JPH02241422A - Self-running cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable the efficient movement of a cleaner in the whole cleaning area by providing a memory part having a block map showing the positions of walls and obstructions and the followed route, and a moving direction determining means for determining the moving direction by reference to the content of the block map around the present position. CONSTITUTION:A memory part 13 built in a body 1 has a block map showing the positions of walls and obstructions and the moved route, and a moving direction determining means 14 determines the moving direction by reference to the content of the block map around the present position. A compass direction detecting means 10 is formed of a gyroscope and an integrator, and a position computing means 11 and a moving direction computing means 14 are formed of a main processor. The moving direction determining means 14 determines the moving direction by the wall and obstruction and followed route information of the block map present in the memory part 13 and the position information of the position computing means 11 and gives the running speed and distance to a running means 7 and the steering speed and angle to a steering means 8 to drive a running and steering wheel 6, whereby the body 1 is moved in the intended direction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application This invention relates to a self-propelled vacuum cleaner for cleaning floors that has a cleaning function and a moving function.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Conventionally, vacuum cleaners have been developed in which a moving function is added to vacuum cleaners to improve operability during cleaning. Particularly recently, self-propelled vacuum cleaners of the so-called self-guided type have been developed, which are equipped with microcomputers and various sensors so that they can move and clean while determining the cleaning area on their own. This type of self-propelled vacuum cleaner has a map in its memory to recognize the cleaning area and determine the direction of movement.1. When referring to this map, the entire cleaning area is searched, which often requires complex algorithms or makes it difficult to determine the direction of movement while dealing with obstacles of various shapes.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention These conventional techniques require complex calculations to determine the direction of movement, and it is difficult to control movement in real time with a simple system, resulting in slow movement speeds and uncleaned areas. There were issues such as leaving some areas unfinished. The present invention uses a simple algorithm to accurately determine the direction of movement based on the block map and information on obstacles and already traveled routes from the ultrasonic ranging means, making it possible to efficiently move throughout the cleaning area. The primary objective is to provide a self-propelled vacuum cleaner. Furthermore, a second object of the present invention is to provide a self-propelled vacuum cleaner that can move and clean areas where unknown obstacles exist.

Means to Solve the Problem The first means to achieve the first objective is the main body, a cleaning fan and fan drive means, a dust box, a floor nozzle, and running and steering wheels for movement. In addition, in a self-propelled vacuum cleaner equipped with a traveling and steering means, auxiliary wheels, an azimuth detecting means for detecting the direction of movement, a position calculating means, and a battery that supplies electric power to the entire device, An automatic vehicle equipped with a storage unit having a block map indicating the position of an object and an already traveled route, and a movement direction determining means for determining the movement direction by referring only to the contents of the blocks on the front, rear, left and right sides of the current position of the block map. This is a traveling vacuum cleaner.

The second means for achieving the second purpose consists of the main body, a cleaning fan, a dust box, a floor nozzle, a traveling and steering wheel for movement, a traveling and steering means, and an auxiliary wheel. , a block map showing the positions of walls and obstacles and the route already traveled in a self-propelled vacuum cleaner equipped with an azimuth detection means for detecting the direction of movement, a position calculation means, and a battery for supplying electric power to the entire device. an ultrasonic distance measuring means for detecting the distance to an actual wall/obstacle; the contents of the blocks on the front, rear, left, and right sides of the block map; Depending on the distance to obstacles,
When determining the direction of movement, that is, when an actual wall or obstacle obstructs the path, priority is given to information from the ultrasonic ranging means,
In addition, the self-propelled vacuum cleaner is provided with a moving direction determining means that prioritizes information from the block map to determine the moving direction in other cases.

According to the first means of operation, when the cleaning area is thoroughly moved and cleaned by referring to a block map written in advance in the memory unit by teaching etc., the contents of the blocks in front, rear, left and right of the current position are referred to. can determine the direction of movement. In other words, the entire cleaning area can be moved and cleaned using a simple algorithm.

According to the second method, even if there is an actual obstacle in the cleaning area that has not been entered in the block map in advance, the obstacle can be detected by the ultrasonic ranging means and the obstacle can be avoided. By using this method in combination with the action of the means described above, it is possible to move and clean all areas including unknown obstacles. Also, according to this method, completely unknown cleaning areas,
That is, even from an initial state in which no information is input to the block map, the moving direction can be accurately determined and the cleaning area can be thoroughly moved and cleaned.

