to a preset distance, wherein the preset distance has a fixed value. When the judging device 13 judges that the intermediate distance is not equal to the preset distance, the driving device 12 drives the mobile device 1 around the obstacle OB1 and continues to move toward the target direction until it encounters the base station 2 . When the device 13 determines that the intermediate distance is equal to the preset distance, the driving device 12 determines that the obstacle OB1 is the base station 2 and drives the mobile device 1 to stop at the obstacle OB1.

In the above embodiments, the preset distance is defined as the distance between the mobile device 1 and the base station 2 when they encounter the base station 2 . For example, when the surface of the mobile device 1 touches the surface of the base station 2, or when the mobile device 1 moves to a position quite close to the base station 2 but the surface of the mobile device 1 does not touch the base station 2, the first The minimum distance between the receiving device 11 and the light source 20 of the base station 2 is used as a preset distance.

In other embodiments, the distance obtained by the second receiving device 11 from looking up the window 110 according to the detected voltage value may be the distance between the center of mass of the mobile device 1 and the center of mass of the base station 2 . In this case, when the surface of the mobile device 1 touches the surface of the base station 2, or when the mobile device 1 moves to a position quite close to the base station 2 but the surface of the mobile device 1 does not touch the base station 2, the surface of the mobile device 1 The distance between the center of mass and the center of mass of the base station 2 is used as the preset distance.

Assume that the mobile device 1 is located outside the target area OA (ie, the initial location is located outside the target area OA) and the target direction is obtained by the first receiving device 10A or 10B. Referring to FIG. 4 and FIG. 6 , while the mobile device 1 is moving toward the target direction, the mobile device 1 encounters an obstacle OB2 located in the target direction and outside the target area OA. At this time, the mobile device 1 directly bypasses the obstacle OB2 and continues to move towards the target direction.

Referring to FIG. 1B , the mobile device further includes a monitoring device 14 . The monitoring device 14 is used to monitor whether the mobile device 1 is moving towards a target direction. If the monitoring device 14 detects that the mobile device 1 deviates from the target direction and moves toward an offset direction, the driving device 12 drives the mobile device 1 to turn from the offset direction back to the target direction and continue to move toward the target direction.

In the embodiment of Fig. 1A and Fig. 1B, the lens of the second receiving device 11 is an omnidirectional lens, therefore, as long as the mobile device 1 enters the area covered by the rays from the light source 20, the second receiving device 11 can receive to the ray.

FIG. 7A shows a control method according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is applicable to the mobile device 1 of FIG. 1A . The following will be described in conjunction with FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B . First, the rays from the light source 20 of the base station 2 are received by the first receiving device 10A or 10B (hereinafter, the first receiving device 10A will be described as an example) (step S70 ). The first receiving device 10A obtains the target direction from the starting position of the mobile device 1 to the base station 2 according to the ray (step S71 ). The driving device 12 drives the moving device 1 to move from the initial position to the target direction (step S72 ). Define a target area (step S73). When the mobile device is located in the target area, the distance between the mobile device 1 and the base station 2 can be obtained according to the ray. When the mobile device 1 encounters an obstacle located in the target direction and within the target area, the second receiving device 11 obtains the distance between the mobile device 1 and the obstacle according to the rays from the light source 20 as an intermediate distance (step S74 ). The judging device 13 then judges whether the intermediate distance is equal to a preset distance (step S75). If the judging device 13 judges that the intermediate distance is not equal to the preset distance, the driving device 12 makes the mobile device 1 bypass the obstacle and continue to move toward the target direction (step S76 ). If the judging device 13 judges that the intermediate distance is equal to the preset distance, the driving device judges that the obstacle is the base station 2 and makes the mobile device 1 park on the obstacle (step S77).

In the method flow of FIG. 7A , the step S73 of defining the target area can be performed before the step S70 , between the steps S70 to S71 , or between the steps S71 to S72 , and is not limited to be after the step S72 . In addition, in the control method of FIG. 7 , the starting position of the mobile device 1 can be outside or inside the target area.

