JPH0255026A - Teaching system for self traveling type cleaner and display panel therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To carry out cleaning in a simple operation by adopting the teaching system for a self traveling type cleaner which recognizes the division between a detected outside division and a detected inside division as a cleaned division when a plurality of divisions are detected in a circulation detecting part. CONSTITUTION:Teaching is started by a teaching switch 6a in an operation part 6, and a body 13 circulates through pushing along a room from one corner (a) of the room, and the transfer path of the body 13 is memorized in a memory part 3. When the body 13 reaches the point A, a circulation detecting part 4 detects the circulation in a division which is memorized in the memory part 3 and in which the transfer path of the body 13 is closed, and the inside of the memorized transfer path is recognized as a cleaned division. Further, when the body 13 reaches the point through the circulation around an obstructed article inside, the circulation detecting part 4 detects the circulation in the closed division similarly. In a judgement processing part 8, the division between the first recognized outside division and the lately recognized inside division is recognized as a cleaned region, and when the starting switch 6a of the operation part 6 is pushed, cleaning is started.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application This invention relates to a teaching method for a self-propelled vacuum cleaner that has a cleaning function and a moving function and that cleans a floor surface, and a display panel thereof.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, vacuum cleaners have been developed in which a moving function is added to the vacuum cleaner to improve operability during cleaning.

Particularly recently, self-propelled vacuum cleaners have been developed that are equipped with microcomputers so that they can operate again as instructed by the user.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In such conventional self-propelled vacuum cleaners, the user must teach the cleaning route (hereinafter referred to as "teaching") before cleaning, and the same cleaning location This is fine if this is done regularly, but if the cleaning location changes constantly, such as in a general household where cleaning is done in one room and then the next room is cleaned, it may be helpful to teach the entire cleaning route each time. is very inconvenient to use.

Therefore, in the present invention, the user moves the self-propelled cleaner body around the entire circumference of the cleaning area and memorizes the outer circumference of the cleaning area, thereby making the user recognize the cleaning area. ) Also, obstacles inside the cleaning area and areas that the self-propelled cleaner should not enter are recognized by moving their outer peripheries once.

The first purpose is to allow the cleaning area to be recognized and cleaned through easy operations.

The second purpose is to visually and easily display that the self-propelled vacuum cleaner has recognized the cleaning area by going around the outer periphery of the cleaning area.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above-mentioned first object, the present invention provides a self-propelled vacuum cleaner main body having a cleaning device and a steering/driving means, and a trajectory traveled by the self-propelled vacuum cleaner main body. a storage unit that stores the following information; a lap detection unit that detects that the self-propelled vacuum cleaner has traveled the entire area based on the locus of movement of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner that is stored in the storage unit; a judgment processing section that processes the information of the rotation detection section and the rotation detection section and sends an output signal to the steering and driving means, and when there are multiple areas detected by the rotation detection section, the outer detection section and the detection processing section are provided. This is a self-propelled vacuum cleaner teaching method that uses the area between the inner areas as the cleaning area.

Further, in order to achieve the second object, the present invention provides a display panel for displaying information in the storage section, and displays the display panel in two ways.
It is configured to display a heavy ring, or to display a plurality of smaller rings in the same shape within a large outer ring.

Operation The teaching method of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner of the present invention memorizes the locus of movement by moving around the outer circumference of the cleaning area,
Recognizes the memorized closed area as a cleaning area,
Cleaning can be performed without teaching the entire cleaning route. In addition, obstacles inside the cleaning area and areas that you do not want the self-propelled vacuum cleaner to enter can be recognized by moving their outer circumferences around the area, and this area is first recognized as a closed area. Cleaning is performed by recognizing the outside closed area and the inside area as the cleaning area.

In addition, a display panel configured to display a double ring display or to display multiple small rings inside a large outer ring allows the user to move around the cleaning area once and then check the cleaning area. Recognized information can be visually displayed to the user in an easy-to-understand manner.

