Disclosure of Invention
An advantage of the present invention is to provide a TOF optical system for a sweeping robot and a sweeping robot, which can solve the problem of close range obstacle avoidance of the existing sweeping robots.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a TOF optical system for a sweeping robot and a sweeping robot, in which, in an embodiment of the present invention, a TOF module in the TOF optical system is adapted to be mounted on a side of a sweeping robot body, which facilitates an obstacle avoidance function of the sweeping robot for a location such as stairs, feces, etc.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a TOF optical system for a sweeping robot and a sweeping robot, which in one embodiment of the present invention is highly versatile and can be adapted to different types of sweeping robots.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a TOF optical system for a sweeping robot and a sweeping robot, in which, in an embodiment of the present invention, the TOF optical system can replace existing LDS and VSLAM technologies, and reduce hardware costs, so as to greatly reduce the cost of the sweeping robot while realizing obstacle avoidance and/or mapping functions.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a TOF optical system for a sweeping robot and a sweeping robot, where in an embodiment of the present invention, the TOF optical system can enable the sweeping robot to get rid of limitations of various application scenarios, and is helpful for expanding an application scenario range applicable to the sweeping robot.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a TOF optical system for a sweeping robot and a sweeping robot, which in one embodiment of the present invention has a large horizontal angle of view and a long distance ranging, so as to achieve efficient mapping.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a TOF optical system for a sweeping robot and a sweeping robot, which in one embodiment of the present invention can achieve effective pixel resolution of obstacles for effective obstacle avoidance operation.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a TOF optical system for a sweeping robot and a sweeping robot, wherein expensive materials or complex structures are not required in the present invention in order to achieve the above advantages. Accordingly, the present invention successfully and effectively provides a solution that not only provides a simple TOF optical system for a sweeping robot and a sweeping robot, but also increases the practicality and reliability of the TOF optical system for a sweeping robot and the sweeping robot.
To achieve at least one of the above or other advantages and objects, the present invention provides a TOF optical system for a sweeping robot, comprising:
at least one TOF module, wherein the at least one TOF module is suitable for being arranged at the side part of a sweeping robot body, and each TOF module comprises a projection module for projecting an output light field and a receiving module for receiving a reflected receiving light field, wherein the vertical projection view angle of the projection module is between 8 and 44 degrees, and the horizontal projection view angle of the projection module is larger than 100 degrees; and
An automatic control system, wherein the automatic control system is communicably connected to the at least one TOF module, and the automatic control system is adapted to be controllably connected to the sweeping robot body for automatically controlling movement of the sweeping robot body according to depth information acquired via the at least one TOF module.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the installation height of each TOF module is between 3cm and 8cm, and the TOF module is used for detecting depth information of a front obstacle which is 20cm to 40cm away from the sweeping robot body and has a height of 0.2cm to 3 cm.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the vertical receiving field angle of the receiving module of each of the TOF modules is greater than 44 °, and the horizontal receiving field angle of the receiving module is greater than 100 °.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the receiving module of each TOF module includes a photosensitive chip and a lens assembly, wherein the lens assembly is correspondingly disposed on a photosensitive path of the photosensitive chip for shaping the received light field, and an angular resolution of the photosensitive chip is greater than 1pixel/deg.
