CN103645733A - A robot automatically finding a charging station and a system and method for automatically finding a charging station thereof - Google Patents

The invention discloses a robot automatically finding a charging station and a system and method for automatically finding a charging station thereof. The robot at least comprises an infrared receiving module, a video acquiring module, a mileage measuring device, a motion device, and a master control system. The infrared receiving module receives an infrared target tracking signal and an infrared target butting signal of a charging station in order to achieve automatic butting of the robot and the charging station with three stages including target researching, target tracking, and target butting. The video acquiring module acquires information required by face detection and emotion recognition and information required by environmental perception and abnormity detection. The mileage measuring device measures information of mileage travelled by the robot. The motion device receives a command from the master control system in order to drive the robot to walk, completes ultrasonic ranging in a walking process, feeds a result of the ultrasonic ranging back to the master control system in order to execute subsequent control, and detects the electric quantity of a battery in a robot service process and feeds the electric quantity back to the master control system in order to determine whether charging is required. The master control system integrates acquired information in order to control the robot. The system and method may fast achieve reliable butting between the robot and the charging station and increase a butting success rate.

From seeking charging robot and certainly seeking charging system and method

Technical field

The present invention relates to robot charging field, particularly relate to a kind of from seeking charging robot and certainly seeking charging system and method.

Background technology

Home services intelligent robot is a typical electro-mechanical system, it has merged numerous advanced technologies such as machinery, electronics, sensor, computer software hardware, pattern-recognition, artificial intelligence, industrial design, is an intelligent robot important focus of research at present.But entrained rechargeable battery duration of domestic robot is shorter, cannot guarantee the non-stop run of service robot, to practical application, brings very large inconvenience.The application of the home services robot researching and developing at world wide is at present more and more extensive, in order to solve the electric energy problem of puzzlement home services robot development, and must development intelligent charge technology.

For the automatic charging of robot, different manufacturers both domestic and external provides a lot of solutions, as the ROOMBA product of the U.S., the trilobita of Electrolux, the irobot of Korea S, domestic some producers and universities and colleges also provide different solutions.The scheme of summing up them, be divided into following several: Korea S producer utilizes image recognition to complete the scheme of automatic charging, ROOMBA utilizes cradle transmitting two bundle guiding light and the 360 degree receiving traps of self to complete the charging guiding of robot, the trilobita of Electrolux and some domestic producers utilize paste walls return additional charging station transmit (electromagnetism or infrared ray) guided the recharging of robot.These robots charging mechanisms location out of true, be subject to that vibration influence is large, complex structure, safety coefficient be little, pastes wall and return longly for complicated indoor environment regression time, and needs robot to have the ability of resolution wall and isolated island barrier; The self-charging method of image recognition needs high-precision video acquisition and recognition system, and recognition time is long, and operating cost is high; ROOMBA is only suitable for the recharging process of the simple products such as sweeping robot.

Application number is that the Chinese patent application of 200610048955.X discloses a kind of robot automatic recharging method and automatic charge device thereof, it is by finding infrared seeker signal on charging station, calculate charging station with respect to distance and the angle of robot, utilize the moving control mechanism of robot robot to be moved to the correct position of charging station, complete robot receiving electrode is docked with the charging electrode of charging station, complete the self-charging of robot.

Yet, there is following shortcoming in this patented claim: the robot in this patented claim adopts random walk to find low even possibly of infrared signal efficiency cannot receive infrared signal, at complex-terrain, such as the more furniture in room is more, may before the energy content of battery exhausts, cannot search out charging station and cause battery over-discharge can to damage battery or shutdown, simultaneously, because this patented claim need to be used three infrared transmitters, the one, the infrared signal that differentiation receives is from which infrared transmitter technical sophistication, if and have barrier to stop may to be difficult to search out part infrared signal, second easily cause charging mechanism location inaccurate.

Summary of the invention

The deficiency existing for overcoming above-mentioned prior art, it is a kind of from seeking charging robot and certainly seeking charging system and method that the present invention's fundamental purpose is to provide, can realize robot independently docks with the quick of charging station, improved existing robot charging mechanism and located coarse shortcoming, had advantages of that good stability, efficiency are high.