Embodiment A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7. In FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a main body, which includes a fan 2 for cleaning, a fan drive means 3, a dust box 4, a floor nozzle 5, a running/steering wheel 6 for movement, and a running wheel. It also includes steering means 7 and 8, auxiliary wheels 9, azimuth detection means 10 for detecting the direction of movement, position calculation means 11, and a battery 12 for supplying electric power to the entire body. Similarly, 13 is a storage unit built into the main body 1, which has a block map showing the positions of walls and obstacles and the route already traveled. Reference numeral 14 denotes a moving direction determining means that determines the moving direction by referring only to the contents of the block map on the front, back, left, and right sides of the current position of the block map. Here, the contents of each means in this embodiment are as shown in FIG. 3, the fan drive means 3 is a sub-processor, a fan motor drive circuit, and a motor, and the traveling means 7 and the steering means 8 are a sub-processor and a traveling motor, respectively. Direction detection means 1 with drive circuit, steering motor drive circuit, motor, and rotary encoder
0 is composed of a gyro and an integrator, and the position calculation means 11 and the movement direction calculation means 14 are composed of a main processor.

Next, the operation of this self-propelled vacuum cleaner will be explained. The movement direction determining means 14 determines the movement direction based on the wall/obstacle and vertical movement route information of the block map stored in the storage unit 13 and the position information of the position calculation means 11 (the movement direction determination algorithm will be explained later), and the traveling means. 7 is given the running speed and distance, and the steering means 8 is given the steering speed and angle. Then, the main body 1 moves in the desired direction by driving the running and steering wheels 6 by the running and steering means 7 and 8. During this movement, the fan 2 is driven by the fan driving means 3 to suck dirt and grime from the floor nozzle 5 into the dust box 4, thereby functioning as a self-propelled vacuum cleaner.

FIG. 4 shows a block map used in this example. This block map is created by dividing a certain area including the cleaning area into blocks at equal intervals in both the X direction (hereinafter referred to as the row direction) and the Y direction (hereinafter referred to as the column direction), and the intervals between the blocks are The width is set to be slightly smaller than the width of the floor nozzle 5. Further, each block corresponds to one bit of the storage section 13. In this embodiment, two block maps are prepared, one for walls/obstacles and one for already traveled routes.

The method of representation on this map is, for example, if a certain block represents the location of a wall/obstacle, the bit of the wall/obstacle map corresponding to that block is set to 1, and it is also indicated that it is a vertical movement route. In the case of representation, the bit of the map for the already traveled route corresponding to that block is set to 1, and in other cases, each bit is set to O. Furthermore, the separated rows and columns are numbered sequentially starting from O to represent the positions. For example, point P in FIG. 4 is expressed as P=(n, m).

Here, n'm corresponds to the calculation result of the position calculation means 11. Next, an algorithm for determining the moving direction by the moving direction determining means 14 will be explained using FIGS. 5 and 6 as examples. In FIG. 5, which shows an example of the block map of this embodiment, the diagonally shaded areas on the wall/obstacle map are walls/obstacles that have been set in advance, and the dotted lines on the route map that has already been traveled are those actually traveled. It represents the moving part that has finished, that is, the vertical movement path. Furthermore, the movement control is performed so that the center of the block is moved. For example, when controlling the n rows to move north, the output of the movement direction determining means 14 is set to OL= (
nl, north).

However, the top of the page is north, the bottom is south, the left is west, and the right is bundle. Now, to determine the direction of movement, we only refer to the contents of the blocks to the east, west, south, and north of the current position, and if there are no walls or obstacles and there is no vertical movement path, the direction of movement is determined to be the direction of that block. . When referring to this block, in this embodiment, the priority order is set in the order of west-south and north-south. This setting allows the moving direction to be determined efficiently. In other words, when the start point is set as shown in Figure 5, movement to the west or south is not considered at the position of the start point PO, so the priority is set high so that the direction of movement can be determined quickly. It is something. This point is the most excellent point of this embodiment. However, this priority order applies when the start point is set as shown in FIG. 5, and in other cases, the priority order may basically be determined so that the start point has the highest priority. Now, the process of determining the moving direction will be explained. First, at the starting point PO, when referring to blocks according to their priority order, (0, 1), (1,
O) cannot be moved due to the wall, and (1, 2) can be moved, so it is 0.
L=(11, north). Next, in Pl, (O12) has a wall (1, 0) that cannot be moved along the vertical movement path, and (1, 3) that can be moved, so OL= (1, north). In this way, move to P2. In P2, (0, 11) cannot be moved due to the wall, (1, 10) cannot be moved due to the vertical movement path, (1,
12) cannot be moved due to the wall, and (2, 11) can be moved, so OL = (, 11, bundle). In P3, (1, 11)
> is not movable along the vertical movement path, and (2,10) is movable, so OL=(21, south). Similarly, in P4, OL (,8, bundle), in P5, OL= (31, north), and this process is repeated to move to PO. In PO (5
,4) is movable, so it becomes 0L-(,4, west),
Entering an area that has not been cleaned due to obstacles.

