A lawn mowing robot control method, chip and lawn mowing robot

Abstract

The present invention discloses a control method of a lawn mowing robot, a chip and a lawn mowing robot, the method comprising: step S1, the lawn mowing robot determines the position of the lawn boundary in front of it; step S2, the lawn mowing robot determines whether the area outside the lawn boundary can turn around, if it can turn around, it crosses the boundary, turns around in the area outside the lawn boundary, and then returns to the original path within the lawn boundary to operate. Compared with the prior art, the method described in the present invention controls the lawn mowing robot to judge the situation of the area outside the lawn boundary, if it can pass, it crosses the boundary to use the non-lawn area to turn around, prevents the wheels from applying excessive pressure on the lawn during the turning process, thereby reducing damage to the lawn and preventing vehicle marks.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of lawn mowing robots, and in particular to a lawn mowing robot control method, a chip and a lawn mowing robot. Background Art

[0002] A lawn mowing robot needs to perform multiple turns during its work. However, if it uses the same turning method as a sweeping robot, it will repeatedly damage the lawn at the turning point and leave traces of the vehicle, ultimately affecting the appearance of the lawn. Summary of the invention

[0003] To solve the above problems, the present invention provides a lawn mowing robot control method, chip and lawn mowing robot, which can reduce the wheel rolling on the lawn and prevent lawn damage. The specific technical solution of the present invention is as follows:

[0004] A lawn mowing robot control method, the method comprising: step S1, the lawn mowing robot determines the position of the lawn boundary in front of it; step S2, the lawn mowing robot determines whether the area outside the lawn boundary can turn around, if it can turn around, then crosses the boundary, turns around in the area outside the lawn boundary, and then returns to the original path within the lawn boundary to operate.

[0005] Furthermore, in step S1, the method for the mowing robot to determine the position of the lawn boundary includes: when the mowing robot moves forward, it collects a depth image of the front environment, and uses a preset recognition algorithm and lawn model features to identify and process the collected depth image, so as to determine the position of the lawn boundary; wherein the lawn model features include at least any one of the color of the lawn or the texture of the lawn.

[0006] Further, in step S2, the method for the lawn mower robot to determine whether the area outside the lawn boundary can turn around includes: step S21, after determining the position of the lawn boundary, the lawn mower robot detects whether there is an obstacle in front, if yes, it proceeds to step S22, if not, it proceeds to step S23; step S22, the lawn mower robot determines the distance between the position of the lawn boundary and the position of the obstacle based on the depth information of the collected depth image, if the distance is greater than or equal to a preset distance, it proceeds to step S23, if the distance is less than the preset distance, the area outside the lawn boundary cannot turn around; step S23, the lawn mower robot crosses the boundary and monitors the distance it has driven away from the boundary, if the distance away from the boundary cannot reach the preset distance, the area outside the lawn boundary cannot turn around, if the distance away from the boundary reaches or exceeds the preset distance, the area outside the lawn boundary can turn around.

[0007] Further, in step S2, the method for the lawn mower robot to determine whether the area outside the lawn boundary can turn around includes: during the forward movement of the lawn mower robot, the lawn mower robot determines the type of the area outside the front lawn boundary based on its own positioning information and information on the global map; if the type is a restricted area, the area outside the lawn boundary cannot turn around; if the type is a non-restricted area, the area outside the lawn boundary can turn around; wherein the global map is pre-stored in the memory of the lawn mower robot, the information of the global map includes information within the lawn boundary and information outside the lawn boundary, and the information outside the lawn boundary includes pre-planned restricted area information and non-restricted area information.

[0008] Furthermore, in step S2, the method for the lawn mower robot to determine whether the area outside the lawn boundary can turn around includes: when the lawn mower robot is moving forward, if it detects that there is a base station in front of it, the lawn mower robot uses the base station to turn around.

[0009] Furthermore, in step S23, when the lawn mowing robot crosses the boundary, the rotation speed of the blade assembly is reduced, or the operation of the blade assembly is shut down, and the height of the blade assembly is raised.

[0010] Furthermore, the method further comprises: after the mowing robot traverses the entire lawn, it mows along the edge.

[0011] A lawn mowing robot, which is used to implement the lawn mowing robot control method, and includes: a depth image acquisition module, which is used to acquire a depth image of the environment in front of the lawn mowing robot; a lawn boundary recognition module, which is used to recognize the position of the lawn boundary in the depth image according to a preset recognition algorithm and lawn model features; wherein the lawn model features include at least one of the color of the lawn or the texture of the lawn; an obstacle detection module, which is used to detect obstacles in the environment in front of the lawn mowing robot according to the depth image, and determine the distance between the position of the lawn boundary and the position of the obstacle; a cliff detection module, which is used to detect whether there is a cliff in the area outside the lawn boundary; and a U-turn control module, which is used to control the lawn mowing robot to perform a U-turn operation according to the detection results of the obstacle detection module and the cliff detection module.