For reaching above-mentioned and other object, the present invention proposes a kind of from seeking charging robot, at least comprises:

Infrared receiving module, comprise two infrared remote receivers, the infrared object tracking signal that receives charging station docks signal with infrared target, after receiving signal, send decode content and strength information to master control system and be further analyzed processing, with by target search, target following and target docking three phases, realize and docking with the autonomous of charging station;

Video acquisition module, obtains people's face and detects and emotion recognition information needed and environment sensing and abnormality detection information needed, and delivered to this master control system;

Mileage measurement mechanism, robot measurement walking mileage is also uploaded to this master control system by mileage information and processes;

Telecontrol equipment, the order that receives this master control system is walked with drive machines people, complete in the process of walking ultrasonic ranging and feed back to this master control system to carry out subsequent control, in robot service process, detect in time battery electric quantity and feed back to this master control system and need to charge judging whether;

Master control system, other each several part co-ordinations of control, detect by the ultrasonic ranging information of this video acquisition module, this telecontrol equipment, electric weight the information and the mileage information that collect and merge, and Yi Dui robot controls.

Further, this robot also comprises headwork device, and this headwork device carries out head pitching and left rotation and right rotation for receiving the order of this master control system.This video acquisition module comprises the first video acquisition device and the second video acquisition device, this first video acquisition device comprises common monocular cam and an Acquisition Circuit thereof, being used for obtaining people's face detects and emotion recognition information needed, this second video acquisition device comprises wide-angle monocular cam and an Acquisition Circuit thereof, be used for obtaining environment sensing and abnormality detection information needed, the first video acquisition device and the second video acquisition device are installed on this robot head, and its position change is controlled by this headwork device.

Further, this telecontrol equipment comprises chassis driver, motor drive module, two direct current generators, two driving wheels and gear train, universal wheel and gear train, electric battery, ultrasonic sensor, electric weight detects and charging module, this chassis driver is after receiving the control command of this master control system, drive this motor drive module to control two motors and carry out corresponding actions, two driving wheels and drive mechanism be drive machines people walking under the effect of two motors, and by universal wheel and gear train, make robot realize no-radius to turn to, this ultrasonic sensor is for detection of the distance of outer barrie Wu Dao robot, this electric weight detects and charging module detects in time this battery electric quantity and feeds back to this master control system and need to charge judging whether.

For achieving the above object, the present invention also provides a kind of robot from seeking charging system, comprise robot and charging station, this robot at least comprises telecontrol equipment, two infrared receiving sensors, ultrasonic sensing device, rechargeable battery and charging terminal, this robot carries out perceptual positioning by this ultrasonic sensing device to the barrier in environment, the infrared object tracking signal that two infrared receiving sensors that have by it receive this charging station docks signal with infrared target, pass through target search, target following and target docking three phases, realize and docking with the autonomous of charging station, this charging station is by target following infrared transmitter and target docking infrared transmitter transmitting infrared object tracking signal and the autonomous docking of infrared target docking signal Yu Gai robot realization, after docking successfully, the rechargeable battery of this charging station Dui Gai robot charges, and after charging completes or after receiving mandatory order, disconnects this robot of release.

Further, this charging station comprises:

Charging station master control system, comprises microcontroller and peripheral circuit thereof, controls frequency and the power of infrared transmitter, controls each module co-ordination;

Charging station power module converts industrial-frequency alternating current to the direct current that the charging of supply equipment people battery is used, and produces the required direct current of each module of charging station under the control of this charging station master control system;

Charging station charge controller module, comprise charging circuit, charging control circuit and charging terminal, after robot docks successfully with charging station, the rechargeable battery that this charging control circuit is controlled charging circuit Dui Gai robot carries out rapid charge, after reaching setting value, battery electric quantity proceeds to trickle charge pattern, after charging, under this charging station master control system is controlled, make charge controller module stop in time charging, this robot departs from charging station;

Infrared transmission module, comprises target following infrared transmitter and target docking infrared transmitter, and this target following infrared transmitter is found charging station for robot in region far away, this target docking infrared transmitter for robot closely in search charging station.