Also, when recognizing internal obstacles, the user can be notified that all obstacles have been recognized by displaying a small ring inside the large ring.

Embodiment Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the accompanying drawings.

In FIGS. 1 to 5, 1 is a cleaning device, and 2 is a drive device 2! This is a steering/driving means constituted by a steering/driving wheel 2b and a steering/driving wheel 2b. As described above, in this embodiment, a front wheel steering/front wheel drive system is adopted in which the self-propelled vacuum cleaner is driven by the steering/driving means 2 provided at the front of the main body. 3 is a storage unit that stores the trajectory of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner body;
4, the self-propelled vacuum cleaner went around the area based on the locus of movement of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner stored in the storage unit 3? 5 is a display panel for displaying information in the storage section 3. Reference numeral 6 denotes an operation section for starting and stopping the self-propelled vacuum cleaner, and is composed of a starting switch 6a and a teaching switch 6b used at the start of teaching. 8 is a power source that supplies power to each part of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner body, and 8 is the storage unit 3.
This is a judgment processing section which processes the information from the rotation detecting section 4 and the information from the rotation detecting section 4 and sends output signals to the steering/driving means 2 and the storage section 3, and is actually composed of a microcomputer or the like.

13 is a self-propelled vacuum cleaner main body, 11 is a floor nozzle provided at the bottom of the main body 13, a dust collection chamber 9, a fan motor 1
0 constitutes a cleaning device 1, and a fan motor 1o sucks in dust on the floor and cleans it. 12 is the rear wheel.

As shown in FIG. 6, in the storage section 3, each grid is a unit of the storage section 3, for example, one byte. Also, the numbers written on the left side of the grid and below the grid indicate the addresses of each grid, and are written for the purpose of explanation. For example, area X in the figure indicates address 1033. The self-propelled vacuum cleaner of the present invention stores the cleaning area to be cleaned, and stores a certain area of the cleaning area (for example, 30cm 30cn+
) corresponds to one constituent unit (1 byte) of the storage unit 3, and for each area, it is possible to check whether a self-propelled vacuum cleaner is in that area or not, and to check if the self-propelled vacuum cleaner has passed through that area. Remember whether or not. Now, a self-propelled vacuum cleaner (a reference point that indicates the position of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner, for example, the center of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner body.

) is within the area X in Figure 5, the stored value of the current position X is, if you move forward 30 cm, go to Y, if you turn 30 cm to the right, go to Z, 30 sf'E C = 42
) Cm, turn 46 degrees to the right and change to W. Also, in either case, the fact that the point x2 has been passed is stored in the storage unit 3.

Further, when the determination processing section 8 is started by the start switch 61L of the operation section 6, it drives the cleaning device 1, and also moves the main body 13 by driving the steering and driving wheels 2b (i-drive) by the drive device 2&. The distance traveled by 13 is determined by the judgment processing unit 8.
The information is input to the storage unit 3 and stored, and the stored information is output to the rotation detection unit 4. The lap detection unit 4 constantly monitors whether the main body 13 has circled a certain area based on the stored information output from the storage unit 3, and if it detects that it has circled a certain area, the judgment processing unit 8 It is designed to output the navel information.

The operation of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner having the above configuration will be described below.

First, a method for teaching the cleaning area of a self-propelled vacuum cleaner according to the present invention will be explained based on FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the user starts teaching by pressing the teaching switch 6& of the operation unit 6, and when the user moves around the room while pushing the main body 13 from one corner A of the room, the movement path of the main body 13 is determined. is stored in the storage unit 3.

When the person reaches the point shown in FIG. 3, the circuit detecting section 4 detects that the movement route of the main body 13 stored in the storage section 3 has gone around the closed area. This means that the current position of the main body 13 is
(The storage unit 3 detects that the robot has gone around once when it is in an area that it has previously passed through), and recognizes it as the entire cleaning area inside the stored travel route. Thereafter, when the user presses the start switch θ& of the operating section 6, the entire cleaning process starts.