According to an embodiment of the invention, a ratio of a focal length to an effective aperture of the lens assembly of the receiving module of each of the TOF modules is less than 1.4.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the projection module includes a light source module and a diffractive optical element, wherein the diffractive optical element is disposed on an emission path of the light source module, and is configured to shape an input light field emitted by the light source module to form the output light field.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the automatic control system includes an acquisition module, a processing module and a control module that are communicatively connected to each other, wherein the acquisition module is communicatively connected to the TOF module, and is configured to acquire depth data obtained by detecting an ambient environment through the TOF module; the processing module is used for processing the depth data from the acquisition module to obtain surrounding environment information of the sweeping robot body; the control module is used for sending a control signal to the sweeping robot body according to the surrounding environment information so as to control the sweeping robot body to move.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the control module comprises a distance judging module, a height judging module and a control signal generating module which are mutually connected in a communicable manner, wherein the distance judging module is used for judging whether the distance between a front obstacle and the sweeping robot body is smaller than an obstacle avoidance distance threshold value or not so as to obtain a distance judging result; the height judging module is used for judging whether the self height of the front obstacle is larger than a first obstacle avoidance height threshold value and whether the suspension height of the front obstacle is smaller than a second obstacle avoidance height threshold value or not in response to the fact that the distance judging result is true so as to obtain a height judging result; the control signal generation module is used for responding to the fact that the height judgment result is true, generating the control signal, and enabling the floor sweeping robot to conduct corresponding obstacle avoidance operation based on the control signal.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the first obstacle avoidance height threshold is designed according to an obstacle avoidance height of the robot body, and the second obstacle avoidance height threshold is designed according to a self height of the robot body.
According to another aspect of the present application, there is further provided a sweeping robot including:
a sweeping robot body; and
A TOF optical system, wherein the TOF optical system comprises:
At least one TOF module, wherein the at least one TOF module is arranged at the side part of the sweeping robot body, and each TOF module comprises a projection module for projecting an output light field and a receiving module for receiving a reflected receiving light field, wherein the vertical projection view angle of the projection module is between 8 and 44 degrees, and the horizontal projection view angle of the projection module is more than 100 degrees; and
The automatic control system is in communication connection with the at least one TOF module, and is controllably connected with the sweeping robot body and used for automatically controlling the sweeping robot body to move according to the depth information acquired by the at least one TOF module.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become fully apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawings.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.
Detailed Description
The following description is presented to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention. The preferred embodiments in the following description are by way of example only and other obvious variations will occur to those skilled in the art. The basic principles of the invention defined in the following description may be applied to other embodiments, variations, modifications, equivalents, and other technical solutions without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that in the present disclosure, the terms "longitudinal," "transverse," "upper," "lower," "front," "rear," "left," "right," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," etc. refer to an orientation or positional relationship based on that shown in the drawings, which is merely for convenience of description and to simplify the description, and do not indicate or imply that the apparatus or elements referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and therefore the above terms should not be construed as limiting the present invention.
In the present invention, the terms "a" and "an" in the claims and specification should be understood as "one or more", i.e. in one embodiment the number of one element may be one, while in another embodiment the number of the element may be plural. The terms "a" and "an" are not to be construed as unique or singular, and the term "the" and "the" are not to be construed as limiting the amount of the element unless the amount of the element is specifically indicated as being only one in the disclosure of the present invention.
In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the terms "first," "second," and the like are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance. In the description of the present invention, unless explicitly stated or limited otherwise, the terms "connected," "connected," and "connected" should be interpreted broadly, and may be, for example, fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally connected; can be mechanically or electrically connected; may be directly connected or indirectly connected through a medium. The specific meaning of the above terms in the present invention can be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art according to the specific circumstances.
In the description of the present specification, a description referring to terms "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "examples," "specific examples," or "some examples," etc., means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the present invention. In this specification, schematic representations of the above terms are not necessarily directed to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples. Furthermore, the different embodiments or examples described in this specification and the features of the different embodiments or examples may be combined and combined by those skilled in the art without contradiction.
As the application scene of the sweeping robot becomes more and more complex, the expectations of people on the sweeping robot are also higher and higher. For example, for duplex or attic rooms, it is desirable for a sweeping robot to be able to automatically identify obstacles such as stairs and to automatically avoid the obstacle. However, most of the projection receiving modules of the floor sweeping robots are located above the floor sweeping robots at present, and the view angle window of the projection receiving modules in the vertical direction is above the horizontal line, so that the view angle window is located above the floor sweeping robots, and therefore the floor sweeping robots cannot identify ground obstacles such as doorsills and stairs, and the cleaning effect and the safety performance of the floor sweeping robots are affected. If the design below the horizontal line is adopted, the structure of the sweeping robot can block the light projected by the projection receiving module, so that the distance cannot be accurately measured, and even the sweeping robot cannot work normally. Accordingly, the present invention provides a new implementation to solve the above-mentioned problems.