Suppose the initial location of the mobile device 1 is outside the target area. Referring to FIG. 7B , when the mobile device 1 encounters an obstacle located in the target direction and outside the target area, the driving device 12 drives the mobile device around the obstacle and continues to move toward the target direction (step S78 ).

According to the above-mentioned mobile device 1 and its control method, the mobile device 1 can obtain the direction and position of the base station 2 relatively quickly without map data. When the power supply of the mobile device 1 is insufficient, it can return to the base station 2 for charging in real time.

Although the present invention is disclosed above with preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Those skilled in the art can make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore The protection scope of the present invention shall be determined by the claims of the present invention.

Claims (14)

1. return a control method for base station for mobile device, comprising:

Receive the ray from a base station;

The direction of pointing to this base station by an original position at this mobile device place is obtained using as a target direction according to this ray;

This mobile device is moved towards this target direction by this original position;

Define a target area, wherein, when this mobile device is positioned at this target area, distance between this mobile device and this base station can be obtained according to this ray;

When this mobile device run into be positioned on this target direction and first barrier in this target area time, the spacing obtaining this mobile device and this base station according to this ray is using as an intermediate distance;

Judge whether this intermediate distance equals a predeterminable range;

If this intermediate distance is not equal to this predeterminable range, makes this mobile device walk around this first barrier and continue to move towards this target direction; And

If this intermediate distance equals this predeterminable range, then judge that this first barrier is this base station and makes this mobile device rest against this first barrier.

2. control method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, this original position is positioned at outside this target area.

3. control method as claimed in claim 2, also comprises:

When this mobile device run into be positioned on this target direction and second barrier outside this target area time, make this mobile device walk around this second barrier and continue to move towards this target direction.

4. control method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, this original position is positioned at this target area.

5. control method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in this step obtaining this target direction, this target direction obtains according to the code signal be loaded on this ray, and this code signal is the identification about this base station.

6. control method as claimed in claim 1, also comprises:

Monitor this mobile device whether to move towards this target direction; And

If when this mobile device departs from this target direction and moves towards an offset direction, make this mobile device be gone back to by this offset direction and move towards this target direction.

7. control method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, this predeterminable range defines according to the distance when this mobile device runs into this base station between this mobile device and this base station.

8. a mobile device, comprising:

One first receiving device, in order to receive from a ray of a base station, wherein, this first receiving device obtains the direction of pointing to this base station by an original position at this mobile device place using as a target direction according to this ray;

One drive unit, is moved towards this target direction by this original position in order to drive this mobile device;

One second receiving system, in order to receive this ray, wherein, to be positioned on this target direction and when first barrier of a target area when this mobile device runs into, this second receiving system obtains distance between this mobile device and this base station using as an intermediate distance according to this ray; And

One judgment means, in order to judge whether this intermediate distance equals a predeterminable range;

Wherein, if this judgment means judges that this intermediate distance is not equal to this predeterminable range, this drive unit drives this mobile device to walk around this first barrier and continues to move towards this target direction; And

Wherein, if this judgment means judges that this intermediate distance equals this predeterminable range, this drive unit judges that this first barrier is this base station and drives this mobile device to rest against this first barrier.

9. mobile device as claimed in claim 8, wherein, this original position is positioned at outside this target area.

10. mobile device as claimed in claim 9, wherein, when this mobile device run into be positioned on this target direction and second barrier outside this target area time, this drive unit drives this mobile device to walk around this second barrier and continues to move towards this target direction.

11. mobile devices as claimed in claim 8, wherein, this original position is positioned at this target area.

12. mobile devices as claimed in claim 8, wherein, this first receiving device obtains this target direction according to the code signal be loaded on this ray, and this code signal is the identification about this base station.

13. mobile devices as claimed in claim 8, also comprise:

Whether one supervising device, move towards this target direction in order to monitor this mobile device;

Wherein, if this supervising device monitors this mobile device when departing from this target direction and move towards an offset direction, this drive unit drives this mobile device gone back to by this offset direction and move towards this target direction.

14. mobile devices as claimed in claim 8, wherein, this predeterminable range defines according to the distance when this mobile device runs into this base station between this mobile device and this base station.