At this time, the engine does not start, and as shown in Fig. 3, it continues to circle around the internal obstacles in the same way, and when it reaches point B, the rotation detection unit 4 detects that it has circled around the closed area in the same way as described above. do. Here, the judgment processing unit 8 recognizes the area between the first recognized outer area and the later recognized inner area (the shaded area shown in FIG. 51L'ii When pressed, cleaning starts.

When cleaning is started, the self-propelled vacuum cleaner of the present invention moves straight within the cleaning area stored in the storage unit 3 by the determination processing unit 8, and when it reaches the boundary of the cleaning area, the self-propelled cleaner of the present invention Move laterally by a slightly shorter width, turn around 180 degrees, move forward again, and repeat this process. That is, the main body 13 is reciprocated with an overlap margin for cleaning, and the entire cleaning area is thoroughly moved to complete the cleaning.

Next, the display panel will be explained with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the display panel 5 has two configurations.
The display is a double rectangular ring, and the outer large rectangle 5a lights up when the main body 13 reaches the point shown in Figure 3, and the inner rectangle 5b lights up when the main body 13 reaches the point B. The light is turned on, thereby visually informing the user of the recognition of the cleaning area of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, the configuration of the display panel 6 is such that a plurality of small square rings 6G...5fi are displayed within a large square ring 5a on the outside, and this is a cleaning area. It is configured so that it can display as many obstacles as taught (four obstacles in the figure) in response to a plurality of obstacles inside. This results in
A cleaning area that excludes multiple obstacles can be easily recognized.

Although the embodiments shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 are shown using a rectangular ring, the shape is not particularly limited to this, and the display may be a circle, a round shape, or other shapes. .

Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention moves the outer periphery of the cleaning area once and stores the outer periphery of the cleaning area in the storage unit, thereby making it possible to cover the inside of the outer periphery of the cleaning area without teaching the entire cleaning route. You can clean it without having to worry about it. Similarly, by moving the entire outer circumference of the vacuum cleaner, obstacles inside the cleaning area, and areas that you do not want the self-propelled vacuum cleaner to enter, can be removed.
In other words, the cleaning area can be recognized and cleaned with easy operation.

In addition, the present invention makes it easy to visually indicate that the cleaning area has been recognized by displaying a double ring on the display panel or displaying multiple small rings inside the outer ring. It is possible to notify the user.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electric circuit of a self-propelled vacuum cleaner according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of the same self-propelled vacuum cleaner.
Fig. 3 is a diagram showing how the cleaning area is recognized by the teaching method of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner of the present invention, Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the operation section of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner of the present invention, and Fig. 5 1 is a diagram showing the state of the storage section of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner, and FIGS. 6 and 7 are configuration diagrams of display panels showing embodiments of the present invention, respectively. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Cleaning device, 2...Steering and driving means, 3...Storage unit, 4...Revolving detection unit, 5... Display panel, 6...operation unit,
7...Power supply, 8...Judgment processing section. Name of agent: Patent attorney Shigetaka Awano and 1 other person2-
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Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A self-propelled vacuum cleaner body having a cleaning device and a steering/driving means, a storage section that stores the locus traveled by the self-propelled vacuum cleaner body, and a self-propelled vacuum cleaner that is stored in the storage section. a lap detection unit that detects that the self-propelled vacuum cleaner has gone around the area based on the trajectory of the body; and a lap detection unit that processes information in the storage unit and the lap detection unit and outputs the processed information to the steering and driving means. and a determination processing unit that sends a signal, and when there are multiple areas detected by the rotation detection unit, the self-propelled vacuum cleaner sets the area between the detected outer area and the detected inner area as the cleaning area. Teaching method. (2) The self-propelled vacuum cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the self-propelled vacuum cleaner is configured to display a double ring or to display a plurality of small rings inside a large outer ring, and displays information in a storage section. Teaching method display panel.