For achieving the above object, the present invention also provides a kind of robot from seeking charging method, comprises the steps:

Step 2, utilizes the rough position information of mileage measurement mechanism to check the position of this robot;

Step 3, after rotating a circle, Ruo Gai robot still do not receive the infrared object tracking signal of the target following infrared transmitter transmitting of charging station, robot utilizes self-contained sensor senses environment, locate simultaneously and create map, carry out the target search of this charging station, determine that the position of this charging station carries out path planning, and towards this charging station motion;

Step 4, when in two infrared remote receivers installing in robot, any one receives the infrared object tracking signal of target following infrared transmitter transmitting of this charging station, robot proceeds to the target tracking stage based on infrared direction signal, carry out path planning, further close to charging station;

Step 5, when Dang Gai robot receives the infrared target docking signal of target docking infrared transmitter transmitting of this charging station, Ze Gai robot and this charging station carry out short range dock;

Step 6, if dock successfully, charging station master control system is controlled the work of charging station charge controller module, the rechargeable battery of Dui Gai robot charges, otherwise return to step 4, continues target following;

Step 7, when supply voltage being detected and be more than or equal to a setting value,, under this charging station master control system is controlled, makes this charging station charge controller module stop in time charging, and this robot departs from this charging station.

Further, in step 3 and step 4, path planning is obstacle-avoiding route planning, and it comprises the steps:

Step 6.1 is carried out state estimation according to initial robot controlled quentity controlled variable, and positions and map building based on probability scan matching simultaneously, provides the pose of this robot of any time;

Step 6.2 utilizes ultrasonic sensor to carry out the survey of Environment Obstacles quality testing, to the Environment Obstacles thing testing result obtaining, adopt DUAL PROBLEMS OF VECTOR MAPPING method on the environmental information basis of rasterizing, effectively to create the grating map that occupies of barrier, considering on the actual size of robot and the uncertainty basis of sensor, by the weighting of grid barrier, carry out barrier expansion, set up obstacle point set, and adjacent barrier is merged, form obstacles borders collection;

Step 6.3, according to the obstacle point set in this robot and surrounding environment, relation and active window subregion between obstacle boundaries collection, is set up minimum distance vector polar coordinates histogram, determines this robot motion's freely walk district and barrier.

Further, after step 6.3, also comprise the steps:

Judge whether to exist candidate regions;

If there is not candidate regions, path planning finishes, and obtains obstacle-avoiding route planning result, if there is candidate regions, further judges whether new controlled quentity controlled variable;

If there is new controlled quentity controlled variable, determine new controlled quentity controlled variable, and proceed to step 6.1, otherwise, directly proceed to step 6.1.

Further, after step 6.3, also comprise the steps:

Determine that fast-opening target point is as this robot path planning's sub-goal, according to the position of fast-opening target, in freely walk district and barrier, select direction of motion, complete from current location to detection of obstacles and obstacle-avoiding route planning fast-opening target position, finally complete the navigation of point from initial point to ideal.

Further, in step 5, this short range dock comprises the steps: again

Step 8.1, the segment distance L that advances of this robot;

Whether step 8.2, now receive infrared object tracking signal, if do not receive, and slow astern segment distance L, and rotate to an angle, again enter step 8.1, otherwise enter step 8.3;

Step 8.3, judges whether to receive infrared target docking signal, if not, enters step 8.4, otherwise counts step 8.7;

Step 8.4, a segment distance L advances;

Step 8.5, judges whether to lose infrared object tracking signal, if infrared object tracking dropout, slow astern segment distance L, and rotate to an angle, enter step 8.2, otherwise enter step 8.6;

Step 8.6, judges whether to receive infrared target docking signal, if so, enters step 8.7, otherwise enters step 8.4;

Step 8.7, a segment distance L advances;

Step 8.8, judges whether infrared target docking signal is lost, if lose, and slow astern segment distance L, and rotate to an angle, enter step 8.7, otherwise enter step 8.9;

Step 8.9, judges whether to dock successfully, if dock successfully, finishes, otherwise, return to step 8.7.