In P7, (1, 4) cannot be moved on the vertical movement path, (2, 3)
) is movable, so 0L=(2, south). By repeating the above process, it moves to the final point P8.

In P8, (6, 11) (7, 10) is the vertical movement path (7
, 12) and (8, 11) are walls and cannot be moved, so the cleaning ends. In other words, the user has moved throughout the cleaning area.

Here, if the moving direction is determined using the same algorithm with reference to only the wall/obstacle map, it is possible to inevitably return to the starting point PO. Figure 6 shows a flowchart of the above algorithm (however, Figure 6 shows the algorithm for determining the moving direction at point (n, m)), and the correspondence with the judgments at each point above is described below. . PO-PL/P5 is YES for decision 3, P2/P4 is YES for decision 4, and P
3.P7 corresponds to YES in decision 2, PO corresponds to YES in decision 1, and P8 corresponds to NO in decision 4.

In addition, if an uncleaned area occurs due to an obstacle in the shape shown in Figure 7, when the final point P9 is reached, the entire block map is searched to find the uncleaned area, and then the uncleaned area is searched. It is sufficient to move to the block PLO with the highest priority and move in the same manner using the algorithm described above.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, if the cleaning area and obstacle positions are stored in the block map in advance through teaching or the like, it is possible to move throughout the cleaning area using a simple algorithm.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described using FIGS. 8 to 16. In Figures 8 to 10, 15 is the main body,
Fan 16 and fan drive means 17, dust box 18, and floor nozzle 19 for cleaning, traveling and steering wheels 20 for movement, and traveling and steering means 21 and 22,
It includes an auxiliary shaft 23, an azimuth detection means 24 for detecting the direction of movement, a position calculation means 25, and a battery 26 for supplying power to the entire body. Reference numeral 27 denotes a storage section similarly provided in the main body 15, which has a block map showing the positions of walls and obstacles and vertical movement routes.

Further, 28 is an ultrasonic manual ranging means for detecting the distance to an actual wall or obstacle, and 29 is an ultrasonic manual ranging means for detecting the distance to an actual wall or obstacle. This is a moving direction determining means that determines the moving direction based on the distance to a wall or obstacle. This movement direction determining means 2
As described above, the movement direction is determined by the ultrasonic manual ranging means 28 and the contents of the blocks on the front, rear, left and right sides of the current position on the block map provided in the storage unit 27. If a wall or obstacle obstructs your path,
The information from the ultrasonic ranging means 28 is prioritized, and in other cases, the information from the block map is prioritized to determine the moving direction. Here, the contents of each means in this embodiment are as shown in FIG. 11. The fan drive means 17 is a sub-processor, a motor drive circuit, and a motor, and the traveling and steering means 21 and 22 are a sub-processor, a traveling and steering motor. The direction detecting means 24 is a gyro and an integrator, the position calculating means 25 and the moving direction calculating means 29 are a main processor, and the ultrasonic distance measuring means is an ultrasonic sensor and an ultrasonic drive circuit. It is realized with an amplifier and sub-processor.

Next, the operation of this self-propelled vacuum cleaner will be explained. That is, the moving direction determining means 29 determines the moving direction based on the wall/obstacle and already traveled route information of the block map stored in the storage section 27, the position information of the position calculating means 11, and the information from the ultrasonic ranging means 28. (The direction determination algorithm will be explained later), the traveling means 21 receives the traveling speed and distance, and the steering means 22
Give the steering speed and angle to . The main body 15 is moved in the desired direction by the traveling and steering means 21 and 22 driving the traveling and steering wheels 20. During this movement, the fan 16 is driven by the fan drive means 17, and the floor nozzle 19
It functions as a self-propelled vacuum cleaner by sucking dirt from the dust box 18 into the dust box 18.

Next, the block map will be explained. FIG. 12 shows a block map used in this example. This block map is created by dividing a certain area, including the cleaning area, into blocks at equal intervals in both the X direction (hereinafter referred to as the row direction) and the Y direction (hereinafter referred to as the column direction). is set to be slightly smaller than the width of the floor nozzle 19. Further, each block corresponds to one bit of the storage section 27. In this embodiment, there are two block maps, one for the wall/obstacle map and one for the vertical movement path map, and when a certain block represents the position of a wall/obstacle, the block map corresponds to that block. wall·
The bit of the obstacle map is set to 1, and similarly, when representing a vertically moving route, the bit of the already moved route map corresponding to that block is set to 1, and in other cases, each bit is expressed as O. Furthermore, the separated rows and columns are numbered sequentially starting from O to represent the positions. For example, the fourth
Point P' in the figure is expressed as P'=(n, m).

Here, n''m is the calculation result of the position calculation means 25.

Next, the moving direction determination algorithm is shown in FIGS. 13 and 1.
This will be explained using FIG. 4 as an example. In FIG. 13, which shows an example of the block map of this embodiment, the diagonal lines in the wall/obstacle map indicate the positions of preset walls/obstacles, and the thick line frames indicate the positions of actual obstacles. The dotted lines on the map of the route already traveled indicate the vertical travel portion actually traveled. Furthermore, the movement control is basically to move the center of the block. For example, when controlling the movement direction so that n rows go north, the output of the movement direction determining means 29 is OL=(n
l, north). However, the top of the page is north, the bottom is south, the left is west, and the right is bundle. Another output of the moving direction determining means 29 is "along the wall". ”
"Along the wall" means moving while keeping a constant distance between the wall/obstacle and the side of the main unit.Also, the ultrasonic sensor
As shown in the figure, the main body 15. US on the front, back, left and right sides of
1, us2, us3, and us4 are arranged so as to correspond to each other. Now, the direction of movement is determined based on the contents of the north, south, east, west, and east blocks of the current position and the wall/obstacle information from the ultrasonic ranging means 28.If there are no walls/obstacles and there is no vertical movement path, then the block The direction is the movement direction, and the content of the block is neither a wall/obstacle nor a vertical movement path, but if an actual obstacle is detected by the ultrasonic ranging means 28, then "
This is done by "along the wall", but it is necessary to prioritize the block reference and ultrasonic ranging method information (hereinafter referred to as "ultrasonic wall information") in the order of west - south, north, one bundle, and block map information. The most advantageous point of this embodiment is that the moving direction is determined by giving priority to the information from the ultrasonic ranging means 28.

However, the priority order of block references is determined when the start point is set as shown in FIG. 13, and in other cases, the priority order may basically be determined so that the priority of the start point is maximized. Now, the process of determining the moving direction will be explained. First, at the starting point PO', referring to the block map and ultrasonic wall information according to the priority order (Oll), (1,0
) cannot be moved due to walls, but (1, 2) can be moved, so it is an office lady.
= (1°, north). Next, in P1', (0, 2) cannot be moved due to the wall, (012), the wall (1, 0) cannot be moved due to the vertical movement path, and (1, 3) is movable, so 0L (11,
North). In this way, it moves to P2'. P2'
Then, (0,11) cannot be moved due to walls, (1,10) cannot be moved due to vertical movement path, (1,12> cannot be moved due to walls, (2
, 11) is movable, so OL= (, 11, east). At P3', (1, 11) cannot be moved along the vertical movement path, and (2, 10) is movable, so OL=(21, south). Next, in P4', (1, 8) cannot be moved due to the vertical movement path, (2, 7) cannot be moved due to an actual obstacle, (2,
9) cannot be moved along the vertical movement path, and (3, 8) is movable, so OL=(,8, bundle). P5' becomes OL= (35, north) in the same way, and repeats this to P6.
'Move to. In P6'', (5, 7) can be moved on the block map, but cannot be moved on the ultrasonic wall information, so OL = (61, south), but as in P7', the actual wall is the center of the block. If it prevents you from moving, move "along the wall".In P8', (5, 4) can be moved, so OL = (,4, west) and move to P9'.P9' Then (1, 4) cannot be moved on the vertical movement path, (
2, 3) are movable, so OL=(21, south). By repeating the above process, the final point P10
’. In PLO', (6, 11), (7, 10
) is the vertical movement path, and (7, 12) and (8, 11) are walls and cannot be moved, so there is no movement direction and the cleaning ends.

At this time, the cleaning area has been thoroughly moved. Here, if the moving direction is determined using the same algorithm with reference to only the wall/obstacle map and the ultrasonic obstacle information, it is possible to inevitably return to the starting point PO'. Figure 14 shows a flowchart of the above algorithm (however, Figure 14
The figure shows an algorithm for determining the moving direction at point (n, m)), and the correspondence with the determination at PO'-PLO' described above will be described below. PO'・PI'・P5' is judgment 3'
-5' is NO and P2'-P4' is judgment 4'
・No of 5', P3' - P6, P9' corresponds to judgment 2', No of 5', P6' corresponds to NO of judgment 2' and YES of judgment 5', respectively. Also, the first
If an uncleaned area occurs due to an obstacle with a shape as shown in Figure 6, when the final point P11' is reached, the entire block map is searched to find the uncleaned area, and within the uncleaned area, It is sufficient to move to the block P12' with the highest priority and move in the same manner using the algorithm described above.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, even without obstacle information, it is possible to move throughout the cleaning area using a simple algorithm. In addition, even if the cleaning area is unknown (i.e., from the initial state where no information has been entered in the block map), if the cleaning area is covered by a wall, the algorithm described above can be used to accurately determine the direction of movement and clean the area. Can move throughout the area.

