Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Automatic route guidance vehicle
Patent
1996-09-30
1999-02-02
Mojica, V. Lissi
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Automatic route guidance vehicle
701 26, 701301, 180167, 340435, 342132, G06G 0778, G08G 0702
Patent
active
058678000
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention refers to autonomous devices, for instance in the form of an autonomous and self orientating vacuum cleaner and more exactly to a method and a device for its orientation in the immediate surroundings by means of a sensing system having a transmitter for a wave frequency of a slow propagation and a receiving system having a geometry offering an advantageous sensing and determination of the position and height of an obstacle in the course of the autonomous device.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
For many years there has been a desire to provide, for instance, an autonomous apparatus for floor treatment, particularly a vacuum cleaner, which is controlled by a sensing system sweeping around the horizon in analogy, for example, with a ship radar. Then the desire is, that the apparatus should be able to orientate itself in a room, such that it, for instance, will be able to perform a cleaning function according to a predetermined pattern or a predetermined strategy and at the same time avoid colliding with different obstacles, which may be arranged in the room, besides avoiding collisions with the walls of the room.
The patent document SE 313,409 from 1969 discloses a device for an independently operating apparatus for floor treatment, which is provided with a pair of wheels driven by an electric motor. This device is characterized in that one of the wheels is automatically releasable against the action of a spring when the apparatus meets an obstacle, whereby the pair of wheels may be turned around a vertical axis, and the moving direction of the apparatus may be changed and additionally the direction of wheel rotation may be switched so that the apparatus in principle can move and avoid the obstacle. Additionally, the device is guided by a controller, which generally guides the travel of the device over the surface to be cleaned.
Also the document SE 364,574 discloses a corresponding device, which on its front side is provided with an obstacle detection device having sensing means-delivering electric signals and by which the width of obstacles, in the course of the device, may be determined. The sensing means operate completely mechanically and preferably consist of micro-switches.
In GB 1,403,860, having priority from an 1972 application, is disclosed a process and a device for automatic treatment, e.g., cleaning, of a bounded area, whereby the device will move over the entire area and automatically changing its course at the area boundaries. Anyhow, the device cannot in advance detect other obstacles present within the bounded area and follows in principle a predetermined program to cover all the surface of the bounded area.
Another such apparatus system is further disclosed in the document CH 619,799 from 1973, having priority in an application DE 2,364,002 from 1973. This apparatus, which is driven by two wheels, is arranged with an electro-optical measuring device, which displays several beam inputs and outputs. The measuring device serves to measure the distances between the apparatus and measuring points on the walls limiting the room. The measured points are entered into a coordinate calculation processor, which calculates, correlates and controls, respectively, the coordinates of the measuring points and stores these calculated values in an orientation memory. By means of a path counter connected to the wheels the motion of the apparatus is additionally calculated and the apparatus is guided by means of this information to by itself systematically travel over the entire surface of the floor for cleaning that surface.
A drawback here is the difficulty to locate obstacles which may be present in the course of the apparatus in its travels over the floor as an electro-optical sensing system which, due to the high propagation speed, demands a measuring system capable of measuring very short time periods, why, first of all, such a system, even still with the recent development taken place within electronics and computer technique, will be so expensive that it above all
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Aktiebolaget Electrolux
Mojica V. Lissi
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