Compared with prior art, the present invention a kind of from seek charging robot and certainly seek charging system and method by robot being positioned by the coarse locating information of odometer in long range dock region, be responsible for after charging task is excited, robot is directed to the scope that vision camera works, realization is the transformation to short range dock region by long range dock region, in short range dock region, first use vision system to carry out target identification and target following to charging station, change the pose of robot, make robot be positioned at the dead ahead of charging station, finally under the guiding of ultrasound wave and infrared sensor, realize fast the docking of robot and charging station, thereby improve robot charging mechanism location out of true, be subject to vibration influence large, complex structure, the shortcoming that safety coefficient is little.

Accompanying drawing explanation

Fig. 1 is that a kind of robot of the present invention is from seeking the system architecture diagram of the preferred embodiment of charging system;

Fig. 2 is the structured flowchart of the charging station 11 of preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is the structured flowchart of the robot 20 of preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 4 is that a kind of robot of the present invention is from the flow chart of steps of seeking charging method;

Fig. 5 is that a kind of robot of the present invention is from the flow chart of steps of seeking the preferred embodiment of charging method;

Fig. 6 is the flow chart of steps of obstacle-avoiding route planning in preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 7 is the details process flow diagram of the obstacle-avoiding route planning of preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Embodiment

Below, by specific instantiation accompanying drawings embodiments of the present invention, those skilled in the art can understand other advantage of the present invention and effect easily by content disclosed in the present specification.The present invention also can be implemented or be applied by other different instantiation, and the every details in this instructions also can be based on different viewpoints and application, carries out various modifications and change not deviating under spirit of the present invention.

Fig. 1 is that a kind of robot of the present invention is from seeking the system architecture diagram of the preferred embodiment of charging system.As shown in Figure 1, the present invention is a kind of can seek charging system by robot certainly, comprising: robot 20 and charging station 11.

In preferred embodiment of the present invention, the kinematic system of robot 20 is comprised of two-wheel drive unit and a universal wheel, this classical architecture can turn to so that robot can realize no-radius, the various motor functions such as forward-reverse left-right rotation, robot 20 is by being arranged at the camera of eyeball, the image transmitting of Real-time Collection is processed to the master control system (host computer) of robot interior, robot 20 can carry out perceptual positioning to the barrier in environment by ultrasonic distance-measuring sensor, according to the route of appointment, regularly indoor, go on patrol and monitoring, and get around the barrier occurring on route, when finding old man or children's calling, arrive in time assigned address, for old man/children provide corresponding service, simultaneously, robot 20 has two infrared receiving sensors, rechargeable battery and charging electrode (charging terminal) 21, correspondingly, charging station 11 has charging terminal 12, charging electrode in robot 20 (charging terminal) just can charge when charging terminal 12 on charging station 11 contacts, charging station 11 is main be responsible for and robot 20 between wireless telecommunications, when the electric weight of robot 20 is not enough, charging station got back to voluntarily by robot, after docking successfully, charging station 11Dui robot 20 charges, after charging completes or after receiving mandatory order, disconnect release robot 20.

Wherein, charging station master control system 110 comprises microcontroller (MCU/ARM) and peripheral circuit (as keyboard, pilot lamp, display screen) thereof, it is the control core of charging station, by it, controls frequency and the power of infrared transmitter, controls each module co-ordination; Charging station power module 120 converts industrial-frequency alternating current (220V/110V) to the direct current (as 20V) that the charging of supply equipment people battery is used under the control of charging station master control system 110, and produces the required direct current of each module of charging station (as 5V, 3.3V) by voltage stabilizing chip or DC-DC; Charging station charge controller module 130: it comprises charging circuit, charging control circuit and charging terminal, when robot successfully docks charging beginning, charging station master control system is controlled the work of charging station charge controller module, charging control circuit is controlled charging circuit the rechargeable battery of robot 20 is carried out to rapid charge, after reaching setting value, battery electric quantity proceeds to trickle charge pattern, after charging, under charging station master control system is controlled, make charge controller module 130 stop in time charging, robot departs from charging station; Infrared transmission module 140, comprise target following infrared transmitter 1401 and target docking infrared transmitter 1402, target following infrared transmitter emissive power is large, and area coverage is wide, and coverage is long, it finds charging station for robot in region far away, target docking infrared transmitter emissive power is little, and angle of coverage is narrow, and coverage is short, its for robot closely in search charging station, the attitude of adjusting robot is accurately docked charging terminal; Dedicated remote control 150, provides the equipment at charging station control, and user can carry out remote control to robot at charging station input command, and the robot that controls optional position advances, retreats, turns left, turns right and charges and the operation such as recall.