In this embodiment, when changing the OL, the direction is changed after stopping once, so the direction detecting means is corrected every time the vehicle stops.

Effects of the Invention As explained above, according to the first means, if the cleaning area and obstacle positions are stored in advance on a block map through teaching etc., it is possible to move throughout the cleaning area using a simple algorithm. can.

That is, the system configuration can be simplified and it can be moved quickly. According to the second means, as long as the cleaning area is stored in the block map, the cleaning area can be thoroughly cleaned using a simple algorithm while avoiding obstacles inside the cleaning area. Furthermore, if the area is covered by a wall, the area to be cleaned can be thoroughly cleaned while avoiding obstacles without storing information about the cleaning area, walls, and obstacles in advance. Furthermore, the row and column spacing of the block map of the present invention is slightly smaller than the floor nozzle width, so when moving, the range covered by the floor nozzles overlaps little by little, improving cleaning efficiency. Note that the algorithm in the movement direction determining means of the present invention is also effective for automatic lawn mowers, automatic rice transplanters, and the like.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a sectional view of a self-propelled vacuum cleaner according to the first embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a top view of the same, Fig. 3 is a block diagram of the control circuit, and Fig. 4 is a storage section of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner. 5 is a diagram for explaining the movement algorithm, FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the movement algorithm, and FIG. 7 is a movement algorithm when there is an obstacle in the cleaning area. FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner according to the second embodiment, FIG. 9 is a top view of the same, FIG. 10 is a side view of the same, and FIG. 11 is a control circuit of the same. Block diagram, 1st
Figure 2 is a block diagram of the storage unit, Figure 13 is a diagram for explaining the movement algorithm, Figure 14 is a flowchart for explaining the movement algorithm, and Figure 15 is a diagram for explaining the movement algorithm.
The figure is a configuration diagram explaining the arrangement of the ultrasonic sensor, No. 16.
The figure is a diagram for explaining a movement algorithm when an obstacle exists within the same cleaning area. l・15...Body, 2.16...Fan, 3.17
...Fan drive means, 4.18.. Dust box, 5.19.. Floor nozzle, 6.20.. Traveling and steering wheel, 7.21.. Traveling means, 8.22.. Steering means, 9/23... Auxiliary wheels, 10/24... Orientation detection means, 11/25... Position calculation means, 12/26...
Battery 13/27...Storage unit, 14/29...
・Movement direction determining means. Name of agent: Patent attorney Shigetaka Awano and 1 other person/2---
B1. Tetsu Figure 1 - Main floor / 244δ 71-17? nt7-th Light Map Diagram Ametomi Diagram 15-11 Store D Book Diagram Gladiator 2 Causes of Hatsuchisaw Legs Diagram 10 Diagram 13 Diagram 14 Diagram 15

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Main body, cleaning fan and fan drive means, dust box, floor nozzle, traveling and steering wheels for movement, traveling and steering means, auxiliary wheels, and direction detection for detecting the direction of movement. A self-propelled vacuum cleaner comprising a means for calculating a position, a position calculating means, and a battery for supplying electric power to the entire device, a storage section having a block map indicating the position of walls and obstacles and a route already traveled, and the block; A self-propelled vacuum cleaner that is provided with a moving direction determining means that determines the moving direction by referring only to the contents of the blocks on the front, rear, left, and right sides of the current position on the map. (2) Main body, cleaning fan and fan drive means, dust box, floor nozzle, traveling and steering wheels for movement, traveling and steering means, auxiliary wheels, and direction detection for detecting the direction of movement. In a self-propelled vacuum cleaner, the self-propelled vacuum cleaner includes a means for calculating a position, a position calculation means, and a battery for supplying electric power to the entire device. Movement based on the ultrasonic distance measuring means for detecting the distance to the wall/obstacle, the contents of the blocks on the front, back, left and right sides of the block map, and the distance to the actual wall/obstacle by the ultrasonic ranging means. When determining the direction, that is, when an actual wall or obstacle obstructs the path, priority is given to the information from the ultrasonic ranging means, and in other cases, priority is given to information from the block map when moving. A self-propelled vacuum cleaner equipped with a moving direction determining means for determining a direction.