1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a position information recognition apparatus for a cleaning robot, and in particular to a position information recognition apparatus for a cleaning robot capable of observing surroundings of a cleaning robot as 360° by rotating sensors as a certain angle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, an automatic moving cleaner (hereinafter, it is referred to a cleaning robot) performs cleaning while moving of itself, when a charger is discharged, it moves to a charge position of itself, performs charging, after the charging, goes back to a cleaning position and performs cleaning again.
In order to perform cleaning and charging while moving cleaning regions thoroughly, the conventional cleaning robot includes a cleaner main body 1 having a fan motor, a suction pipe and a filter, etc.; plural driving wheels 2 rotatively installed at left and right sides of the bottom surface of the cleaner main body 1 and moving the cleaner main body 1; and each supersonic waves sensor 3 fixedly installed at the outer circumference of the cleaner main body 2 at regular intervals and sensing surroundings.
In each supersonic waves sensor 3, a pair of a transmitter 3A and a receiver 3B is fixedly installed at the front/rear or left/right at an angle of 90°, or in case of needs, several pairs of them are installed along the circumferential direction at regular intervals. In addition, the sensor having a sensing range of ±30° is mainly used in consideration of an appropriate sensitivity.
In addition, as depicted in FIG. 2, while the cleaner main body 1 moves in the rotational direction of the driving wheels 2, the transmitter 3A of each supersonic waves sensor 3 fixed at the outer circumference of the cleaner main body 1 generates supersonic waves, the receiver 3B senses reflected-returned supersonic waves, the supersonic waves sensor 3 recognizes a position and surroundings of the cleaner main body 1 and determines a proceeding direction or a proceeding distance, etc. of the cleaner main body 1.
However, as described-above, in the conventional cleaning robot, because a sensor having a sensing range of about ±30° is mainly used as the supersonic waves sensor 3 in consideration of an appropriate sensitivity, when four supersonic waves sensors 3 are installed at the cleaner main body 1, a sensing range is merely 240°, and accordingly it is impossible to observe around the cleaner thoroughly. In order to observe surroundings of the cleaner thoroughly, at least six supersonic waves sensors 3 have to be installed, in that case, because still there is an adjacent region out of the sensing range between the supersonic waves sensors 3 as shown in FIG. 2, more supersonic waves sensors 3 are required.
In addition, when the cleaning robot moves horizontally along the wall surface, because there is a region out of the sensing region between the supersonic waves sensors 3, the cleaner main body 1 moves while rotating at a certain angle, and accordingly unnecessary rotational movement is required.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds