CN111166248A

CN111166248A - Cleaning robot, autonomous charging method and autonomous charging system

Info

Publication number: CN111166248A
Application number: CN202010047171.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 龚凯
Original assignee: Shenzhen Feike Robot Co ltd
Current assignee: Shenzhen Feike Robot Co ltd
Priority date: 2020-01-16
Filing date: 2020-01-16
Publication date: 2020-05-19

Abstract

The application discloses an autonomous charging system, a cleaning robot and an autonomous charging method. The autonomous charging method includes: when the charging pile exists in the current environment, adjusting the posture of the cleaning robot at the first position so that the head of the cleaning robot is over against the charging pile, and recording the first pose of the cleaning robot in a map; the head part is the foremost part along the advancing direction of the cleaning robot; determining a second position according to the detected charging pile information in the first pose, and controlling the cleaning robot to move towards the second position; when the cleaning robot moves to the second position, the posture of the cleaning robot is adjusted so that the head of the cleaning robot is over against the charging pile, and the second pose of the cleaning robot in the map is recorded; and calculating a third position of the charging pile in the map according to the first pose and the second pose, and controlling the cleaning robot to move to the charging pile for charging according to the third position. This application can improve cleaning machines people and fill the efficiency of looking for a stake of in-process again.

Description

Cleaning robot, autonomous charging method and autonomous charging system

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of robot automatic control, and more particularly, to a cleaning robot, an autonomous charging method, an autonomous charging system, and a readable storage medium.

Background

With the development of technology, cleaning robots are increasingly widely used. Among them, automatic positioning and automatic recharging are important features of the cleaning robot. The scheme that automatic recharging adopted at present is when confirming that there is the electric pile of filling around the cleaning robot, according to the signal that fills electric pile that detects, constantly adjusts cleaning robot's direction of travel and removes the place ahead that fills electric pile. For example, according to the detected charging pile signal, if the charging pile is determined to be on the left side of the cleaning robot, the cleaning robot is controlled to move towards the left side; if the charging pile is determined to be on the right side of the cleaning robot, the cleaning robot is controlled to move towards the right side, the left and right adjustment is repeated until the cleaning robot moves to the front of the charging pile, and the method for searching the charging pile is low in efficiency due to the repeated left and right adjustment.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application discloses a cleaning robot, an autonomous charging method, an autonomous charging system and a readable storage medium, which aim to solve the problems.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a cleaning robot comprising:

the detection device is used for detecting the charging pile information; and

the processing unit is used for adjusting the posture of the cleaning robot at a first position so that the head of the cleaning robot is over against the charging pile when the charging pile exists in the current environment, and recording a first posture of the cleaning robot in a map; the head part refers to the foremost part along the advancing direction of the cleaning robot;

the processing unit is further used for determining a second position according to the charging pile information detected in the first pose and controlling the cleaning robot to move towards the second position;

the processing unit is further used for adjusting the posture of the cleaning robot to enable the head of the cleaning robot to face the charging pile when the cleaning robot moves to the second position, and recording the second posture of the cleaning robot in a map;

the processing unit is also used for calculating a third position of the charging pile in the map according to the first pose and the second pose and controlling the cleaning robot to move to the third position for charging.

In a second aspect, the present application provides an autonomous charging method applied to a cleaning robot, the autonomous charging method including:

when the charging pile exists in the current environment, adjusting the posture of the cleaning robot at the first position so that the head of the cleaning robot faces the charging pile, and recording the first posture of the cleaning robot in a map; the head part refers to the foremost part along the advancing direction of the cleaning robot;

determining a second position according to the charging pile information detected in the first pose, and controlling the cleaning robot to move towards the second position;

when the cleaning robot moves to the second position, adjusting the posture of the cleaning robot to enable the head of the cleaning robot to face the charging pile, and recording a second pose of the cleaning robot in a map;

and calculating a third position of the charging pile in the map according to the first pose and the second pose, and controlling the cleaning robot to move to the third position for charging.

In a third aspect, the present application provides an autonomous charging system, comprising a charging pile, the autonomous charging system further comprising the cleaning robot of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a readable storage medium having stored thereon a corresponding program of an autonomous charging method, which when executed, implements the autonomous charging method described in the second aspect.

In a fifth aspect, the present application also provides a cleaning robot comprising at least one module that can be used to implement the method of the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product; the computer program product comprises program instructions which, when executed by a cleaning robot, cause the cleaning robot to perform the method of the second aspect as described above. The computer program product may be a software installation package which, in case the method provided using any of the possible designs of the second aspect described above is required, may be downloaded and executed on a cleaning robot for carrying out the method of the second aspect.

According to the cleaning robot, the autonomous charging method, the autonomous charging system and the readable storage medium, after the charging pile exists in the current environment, the first pose and the second pose of the cleaning robot are respectively determined, the third position of the charging pile in the map can be calculated according to the first pose and the second pose, the cleaning robot is controlled to move to the third position to be charged, the number of times of ceaselessly determining the position of the charging pile according to the information of the charging pile in the traveling process is reduced, and therefore the docking efficiency with the charging pile in the recharging process is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a cleaning robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2A is a top schematic view of a cleaning robot in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 2B is a bottom schematic view of a cleaning robot according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of an autonomous charging system according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of a main body seat according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a charging pile according to another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart of an autonomous charging method according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a moving position of the cleaning robot relative to the charging pile according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a moving position of the cleaning robot relative to the charging pile according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 9 is a functional block diagram of a cleaning robot according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

It is to be understood that the terminology used in the embodiments of the present application is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting of the application. As used in the examples of this application and the appended claims, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

The embodiment of the application provides an autonomous charging system, a cleaning robot and an autonomous charging method applied to the cleaning robot, so that pile searching efficiency in an autonomous recharging process is improved. Embodiments of the present application are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a block diagram of a cleaning robot according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. One embodiment of a cleaning robot provided by the present application includes: image acquisition unit 110, battery unit 120, drive unit 130, left wheel 131, right wheel 132, guide wheel 133, cleaning unit 140, processing unit 150, storage unit 160, obstacle detection unit 170.

The image capturing unit 110 is used to capture an image of the current environment of the cleaning robot. The image acquisition unit 110 includes one or more cameras among a two-dimensional camera and a three-dimensional camera. For example, one two-dimensional camera may be placed on the upper surface of the cleaning robot and capture images above the cleaning robot, i.e., images of the ceiling of the space to be worked.

For another example, a three-dimensional camera is placed in front of the cleaning robot and captures a three-dimensional image viewed by the cleaning robot, as shown in fig. 2A. The three-dimensional image comprises information about the distance from the object to be acquired to the two-dimensional image of the object to be acquired. A stereo camera module or a depth sensor module may be employed as the three-dimensional camera.

The image acquisition unit 110 may include one or more of a depth sensor 111, an RGB image sensor 112, or a structured light image sensor 113.

The depth sensor includes: a two-dimensional camera that acquires an image of an object to be acquired; and an infrared sensor that irradiates infrared rays to the object to be collected. And the depth sensor outputs images collected by the two-dimensional camera and distance information obtained by the infrared sensor.

The RGB sensor 112 may capture RGB images, also referred to as color images. For example, the charging pile is photographed by using an RGB sensor to obtain an RGB image including the charging pile.

The structured light image sensor 113 includes an infrared transceiver module. For example, the infrared transceiver module can measure the distance from the cleaning robot to the charging pile. And generating a three-dimensional image of the charging pile according to the distance from the cleaning robot to the charging pile.

Wherein the stereo camera module includes a plurality of two-dimensional cameras, and determines distance information on an object to be captured using a difference between images captured by the plurality of two-dimensional cameras. Also, the stereo camera module outputs information on a distance between one of the images captured by the plurality of two-dimensional cameras and the object to be captured.

The image acquisition unit 110 may further include a graphics processing unit that processes the acquired images as needed. Such as changing the size or resolution of the image captured by the camera.

The battery unit 120 includes a rechargeable battery, a charging circuit respectively connected to the rechargeable battery, and electrodes of the rechargeable battery. The number of the rechargeable batteries is one or more, and the rechargeable batteries can provide electric energy required by the operation of the cleaning robot. The electrode may be provided at a side of the body or at the bottom of the body of the cleaning robot. The battery unit 120 may also include a battery parameter detection component for detecting battery parameters, such as voltage, current, battery temperature, and the like. When the working mode of the cleaning robot is switched to the recharging mode, the cleaning robot starts to search for the charging pile and charges the cleaning robot by utilizing the charging pile.

The driving unit 130 includes a motor for applying a driving force. The driving unit 130 connects the sweeping unit 140, the left wheel 131, the right wheel 132, and the guide wheel 133. Under the control of the processing unit 150, the driving unit 130 may drive the sweeping unit 140, the left wheel 131, the right wheel 132, and the guide wheel 133. Alternatively, the driving unit 130 includes a cleaning driving sub-unit connected to the cleaning unit 140, a left wheel driving sub-unit connected to the left wheel 131, a right wheel driving sub-unit connected to the right wheel 132, and a guide wheel driving unit connected to the guide wheel 133.

The left and right wheels 131 and 132 (wherein the left and right wheels may also be referred to as travel wheels and drive wheels) are centrally disposed at opposite sides of the bottom of the machine body of the cleaning robot in a symmetrical manner, respectively. The moving operation including the forward movement, the backward movement, and the rotation is performed during the cleaning. The guide wheel 133 may be provided at the front or rear of the machine body.