Referring to fig. 1 to 5 of the drawings, a TOF optical system for a sweeping robot according to an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Specifically, as shown in fig. 1 to 5, the sweeping robot 1 includes a sweeping robot body 10 and a TOF optical system 20, wherein the TOF optical system 20 may include at least one TOF module 21 and an automatic control system 22. The TOF module 21 is adapted to be disposed at a side of the robot body 10, and the TOF module 21 comprises a projection module 211 for projecting an output light field and a receiving module 212 for receiving a reflected received light field, wherein a vertical projection field angle θV of the projection module 211 of the TOF module 21 is between 8 ° and 44 ° and a horizontal projection field angle θH of the projection module 211 of the TOF module 21 is greater than 100 °. The automatic control system 21 is communicatively connected to the TOF module 21, and the automatic control system 21 is adapted to be controllably connected to the sweeping robot body 10 for automatically controlling the movement of the sweeping robot body 10 according to depth information acquired via the TOF module 21. It is understood that the received light field of the receiving module 212 is a light field received by the receiving module 212 after the output light field is reflected at a field of view target (e.g., an obstacle).
It should be noted that, since the TOF module 21 in the TOF optical system 20 of the present application is disposed at a side portion of the robot body 10, and the vertical projection field angle of the projection module 211 of the TOF module 21 is between 8 ° and 44 °, the projection module 211 of the TOF module 21 can project an output light field to a position below a horizontal line, which is helpful for identifying a ground obstacle with a low height, such as a threshold, stairs, etc., by the TOF module 21, so that the automatic control system 21 of the present application can control the movement of the robot body 10 based on depth information acquired via the TOF module 21, so as to implement a close range obstacle avoidance of the robot. Meanwhile, since the horizontal projection view angle of the projection module 211 of the TOF optical system 20 of the present application is greater than 100 °, the TOF optical system 20 of the present application can detect as much of the environment around the robot body 10 as possible, so that the TOF optical system 20 of the present application can perform efficient mapping based on the depth information acquired by the TOF optical system 21, so as to solve the problem that the existing robot cannot solve the obstacle avoidance problem at a short distance, and simultaneously perform efficient mapping so as to meet the requirements of the robot for obstacle avoidance and SLAM.
More specifically, as shown in fig. 3 and 4, the installation height H of the TOF module 21 of the TOF optical system 20 is between 3cm and 8cm, and is used for detecting depth information of a front obstacle with a distance S between 20cm and 40cm and a self-height D1 between 0.2cm and 3cm between the TOF module 21 and the sweeping robot body 10, so that the automatic control system 22 of the TOF optical system 20 can control the movement of the sweeping robot body 10 in advance according to the depth information detected by the TOF module 21, so as to realize a close-range automatic obstacle avoidance effect. It is understood that the installation height H of the TOF module 21 in the present application may refer to a distance between the optical center of the projection module 211 of the TOF module 21 and a movement base surface of the robot body 10 (such as a plane where contact points of a plurality of wheels in the robot body 10 and a flat ground surface are located).
Preferably, the vertical receiving field angle of view of the receiving module 212 of the TOF optical system 20 is greater than 44 °, and the horizontal receiving field angle of view of the receiving module 212 is greater than 100 °, so that the receiving light field of the receiving module 212 of the TOF module 21 can omnidirectionally cover the output light field of the projection module 211, so as to ensure that the illumination light projected by the projection module 211 of the TOF module 21 can be received by the receiving module 212 of the TOF module 21 to obtain corresponding depth information after being reflected by an environmental object such as an obstacle to form reflected light, which contributes to improving the detection capability of the TOF module 21.