Fig. 3 is the structured flowchart of the robot 20 of preferred embodiment of the present invention.In preferred embodiment of the present invention, robot 20 comprises infrared receiving module 200, master control system 210, telecontrol equipment 220, headwork device 230, man-machine interactive system 240, video acquisition module 250, radio receiving transmitting module 260, voice acquisition module 270, mileage measurement mechanism 280 and receiver of remote-control sytem 290, other each several part co-ordinations of master control system 210 controls, comprise hardware and software two parts, hardware is by DSP, the compositions such as MCU, can be divided into path planning module on software, detection of obstacles, people's face detects, emotion detects, environment measuring, abnormality detection, mileage information and information fusion module, people's face detects and is connected video acquisition module 1 with emotion recognition, be respectively used to gather people's face information and identification people's the expressions such as happiness, anger, grief and joy, environment sensing is connected video acquisition module 2 with abnormality detection, be mainly used in perception external environment condition and detect external environment condition abnormal information, mileage information connects mileage information measurement mechanism 280, to obtain mileage information, detection of obstacles connects ultrasonic sensor, for detection of the distance of outer barrie Wu Dao robot, information fusion is by external video acquisition module, voice acquisition module, ultrasonic sensor, electric weight detects and charging module collects information and mileage information merge, and to judge that robot should charge or to continue service, whether need avoiding barrier, whether need response calling order, telecontrol equipment 220 comprises chassis driver, motor drive module, direct current generator M1/M2, driving wheel 1/2 and gear train, universal wheel, electric battery, ultrasonic sensor, electric weight detects and charging module, telecontrol equipment is mainly used in receiving master control system 210 orders and walks with drive machines people, complete in the process of walking ultrasonic ranging and feed back to master control system 210 to carry out subsequent control, in service process, detect in time battery electric quantity and feed back to master control system 210 and need to charge judging whether, specifically, master control system 210 sends control command by serial ports to chassis controller, control motor and carry out corresponding actions, and obstacle signal is processed, in service process, electric weight detects and charging module detects in time battery electric quantity and feeds back to master control system 210 and need to charge judging whether, headwork device 230 comprises head controller, steering wheel 1/2 and drive mechanism, for receiving the order of master control system 210, carry out head pitching and left rotation and right rotation, by head, driven the motion of monocular cam 1/2 of the video acquisition device 1/2 be installed on head to obtain image information, in preferred embodiment of the present invention, steering wheel 1 is responsible for the pitch rotation of control neck, steering wheel 2 is controlled the left-right rotation of head, thereby can control the rotation of eyeball (video acquisition device 1 and video acquisition device 2), man-machine interactive system 240 connects master control system 210, and it comprises the conventional input-output device such as display screen, keyboard, articulatory system, is beneficial to display device people state and artificial input information's order, video acquisition module 250 comprises video acquisition device 1 and video acquisition device 2, video acquisition device 1 comprises common monocular cam and an Acquisition Circuit thereof, being used for obtaining people's face detects and emotion recognition information needed, video acquisition device 2 comprises wide-angle monocular cam and an Acquisition Circuit thereof, be used for obtaining environment sensing and abnormality detection information needed, video acquisition module is installed on robot head, and its position change is controlled by head movement device 230, radio receiving transmitting module 260 is ordered to user (owner) transmission information and reception by communication network under master control system 210 is controlled, voice acquisition module 270 gather extraneous voice messaging to master control system 210 to judge whether voice messaging or order, mileage measurement mechanism 280 is processed for measuring walking mileage and mileage information being uploaded to master control system 210, receiver of remote-control sytem 290 is for receiving the dedicated remote control order of charging station 11 and being uploaded to master control system 210 to determine whether respond, infrared receiving module 200 is connected to master control system 210, it comprises two infrared remote receivers: target following infrared remote receiver, target docking infrared remote receiver, target following infrared remote receiver is followed the tracks of the infrared object tracking signal of infrared transmitter transmitting for receiving target, target docking infrared remote receiver is for the infrared target docking signal of receiving target docking infrared transmitter transmitting, infrared receiving module receives after infrared signal, sends decode content and strength information to master control system 210 and is further analyzed processing.