As shown in fig. 2B, sweeping unit 140 includes: a main brush 141 and one or more side brushes 142. The main brush is installed at the bottom of the body of the cleaning robot. Alternatively, the main brush 141 is a drum-shaped rotating brush rotating with respect to the contact surface in a roller type. The side brushes 142 are mounted at left and right edge portions of the front end of the bottom surface of the cleaning robot. That is, the side brush 142 is mounted substantially in front of the plurality of travel wheels. The side brush 142 is used to clean a cleaning area that the main brush 141 cannot clean. Also, the side brush 142 may not only rotate on the spot but also be installed to protrude to the outside of the cleaning robot, so that the area swept by the cleaning robot may be enlarged.

The obstacle detecting unit 170 is used to detect the surroundings of the cleaning robot on the circumferential side, and thereby find obstacles, walls, steps, and environmental objects such as a charging pile used to charge the cleaning robot. The obstacle detection unit 170 is also used to provide various third position and motion state information of the cleaning robot to the control module. The obstacle detection unit 170 may include a cliff sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, an infrared sensor, a magnetometer, a three-axis accelerometer, a gyroscope, a odometer, an LDS, an ultrasonic sensor, a camera, a hall sensor, and the like. The number and positions of the obstacle detection units 170 are not limited in this embodiment.

The processing unit 150 is disposed on a circuit board in the body of the cleaning robot, and may draw an instant map of the environment where the cleaning robot is located according to the information of the surrounding environment object fed back by the obstacle detecting unit 170 and a preset positioning algorithm. The processing unit 150 may further comprehensively determine the current working state of the cleaning robot according to distance information and speed information fed back by devices such as a cliff sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, an infrared sensor, a magnetometer, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a speedometer. The processing unit 150 may be implemented by one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), digital signal processing units (DSPs), Digital Signal Processing Devices (DSPDs), Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), controllers, micro-processing units, or other electronic components for performing the autonomous charging method in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

The storage unit 160 is used to store instructions and data, including but not limited to: map data, temporary data generated when controlling the operation of the cleaning robot, such as position data, speed data, etc. of the cleaning robot. The processing unit 150 can read the instructions stored in the storage unit 160 to execute the corresponding functions. The Memory unit 160 may include a Random Access Memory (RAM) and a Non-Volatile Memory (NVM). The nonvolatile Memory unit may include a Hard Disk Drive (Hard Disk Drive, HDD), a Solid State Drive (SSD), a Silicon Disk Drive (SDD), a Read-Only Memory unit (ROM), a Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM), a magnetic tape, a floppy Disk, an optical data storage device, and the like.

In this embodiment, the storage unit 160 may be used to store one or more computer programs, which include instructions. The processing unit 150 may cause the cleaning robot 10 to perform the autonomous charging method provided in some embodiments of the present application, and various functional applications and data processing, etc. by executing the above-described instructions stored in the storage unit 160.

It is understood that in one or more embodiments, the cleaning robot may further include an input-output unit, a position measurement unit, a wireless communication unit, a display unit, and the like.

Fig. 2A and 2B are schematic views of the cleaning robot 10 at two different viewing angles, respectively. As shown in fig. 2A, an image pickup unit 110 is provided at a side of the cleaning robot 10 for picking up a front environment image. As shown in fig. 2B, the cleaning robot 10 is provided at the bottom thereof with a left wheel 131, a right wheel 132, a guide wheel 133, a cleaning unit 140, and a battery unit 120. Sweeping unit 140 includes a main brush 141 and an edge brush 142. The rechargeable battery in the battery unit 120 is packaged inside the cleaning robot 10 with a cover to prevent it from falling. One of the electrode 121 and the electrode 122 of the rechargeable battery is a positive electrode, and the other is a negative electrode.

It should be noted that the connection relationship between the units or components in the cleaning robot is not limited to the connection relationship shown in fig. 1. For example, the processing unit 150 may be connected to other units or components via a bus.

It should be noted that the cleaning robot may further include other units or components, or only include some of the units or components, which is not limited in this embodiment, and only the cleaning robot is described as an example.

Referring to fig. 3 again, fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an architecture of an autonomous charging system 900 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 3, the autonomous charging system 900 includes a cleaning robot 10 and a charging pile 800. The charging pile 800 is used for charging the cleaning robot 10, that is, when the cleaning robot 10 moves to the charging pile 800, the cleaning robot 10 may be electrically connected to the charging pile 800, so that the charging pile 800 may charge the cleaning robot 10. In the present embodiment, the cleaning robot 10 has a substantially disc shape. In other embodiments, the cleaning robot 10 may also have other shapes, such as a square shape, and is not limited herein.

