Electricity: motive power systems – Positional servo systems – Vehicular guidance systems with single axis control
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-12
2003-07-22
Dang, Khanh (Department: 2181)
Electricity: motive power systems
Positional servo systems
Vehicular guidance systems with single axis control
C701S023000, C015S323000, C015S340100, C318S587000, C318S283000, C318S286000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06597143
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile robot system, and more particularly, to a mobile robot system having a mobile robot for performing a running operation and a data collecting operation, and a separate controlling computer for performing data processing. The mobile robot and controlling computer are connected to each other via an RF module for data transmission and receipt.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a mobile robot is provided with functions that enable the mobile robot to run independently and avoid obstacles without external help.
FIG. 1
is a block diagram illustrating the various features of the mobile robot.
As shown in
FIG. 1
, the mobile robot includes a running device
30
for moving the mobile robot, an obstacle detecting device
40
for detecting a presence of an obstacle in the mobile robot's path, a location recognizing device
20
for recognizing a current location of the mobile robot, a controller
10
for controlling general operations of the mobile robot, and a power supply
60
for storing and supplying necessary electricity to the respective components of the mobile robot. In addition, a remote-controllable transceiver
50
is provided to remotely control the start/stop of the mobile robot.
The operation of the mobile robot constructed as above will be described in detail below.
Upon receipt of a start command, the controller
10
of the mobile robot
1
initializes and transmits a run-command to the location recognizing device
20
and the obstacle detecting device
40
. Upon receipt of the run-command from the controller
10
, the location recognizing device
20
and the obstacle detecting device
40
respectively operate vision cameras
21
and
43
thereof to capture an image. After the image is captured, vision boards
23
and
46
of the location recognizing device
20
and the obstacle detecting device
40
use threshold setting or thinning processes to reduce the data size as small as possible. The data is then transmitted to the controller
10
. Upon receipt of the image data from the location recognizing device
20
and the obstacle detecting device
40
, the controller
10
processes the image data in an image processor
11
, recognizes a current location of the mobile robot
1
, determines the presence of the obstacle in the path of the mobile robot
1
, and starts the running device
30
. Since the above-described processes are continuously performed during operation of the mobile robot
1
, the mobile robot
1
can perform a predetermined job without colliding into any obstacles.
The mobile robot uses vision cameras (CCD cameras
21
and
43
) to capture images of objects to help the mobile robot
1
recognize its current location and detect the presence of any obstacles. Data obtained from the images captured by the vision cameras
21
and
43
is usually so massive that the data cannot be used in its present form. Accordingly, the size of the data must be reduced by proper processes, such as thresholding or thinning. These steps are usually performed by vision boards
23
and
45
, each of which has an image data processor. The data is processed in the vision boards
23
and
45
into image data, and the image processor
11
of the controller
10
determines the current location of the mobile robot
1
and the distance and shape of the obstacle based on such image data.
Since mechanisms for processing the images captured by the vision cameras
21
and
43
have to be mounted in the body of the run mobile robot
1
, such mobile robot
1
has a disadvantage of a bulky size.
Further, the remote control for the conventional mobile robot
1
only controls a start or stop signal sent to the mobile robot. Considering the widespread preference toward home appliances that can be controlled via the Internet, the conventional mobile robot
1
, which is not controllable via the Internet, is less attractive to potential customers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made to overcome the above-mentioned problems of the prior art. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a compact-sized mobile robot system, which is controllable via the Internet. This is accomplished by connecting an automatically running mobile robot to a computer that is connected to the Internet. The computer is capable of processing the image data from the mobile robot through a wireless communication using an RF module.
The above object is accomplished by a mobile robot system according to the present invention including a running device for moving the mobile robot about a room an obstacle detecting device for detecting a presence of an obstacle in the path of the mobile robot, a location recognizing device for recognizing a location of the mobile robot, a first transceiver for transmitting and receiving a signal to control the running device, the obstacle detecting device and the location recognizing device, and a controlling computer for data processing the signal from the first transceiver and transmitting a control command for the mobile robot.
The controlling computer includes a second transceiver for transmitting and receiving signals to and from the first transceiver of the mobile robot, an image board for processing image data of the obstacle detecting device and the location recognizing device received through the first transceiver, and connecting means for connecting the controlling computer to the Internet.
Accordingly, the mobile robot system is compact in size and controllable via the Internet.
Further, the mobile robot can be provided with a vacuum cleaner having a suction port for drawing in contaminants, a dust collecting portion for collecting the contaminants therein, and a motor driving portion for generating a suction force. The mobile robot also can be provided with a vision camera to monitor an area. Accordingly, the mobile robot system using the RF module can serve as either a cleaning robot or a guard robot.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5465525 (1995-11-01), Mifune et al.
patent: 5621291 (1997-04-01), Lee
patent: 5841259 (1998-11-01), Kim et al.
patent: 6338013 (2002-01-01), Ruffner
patent: 2 344 747 (2000-06-01), None
patent: 05091556 (1993-04-01), None
Lee Sang-yong
Song Jeong-gon
Dang Khanh
Samsung Kwangju Electronics Co., Ltd.
Westman Champlin & Kelly P.A.
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