In preferred embodiment of the present invention, robot 20 is household service robot.When home services robot provides respective service function under indoor environment, once its electric weight, detect and charging module detects self voltage lower than a certain threshold value, will enter from seeking charge mode.When robot enters from seeking after charge mode, utilize mileage measurement mechanism to measure the position that the rough position information obtaining first checks oneself, if apart from the position of automatic charging station 11 (being greater than certain default threshold value) far away, by rotating a circle, latter two infrared receiving sensor does not still all receive the infrared signal of charging station 11, illustrate that robot 20 is in outside the infrared emission region of charging station 11, now need to start target search and the long range dock strategy of charging station 11, starting service robot environment explores and obstacle-avoiding route planning strategy, the target that environment is explored is the position of search charging station 11, the impact point of Path Planning is to cook up the optimum of an arrival charging station without touching path.When robot 20 searches the position of charging station 11, and enter behind infrared docking signal area by obstacle-avoiding route planning, the infrared docking signal that receives target following, service robot 20 is enabled short range dock strategy automatically, enters the target tracking stage based on infrared signal.

Fig. 4 is that the flow chart of steps of charging method sought certainly by a kind of robot of the present invention, and Fig. 5 is that a kind of robot of the present invention is from the flow chart of steps of seeking the preferred embodiment of charging method.As shown in Figures 4 and 5, a kind of robot of the present invention, from seeking charging method, comprises the steps:

Judge whether to exist candidate regions;

If there is not candidate regions, path planning finishes, and obtains obstacle-avoiding route planning result, if there is candidate regions, further judges whether new controlled quentity controlled variable;

If there is new controlled quentity controlled variable, determine new controlled quentity controlled variable, and proceed to step 601, otherwise, directly proceed to step 601.

Step 8.1, the segment distance L that advances of robot;

Does step 8.2, now receive infrared object tracking signal? if do not receive, slow astern segment distance L, and rotate to an angle (for example 45 degree), again enter step 8.1, otherwise enter step 8.3;

Does step 8.3, judge whether to receive infrared target docking signal? if not, enter step 8.4, otherwise count step 8.7;

Step 8.4, a segment distance L advances;

Does step 8.5, judge whether to lose infrared object tracking signal? if infrared object tracking dropout, slow astern segment distance L, and rotate to an angle (for example 45 degree), enter step 8.2, otherwise enter step 8.6;

Does step 8.6, judge whether to receive infrared target docking signal? if so, enter step 8.7, otherwise enter step 8.4;

Step 8.7, a segment distance L advances;

Does step 8.8, judge that infrared target docks signal and loses? if lose, slow astern segment distance L, and rotate to an angle (for example 45 degree), enter step 8.7, otherwise enter step 8.9;

Step 8.9, judges whether to dock successfully, if dock successfully, finishes, otherwise, return to step 8.7.

In sum, the present invention a kind of from seek charging robot and certainly seek charging system and method by robot being positioned by the coarse locating information of odometer in long range dock region, be responsible for after charging task is excited, robot is directed to the scope that vision camera works, realization is the transformation to short range dock region by long range dock region, in short range dock region, first use vision system to carry out target identification and target following to charging station, change the pose of robot, make robot be positioned at the dead ahead of charging station, finally under the guiding of ultrasound wave and infrared sensor, realize fast the docking of robot and charging station, thereby improve robot charging mechanism location out of true, be subject to vibration influence large, complex structure, the shortcoming that safety coefficient is little, and there is good stability, the advantage that efficiency is high.

Above-described embodiment is illustrative principle of the present invention and effect thereof only, but not for limiting the present invention.Any those skilled in the art all can, under spirit of the present invention and category, modify and change above-described embodiment.Therefore, the scope of the present invention, should be as listed in claims.