Specifically, the charging post 800 includes a base 810 and a main body seat 820 connected to the base. In this embodiment, the base 810 is vertically connected to the main body seat 820. Specifically, the base 810 is a structure vertically extended from the bottom of the main body seat 820. In this embodiment, the main body seat 820 and the base 810 are connected by welding, bonding, or the like. In other embodiments, the base 810 and the main body seat 820 may also be an integrally formed structure, which is not limited herein.

In some embodiments, the base 810 is a plate-shaped structure, and is a bottom plate extending perpendicularly from the bottom of the main body seat 820. That is, when the charging post 800 is placed on the ground, the extension direction of the base 810 is parallel to the ground.

Two charging electrode plates 811 are arranged on the base 810 at intervals, wherein one charging electrode plate 811 is a positive charging electrode plate, and the other charging electrode plate 811 is a negative charging electrode plate. When the cleaning robot 10 moves onto the base 810, the two electrodes 121/122 are respectively in electrical contact with the two charging electrode pads 811, thereby achieving electrical connection between the cleaning robot 10 and the charging post 800. Here, the bottom of the cleaning robot 10 refers to a portion facing the floor when the cleaning robot 10 is placed on the floor for sweeping. It is understood that, in other embodiments, the charging electrode pads 821 may be disposed on the main body seat 820, which is not limited herein.

As shown in fig. 3, in some embodiments, the two charging electrode pads 811 are disposed on the base 810 in a protruding manner, two recesses are disposed at intervals on the bottom of the cleaning robot 10, the two electrodes 121/122 of the cleaning robot 10 are disposed in the corresponding recesses, and the two charging electrode pads 811 are respectively received in the two recesses on the bottom of the cleaning robot 10 when the cleaning robot 10 moves onto the base 810. Accordingly, the relative fixation between the cleaning robot 10 and the base 810 can be maintained, thereby improving the stability of the charging connection.

In other embodiments, the cleaning robot 10 may not be provided with the recess, and the two charging electrode pads 811 of the charging pile 800 may be retracted into the base 810 when external force is applied thereto, and elastically restored to a state of protruding from the base 810 when external force is not applied thereto. When the cleaning robot 10 moves to the base 810, the two charging electrode pads 811 of the charging post 800 are retracted to the base by the pressure of the cleaning robot 10, and the two charging electrode pads 811 of the charging post 800 are closely abutted against and electrically connected to the two electrodes 121/122 of the cleaning robot 10 due to the elastic restoring force. Thus, the stability of the electrical contact is improved.

Springs may be disposed below the two charging electrode pads 811, respectively, so that the two charging electrode pads 811 retract into the base 810 when receiving an external force and elastically return to a state protruding out of the base 810 when not receiving the external force. The spring can be a spiral spring, a spring sheet and the like, and the spring can wrap an insulating material, so that the electric property of the two charging electrode plates 811 is prevented from being influenced, and the charging safety is improved.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a block diagram of a main body seat according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, a charging circuit 822 is disposed in the main body socket 820, the charging circuit 822 is electrically connected to the charging electrode pads 811, and the charging circuit 822 is configured to output a charging voltage and a charging current to the charging electrode pads 811 so as to charge the cleaning robot 10 by outputting the charging voltage and the charging current through the charging electrode pads 811 when the cleaning robot 10 moves onto the base 810 and the two electrodes 121/122 of the cleaning robot 10 are electrically contacted to the two charging electrode pads 811, respectively.

In some embodiments, a charging interface 823 may be further disposed on the main body seat 820, the charging circuit 822 is further electrically connected to the charging interface 823, and when the charging interface 823 is electrically connected to a mains power supply through a power line, the charging circuit 822 converts the electric energy of the mains power supply into a suitable charging voltage and charging current.

In some embodiments, a battery 824 is further disposed in the main body seat 820, the charging circuit 822 is further connected to the battery 824, and the charging circuit 822 is configured to convert electric energy of the mains power into a suitable charging voltage and charging current to charge the battery 824 and charge the cleaning robot 10 when the charging interface 823 is electrically connected to the mains power. The charging circuit 822 is further configured to convert the electric energy of the battery 824 into a suitable charging voltage and charging current to charge the cleaning robot 10 when the charging interface 823 is not connected to the commercial power source and the cleaning robot 10 moves to the base 810 to be charged.

Thus, since the battery 824 is provided in the charging pile 800, the charging pile 800 can be placed at any position as a portable power source to charge the cleaning robot 10, thereby improving flexibility and convenience.