Illustratively, the horizontal projection field angle θH of the projection module 211 may be implemented as 120 ° but not limited thereto, and the vertical projection field angle θV of the projection module 211 may be implemented as 8 ° but not limited thereto. At this time, the output light field of the projection module 211 forms a narrow-band light spot (i.e. a linear light spot) on the surface of the environmental target, so that a larger horizontal projection view angle can ensure that the sweeping robot 1 obtains a large horizontal ranging range, and a smaller vertical projection view angle can reduce ground reflection to improve the detection accuracy of the TOF module 21.
According to the above embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 2 and 3, the projection module 211 of the TOF module 21 may include a light source module 2111 and a diffractive optical element 2112, wherein the light source module 2111 is configured to emit an input light field, and the diffractive optical element 2112 is correspondingly disposed in an emission path of the light source module 2111 and configured to shape a light intensity distribution of the input light field to obtain the output light field of a desired output. It will be appreciated that the light intensity distribution pattern of the input light field is related to the light source module 2111, so that only the light intensity distribution pattern of the output light field needs to be determined here, so that the desired diffractive optical element 2112 can be designed by an optical design technique. For example, when the input light field emitted by the light source module 2111 and the output light field projected by the projection module 211 are known, various techniques may be used to manufacture the corresponding diffractive optical element, which will not be described in detail herein.
It is noted that in this embodiment of the invention, the light source module 2111 may be implemented as, but is not limited to, a vertical cavity Surface emitting laser (VERTICAL CAVITY Surface EMITTING LASER, VCSEL for short). At the same time, the diffractive optical element 2112 may be implemented as, but is not limited to, a linear Diffuser.
In addition, although the smaller the field angle of view of the projection module 211 in the vertical direction is, the smaller the blurring area is, the more concentrated the total light intensity of the output light field is, the farther the measurement distance of the TOF module 21 can be made, but the field angle of view of the output light field of the projection module 211 in the vertical direction also needs to be considered, so that the ultra-low ground obstacle can not pass over by the sweeping robot 1 and the slightly high overhead obstacle can not pass over by the sweeping robot 1 due to blocking the bottom of the sweeping robot 1, and the TOF module 21 of the application needs to detect the obstacles in advance, so that the included angles of the upper edge light and the lower edge light in the output light field of the projection module 211 of the TOF module 21 of the application are respectively a positive angle and a negative angle, so that the output light field of the projection module 211 can project onto the slightly high overhead obstacle surface and the ultra-low ground obstacle surface, so as to provide the full-depth information of the sweeping robot 1.
Preferably, as shown in fig. 4 and 5, the included angle between the upper edge ray and the horizontal plane in the output light field of the projection module 211 of the TOF module 21 is equal to the included angle between the lower edge ray and the horizontal plane in the output light field, that is, the central ray in the output light field of the projection module 211 is parallel to the horizontal plane, so as to simultaneously detect the bottom obstacle and the suspended obstacle.
According to this embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 2 and 3, the receiving module 212 of the TOF module 21 may include a photosensitive chip 2121 and a lens assembly 2122, wherein the lens assembly 2122 is disposed on a photosensitive path of the photosensitive chip 2121 for shaping the received light field for being received by the photosensitive chip 2121.
Specifically, in this embodiment of the present invention, the photosensitive chip 2121 and the lens assembly 2122 in the receiving module 212 of the TOF module 21 are designed in a collocation such a way that the angular resolution of the photosensitive chip 2121 of the receiving module 212 should be greater than 1pixel per degree (i.e. 1 pixel/deg) to achieve effective resolution of the TOF module 21 for obstacles 20cm to 40cm from the sweeping robot body 10 and having a self-height D1 between 0.2cm and 3 cm.
Preferably, the ratio of the focal length to the effective aperture of the lens assembly 2122 of the receiving module 212 of the TOF module 21 is less than 1.4 (i.e. fno. < 1.4) to ensure that the TOF module 21 is capable of achieving a detection distance of 7 m.