Referring to fig. 3 again, the main body seat 820 is provided with a plurality of signal emitters 821. The plurality of signal transmitters 821 are used to transmit signals carrying different codes for the cleaning robot 10 to recognize. Accordingly, a signal receiver (not shown) may be disposed on the cleaning robot 10 to receive the signal transmitted by the signal transmitter 821. For example, the signal transmitter 821 may be an infrared signal transmitter for transmitting an infrared signal carrying different codes; accordingly, the signal receiver may be an infrared signal receiver. In this embodiment, the main body seat 820 is provided with 4 signal emitters 821, and a signal range emitted by the 4 signal emitters 821 is greater than 90 degrees, so as to ensure that the cleaning robot 10 can better detect charging pile information. In other embodiments, a greater or lesser number of signal emitters may be disposed on the main body seat 820, which is not limited herein.

Referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a perspective view of a charging pile 800 according to another embodiment of the present application. The main body seat 820 may further be provided with a charging pile identifier 821a for the cleaning robot 10 to recognize. Accordingly, the cleaning robot 10 may collect information of the charging pile id 821a through the image collecting unit 110. In some embodiments, the charging post identification 821a is a graphic that includes a recognizable pattern. Wherein the pattern comprises one or more combinations of dots, lines, faces, colors. Preferably, in order to improve the detection effect of the charging post identifier 821a, the pattern may be a matrix pattern including grids alternating between black and white. In some embodiments, the charging post identification 821a may also be a pattern or the like with specific content such as lightning symbols.

One or more of the signal receiver for identifying the charging pile 800 and the image collecting unit 110 on the cleaning robot 10 may be collectively referred to as a detection device, that is, the detection device is used for detecting charging pile information. The charging pile information includes signal information transmitted by the signal transmitter 821 on the charging pile 800 or image information of the charging pile id 821 a.

It is understood that the detecting means should be provided on the head of the cleaning robot 10 in order to ensure effective detection of the charging pile 800. The head refers to a foremost position in a forward direction of the cleaning robot 10.

Referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an autonomous charging method according to an embodiment of the present application. The autonomous charging method is applied to the cleaning robot 10 and the autonomous charging system 900 described above. Specifically, the autonomous charging method includes the following steps.

And step S11, when the charging pile exists in the current environment, adjusting the posture of the cleaning robot at the first position so that the head of the cleaning robot is over against the charging pile, and recording the first posture of the cleaning robot in a map.

The map is a SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping, real-time self-positioning and self-building map) system map, and the map may be stored in the storage unit 30 or may be stored in the cloud server. The coordinates of the cleaning robot 10 and the charging pile 800 in the map of the SLAM system are coordinate positions of the center point of the cleaning robot 10 and the center point of the charging pile 800 in the SLAM system.

In one embodiment, the posture of the cleaning robot 10 at the first position is continuously adjusted according to the signal transmitted from the signal transmitter 821 received by the signal receiver on the cleaning robot 10, so that the head of the cleaning robot is opposite to the charging pile 800. For example, when there are two signal receivers on both sides of the head of the cleaning robot 10, if the signal receiver on the left side of the head of the cleaning robot 10 receives a signal but the signal receiver on the right side of the head of the cleaning robot 10 does not receive a signal, it is necessary to control the cleaning robot 10 to adjust the traveling direction to the left side so that the signal receiver on the right side of the head of the cleaning robot 10 can also receive a signal. When the signal receiver on the cleaning robot 10 can simultaneously receive the signal transmitted from the signal transmitter 821, it indicates that the head of the cleaning robot 10 is facing the charging pile 800. When the signal receiver is disposed at the head of the cleaning robot 10, the signal receiver on the cleaning robot 10 can receive the signal transmitted from the signal transmitter 821, which indicates that the head of the cleaning robot 10 faces the charging pile 800.

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a moving position of the cleaning robot 10 relative to the charging pile 800 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 7, the head of the cleaning robot 10 is indicated by an arrow direction in fig. 7.

The pose refers to the position and posture of the cleaning robot 10, that is, the pose includes the coordinates of the cleaning robot 10 in the map and the head orientation angle. In this embodiment, the first position is designated as P1(x1, y1, θ 1), and the first position includes only coordinates (x1, y 1).

The coordinate system of the map in the embodiment of the present application is established with the initial position of the cleaning robot 10 as the origin of coordinates and the traveling direction of the cleaning robot 10 as the x-axis or the y-axis. In other embodiments, a different coordinate system may be established with other points as the coordinate origin, which is not limited herein.

And step S12, determining a second position according to the charging pile information detected in the first pose, and controlling the cleaning robot to move towards the second position.

as shown in fig. 7, in an embodiment, in order to improve the efficiency of confirming the second position, the determining the second position based on the charging pile information detected in the first posture includes determining an orientation of the charging pile 800 with respect to the cleaning robot 10 based on the charging pile information detected in the first posture, and determining the second position based on a preset angle α and a preset distance a, respectively, based on the determined orientation.

For example, if it is determined that the charging pile 800 is located at the right side of the cleaning robot 10 according to the received charging pile information when the cleaning robot 10 is in the first pose, it should be determined that the second position is located at the right side of the cleaning robot 10 in order to move to the middle area of the charging pile 800. That is, in the present embodiment, the second position is closer to the center perpendicular line of the charging surface of the charging pile 800 than the first position. In this embodiment, the charging surface is a surface of the main body seat 820 adjacent to the base 810 and connected to the base 810. The position of the center perpendicular of the charging surface may be a position through which the center perpendicular of the charging surface extends outward from the charging surface.

Compared with the prior art that the traveling direction of the cleaning robot 10 is continuously adjusted to move to the front of the charging pile 800 according to the detected signal of the charging pile 800, a second position closer to the central perpendicular line of the charging surface of the charging pile 800 than the first position can be determined according to the detected information of the charging pile in the first pose, so that the number of times that the cleaning robot 10 adjusts the traveling direction of the cleaning robot to the front close to the charging pile 800 according to the received signal of the charging pile 800 is reduced, the cleaning robot directly travels from the first position to the second position, and the second position is closer to the front of the charging pile, so that the cleaning robot 10 can be quickly butted with the charging pile 800, the butting time is shortened, and the charging efficiency is improved.

in one embodiment, in order to ensure that the cleaning robot 10 does not touch the charging post 800 during the movement from the first position to the second position even though the first position is close to the charging post 800, the preset angle α should be greater than 40 degrees and less than 100 degrees, i.e., 40 ° < α < 100 °.

In addition, if the length of the preset distance a is too short, the position of the charging pile 800 may be calculated inaccurately; if the length of the preset distance a is too long, the cleaning robot 10 may exceed the signal coverage of the charging pile 800 after moving to the second position, and the influence of more obstacles in the environment needs to be handled in the path planning process. Therefore, in an embodiment, in order to improve the calculation accuracy of the second position and ensure that the cleaning robot 10 should be within the signal coverage of the charging pile 800 after moving to the second position, i.e., the cleaning robot 10 can still receive the charging pile information after moving to the second position, the preset distance a should be greater than 0.2m and less than 1m, i.e., 0.2m < a < 1 m.

Step S13, after the cleaning robot 10 moves to the second position, adjusting the posture of the cleaning robot so that the head of the cleaning robot faces the charging pile, and recording the second posture of the cleaning robot in the map.

In this embodiment, the second position is designated as P2(x2, y2, θ 2), and the second position includes only coordinates.

In this embodiment, after the cleaning robot 10 moves to the second position, the posture of the cleaning robot is adjusted to make the head of the cleaning robot face the charging pile, and the step of adjusting the posture of the cleaning robot at the first position in step S11 to make the head of the cleaning robot face the charging pile is similar, and therefore, the description thereof is omitted.

And step S14, calculating a third position of the charging pile in the map according to the first pose and the second pose, and controlling the cleaning robot to move to the third position for charging.

In this embodiment, the third position of the charging pile 800 in the map is denoted as P3(x3, y 3). According to the technical scheme, the position of the charging pile 800 can be estimated according to the first pose and the second pose, so that when the cleaning robot 10 moves to the second position, the second position is close to the front of the charging pile 800, the cleaning robot 10 can be controlled to directly move to the front area of the charging pile 800 according to the estimated position of the charging pile 800, the traveling direction of the cleaning robot 10 is continuously adjusted according to the received signal of the charging pile 800, after the charging pile 800 is detected in the current environment, the cleaning robot directly moves to the second position from the first position and then moves to the third position from the second position for charging, and therefore the charging efficiency can be improved.

Specifically, a specific manner of calculating the third position of the charging pile 800 in the map according to the first pose and the second pose is as follows.

as shown in fig. 7, after the cleaning robot 10 moves to the second position, the first position P1, the second position P2 and the third position P3 of the charging pile 800 of the cleaning robot 10 form a triangle, and three interior angles α, β and γ of the triangle are calculated according to the first pose and the second pose, respectively, wherein the interior angle of the triangle corresponding to the first position P1 as the vertex is similar to the preset angle α, the interior angle of the triangle corresponding to the second position P2 as the vertex is β, and the interior angle of the triangle corresponding to the third position P3 as the vertex is γ.

It can be understood that although the cleaning robot 10 determines the second position based on the preset distance a, there is an error in the actual movement of the cleaning robot 10, and thus, it is necessary to recalculate the distance between the first position and the second position based on the coordinates of the first position and the coordinates of the second position to obtain the corrected preset distance a' so that the estimated third position is more accurate. Then calculating a first distance b between the first position P1 and the third position P3 and a second distance c between the second position P2 and the third position P3 according to the sine theorem, respectively; and calculating a third position of the charging pile 800 according to the first position P1 and the first distance b, or according to the second position P2 and the second distance c.

Referring to fig. 8, after estimating the third position, the cleaning robot 10 can determine the approximate direction of the front surface of the charging pile 800, but in the process of implementing charging and docking, the cleaning robot 10 needs to move to the front of the charging pile 800 first, and then move to the charging pile 800, so that the charging pole piece of the cleaning robot 10 is docked with the charging pole piece of the charging pile 800 before charging. Therefore, in order to enable the cleaning robot 10 to move from the second position to the charging pile 800 more quickly to complete docking, a position point can be found near the central perpendicular line of the charging surface in the front area of the charging pile 800, and the cleaning robot 10 is guided from the position point to finely adjust the traveling direction so that the central axis of the cleaning robot 10 is close to the central perpendicular line of the charging surface, so that the charging pole piece of the cleaning robot 10 is quickly docked with the charging pole piece of the charging pile 800. In an embodiment, to further improve the recharging efficiency, after the third position of the charging pole 800 is calculated, the processing unit 150 further estimates a perpendicular center of the charging surface of the charging pole 800 according to the charging pole information detected in the second pose, and determines a fourth position P4 in front of the charging pole 800 and on the perpendicular center. When the cleaning robot 10 is controlled to move to the fourth position P4, the posture of the cleaning robot 10 is adjusted to be opposite to the charging pile 800, and at this time, the cleaning robot 10 is located on the perpendicular bisector of the charging surface, so that the cleaning robot 10 can be controlled to rapidly move to the charging pile 800 for charging. Therefore, the cleaning robot 100 is directly guided to the vicinity of the central perpendicular line of the charging surface in the front area of the charging pile 800 from the second position to the fourth position, so that the cleaning robot 10 is guided from the fourth position to finely adjust the traveling direction so that the central axis of the cleaning robot 10 is close to the central perpendicular line of the charging surface.

After the central perpendicular line of the charging pile 800 is determined, an arc line is drawn by taking the central point of the charging pile 800 as a starting point and taking a fixed distance as a radius, and the intersection point of the arc line and the central perpendicular line is the fourth position P4.

In this embodiment, when the charging pile 800 is the charging pile shown in fig. 3 and provided with a plurality of transmitters 821, each signal transmitter 821 transmits a signal carrying different encoded information, the processing unit 150 determines the signal transmitter transmitting the signal according to the detected code of the charging pile information, and determines the position of the central perpendicular line of the charging surface of the charging pile 800 according to the signal transmitter and the offset angle corresponding to the signal transmitter. For example, when it is determined that the charging pile 800 is on the right side of the cleaning robot 10, the posture θ 3 of the charging pile 800 is θ 2+180 ° + Δ. Wherein Δ is the offset angle. In this embodiment, the offset angle corresponding to each emitter 821 can be preset and stored in the storage unit 160, so that the pose of the charging pile 800 can be determined according to the pose θ 3 of the charging pile 800 and the third position, and the position of the central perpendicular line of the charging surface can be estimated according to the pose of the charging pile 800.

When the charging pile 800 is the charging pile provided with the charging pile identifier 821a shown in fig. 5, the processing unit 150 determines the center perpendicular line of the charging pile 800 according to the image of the charging pile identifier 821a acquired by the image acquisition unit 110.

It will be appreciated that in other embodiments, the movement of the cleaning robot 10 towards the charging post 800 may also be controlled according to PID (proportional-integral-derivative) control techniques.

According to the cleaning robot 10 provided by the embodiment of the application, after the charging pile 800 exists in the current environment, the first pose and the second pose of the cleaning robot 10 are respectively determined, the third position of the charging pile 800 in the map can be calculated according to the first pose and the second pose, the cleaning robot 10 is controlled to move to the third position to be charged, the number of times of ceaselessly determining the position of the charging pile according to the information of the charging pile in the advancing process is reduced, and the efficiency of searching for the charging pile in the recharging process is improved.

Referring to fig. 9 again, fig. 9 is a functional block diagram of the cleaning robot 10 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 9, the cleaning robot 10 includes an adjustment recording module 101, a position determining module 102, a control module 103, and a calculation module 104.

The adjustment recording module 101 is configured to, when it is determined that the charging pile 800 exists in the current environment, adjust a posture of the cleaning robot 10 at the first position so that the head of the cleaning robot is directly opposite to the charging pile 800, and record the first posture of the cleaning robot 10 in the map.

The position determination module 102 is configured to determine a second position according to the charging pile information detected in the first pose, and the control module 103 is configured to control the cleaning robot 10 to move to the second position.

The adjustment recording module 101 is further configured to adjust a posture of the cleaning robot 10 so that the head of the cleaning robot 10 faces the charging pile 800 after the cleaning robot 10 moves to the second position, and record a second posture of the cleaning robot 10 in a map.

The calculation module 104 is configured to calculate a third position of the charging pile 800 in the map according to the first pose and the second pose, and the control module 103 is further configured to control the cleaning robot 10 to move to the third position for charging.

It should be noted that, for specific details of the functions performed by the modules of the cleaning robot 10 illustrated in fig. 9, reference may be made to the embodiments of the autonomous charging method described above, and details are not repeated herein.

It should be noted that all or part of the steps in the methods of the above embodiments may be implemented by hardware instructions of a program, and the program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, where the storage medium includes a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a Programmable Read-Only Memory (PROM), an Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), a One-time Programmable Read-Only Memory (OTPROM), an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), an optical disc (EEPROM), a compact disc-Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM), or other disc memories, A tape memory, or any other medium readable by a computer that can be used to carry or store data.

In the above embodiments, the descriptions of the respective embodiments have respective emphasis, and reference may be made to related descriptions of other embodiments for parts that are not described in detail in a certain embodiment.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the modules is merely a logical division, and in actual implementation, there may be other divisions, for example, multiple modules or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not implemented. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or modules, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The modules described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the present embodiment.

In addition, functional modules in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each module may exist alone physically, or two or more modules are integrated into one module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode.

The integrated module, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be substantially implemented or contributed to by the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes instructions for causing a device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, a robot, a single chip, a chip, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: u disk, removable hard disk, read only memory, random access memory, magnetic or optical disk, etc. for storing program codes.

The foregoing detailed description of the embodiments of the present application has been presented to illustrate the principles and implementations of the present application, and the above description of the embodiments is only provided to help understand the method and the core concept of the present application; meanwhile, for a person skilled in the art, according to the idea of the present application, there may be variations in the specific embodiments and the application scope, and in summary, the content of the present specification should not be construed as a limitation to the present application.

Claims

1. A cleaning robot, characterized in that the cleaning robot comprises:

the detection device is used for detecting the charging pile information; and

the processing unit is further used for adjusting the posture of the cleaning robot to enable the head of the cleaning robot to face the charging pile when the cleaning robot moves to the second position, and recording a second posture of the cleaning robot in a map;

2. The cleaning robot of claim 1, wherein the second position is closer to a position of a central perpendicular line of the charging surface of the charging post than the first position.

3. The cleaning robot of claim 1, wherein the processing unit is further configured to determine a second location from the charging post information detected while in the first pose, comprising: the processing unit determines the orientation of the charging pile relative to the cleaning robot according to the charging pile information detected in the first pose, and determines the second position according to the determined orientation by respectively taking a preset angle and a preset distance as a basis.

4. The cleaning robot of claim 3, wherein the preset angle is greater than 40 degrees and less than 100 degrees; and/or the preset distance is greater than 0.2 meter and less than 1 meter.

5. The cleaning robot according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the processing unit, after calculating the third position, further estimates a center vertical line of a charging surface of the charging pole based on the charging pole information detected in the second pose, and determines a fourth position in front of and on the center vertical line; and the processing unit controls the cleaning robot to move towards the fourth position, and after the cleaning robot moves to the fourth position, the posture of the cleaning robot is adjusted so as to enable the cleaning robot to be over against the charging pile.

6. An autonomous charging method applied to a cleaning robot; the cleaning robot comprises a detection device for detecting charging pile information; the autonomous charging method is characterized by comprising the following steps:

7. The autonomous charging method of claim 6 wherein the second position is closer to a position of a central perpendicular of a charging surface of the charging post than the first position.

8. The autonomous charging method of claim 6 wherein said determining a second location from the charging pile information detected while in the first pose comprises: and determining the position of the charging pile relative to the cleaning robot according to the detected charging pile information in the first pose, and determining the second position according to the determined position by respectively taking a preset angle and a preset distance as the basis.

9. The autonomous charging method of claim 8 wherein the preset angle is greater than 40 degrees and less than 100 degrees; and/or the preset distance is greater than 0.2 meter and less than 1 meter.

10. The autonomous charging method of any one of claims 6 to 9 wherein the controlling the cleaning robot to move to the third position for charging comprises:

estimating a center perpendicular line of a charging surface of the charging pile according to the detected charging pile information in the second pose, and determining a fourth position in front of the charging pile and on the center perpendicular line;

controlling the cleaning robot to move towards the fourth position, and adjusting the posture of the cleaning robot to enable the cleaning robot to be opposite to the charging pile after the cleaning robot moves to the fourth position;

and controlling the cleaning robot to move to the charging pile for charging.

11. An autonomous charging system comprising a charging pile, characterized in that the autonomous charging system further comprises a cleaning robot as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5.

12. A readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer readable storage medium has stored thereon a corresponding program of an autonomous charging method, which when executed, implements the autonomous charging method according to any one of claims 6 to 10.