It should be noted that, in order to implement the automatic obstacle avoidance of the robot 1, as shown in fig. 2, the automatic control system 22 of the TOF optical system 20 of the present application may include an acquisition module 221, a processing module 222 and a control module 223 that are communicatively connected to each other, wherein the acquisition module 221 is communicatively connected to the TOF module 21, for acquiring depth data obtained by detecting the surrounding environment via the TOF module 21; wherein the processing module 222 is configured to process the depth data from the acquiring module 221 to obtain surrounding information of the robot body 10; the control module 223 is configured to send a control signal to the sweeping robot body 10 according to the surrounding environment information to control the sweeping robot body 10 to move, so as to effectively achieve a corresponding obstacle avoidance effect.
More specifically, as shown in fig. 4 and 5, the surrounding information of the robot body 10 may include a distance between a front obstacle and the robot body 10, a self-height D1 of the front obstacle, and a flying height D2. It is understood that the front obstacle of the present application refers to an obstacle located in the traveling direction of the robot 1. In addition, the front obstacle may be a ground obstacle (an obstacle that is located on the ground and may block the sweeping robot 1 from crossing, such as a threshold or a step, etc., as shown in fig. 4) or a suspended obstacle (an obstacle that is suspended on the ground and may block the sweeping robot 1 from crossing, such as a cabinet bottom or a table bottom, etc., as shown in fig. 5).
As shown in fig. 2, the control module 223 of the automatic control system 22 may include a distance judging module 2231, a height judging module 2232 and a control signal generating module 2233, which are communicatively connected with each other, wherein the distance judging module 2231 is configured to judge whether the distance between the front obstacle and the robot body 10 is less than a obstacle avoidance distance threshold value, so as to obtain a distance judging result; the height determining module 2232 is configured to determine, in response to the distance determination result being true (i.e., the distance S between the front obstacle and the robot body 10 is smaller than the obstacle avoidance distance threshold), whether the self height D1 of the front obstacle is greater than a first obstacle avoidance height threshold and whether the suspended height D2 of the front obstacle is smaller than a second obstacle avoidance height threshold, so as to obtain a height determination result; the control signal generating module 2233 is configured to generate the control signal in response to the result of the height determination being true (i.e., the self height D1 of the front obstacle is greater than the first obstacle avoidance height threshold and the flying height D2 of the front obstacle is less than the second obstacle avoidance height threshold), so that the robot body 10 performs a corresponding obstacle avoidance operation based on the control signal.
It should be noted that the obstacle avoidance distance threshold of the present application may be, but not limited to, forward designed according to the running speed of the robot body 10, that is, when the running speed of the robot body 10 is high, the obstacle avoidance distance threshold is also high; when the travel speed of the robot body 10 is small, the obstacle avoidance distance threshold is also small. For example, the range of obstacle avoidance distance thresholds may be implemented, but is not limited to, 20cm to 40cm.
In addition, the first obstacle avoidance height threshold value of the present application may be designed according to the obstacle avoidance height of the robot body 10, as long as it is ensured that the robot body 10 can surmount an obstacle having a height D1 lower than the first obstacle avoidance height threshold value. For example, the first obstacle avoidance height threshold may be, but is not limited to, 0.5cm.
Similarly, the second obstacle avoidance height threshold of the present application may be designed according to the self height h of the robot body 10, as long as it is ensured that the robot body 10 can pass through an obstacle whose suspension height D2 is higher than the second obstacle avoidance height threshold. For example, the second obstacle avoidance height threshold may be, but is not limited to, 10cm.
It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the embodiments of the invention described above and shown in the drawings are by way of example only and are not limiting. The objects of the present invention have been fully and effectively achieved. The functional and structural principles of the present invention have been shown and described in the examples and embodiments of the invention may be modified or practiced without departing from the principles described.