[0012] Furthermore, the lawn mowing robot also includes: a blade assembly control module, which is used to reduce the rotation speed of the blade assembly, or shut down the operation of the blade assembly, and simultaneously raise the height of the blade assembly when the lawn mowing robot crosses a boundary.

[0013] Furthermore, the lawn mowing robot also includes: a mowing module along the edge, which is used to control the lawn mowing robot to mow along the edge after the lawn mowing robot traverses the entire lawn.

[0014] A chip stores computer program codes, which implement the steps of the lawn mowing robot control method when executed.

[0015] The beneficial effect of the present invention is that compared with the prior art, the method described in the present invention controls the mowing robot to judge the situation of the area outside the lawn boundary. If it is passable, it will cross the boundary to use the non-lawn area to turn around, preventing the wheels from applying excessive pressure on the lawn during the turning process, thereby reducing damage to the lawn and preventing vehicle marks. In the process of the mowing robot crossing the boundary, the mowing robot reduces the rotation speed of the blade assembly, or shuts down the operation of the blade assembly, and at the same time increases the height of the blade assembly, which can improve the safety performance of the mowing robot. After the mowing robot traverses the entire lawn, it mows along the edge, which can fill in the gaps and improve the mowing quality. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] Figure 1 The figure is a schematic diagram of a lawn mowing robot control method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0017] Figure 2 The figure is a schematic diagram of the turning process of the lawn mowing robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0018] Figure 3 The figure is a schematic diagram of the modular composition of a lawn mowing robot according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] In the following description, specific details such as specific system structures, technologies, etc. are provided for the purpose of illustration rather than limitation, so as to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the present application. However, it should be clear to those skilled in the art that the present application may also be implemented in other embodiments without these specific details. In other cases, detailed descriptions of well-known systems, devices, circuits, and methods are omitted to prevent unnecessary details from obstructing the description of the present application.

[0020] It should be understood that when used in this application, the term "comprising" indicates the presence of the described features, integral bodies, steps, operations, elements and / or components, but does not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integral bodies, steps, operations, elements, components and / or their collections. It should also be understood that the term "and / or" used in this application refers to any combination of one or more of the associated listed items and all possible combinations, and includes these combinations.

[0021] As used in this application, the term "if" can be interpreted as "when" or "uponce" or "in response to determining" or "in response to detecting", depending on the context. Similarly, the phrase "if it is determined" or "if [described condition or event] is detected" can be interpreted as meaning "uponce it is determined" or "in response to determining" or "uponce [described condition or event] is detected" or "in response to detecting [described condition or event]", depending on the context.

[0022] In addition, in the description of the present application, the terms "first", "second", "third", etc. are only used to distinguish the description and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance. The reference to "one embodiment" or "some embodiments" described in the specification of the present application means that one or more embodiments of the present application include specific features, structures or characteristics described in conjunction with the embodiment. Therefore, the statements "in one embodiment", "in some embodiments", "in some other embodiments", "in some other embodiments", etc. that appear in the differences in this specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, but mean "one or more but not all embodiments", unless otherwise specifically emphasized in other ways. The terms "including", "comprising", "having" and their variations all mean "including but not limited to", unless otherwise specifically emphasized in other ways.

[0023] A lawn mowing robot needs to perform multiple turns during its work. However, if it uses the same turning method as a sweeping robot, it will repeatedly damage the lawn at the turning point and leave traces of the vehicle, ultimately affecting the appearance of the lawn.

[0024] Therefore, the embodiment of the present invention provides a control method for a lawn mower robot, which controls the lawn mower robot to judge the situation of the area outside the lawn boundary. If it is passable, the lawn mower robot crosses the boundary and uses the non-lawn area to turn around, thereby preventing the wheels from exerting excessive pressure on the lawn during the turning process, thereby reducing damage to the lawn and preventing vehicle marks. Figure 1 As shown, including:

[0025] Step S1, the lawn mowing robot determines the position of the lawn boundary in front of it;

[0026] Step S2, the lawn mowing robot determines whether the area outside the lawn boundary can turn around. If it can turn around, it crosses the boundary, turns around in the area outside the lawn boundary, and then returns to the original path within the lawn boundary to perform the operation.

[0027] In the process of executing step S1, the method for the mowing robot to determine the position of the lawn boundary includes: the mowing robot collects the depth image of the front environment during the forward process, and uses the preset recognition algorithm and lawn model features to recognize and process the collected depth image, so as to determine the position of the lawn boundary; wherein the lawn model features at least include any one of the color of the lawn or the texture of the lawn. It should be noted that the mowing robot includes a depth camera for collecting depth images, and the camera can not only obtain the plane image, but also obtain the depth information of the photographed object, that is, the three-dimensional position and size information, so that the entire computing system obtains the three-dimensional data of the environment and the object. The preset recognition algorithm adopts Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), which is good at recognizing images. The lawn model features are input into CNN in advance, and CNN will automatically learn, and then can accurately distinguish the lawn area and the non-lawn area and extract the lawn boundary, and finally the distance between the lawn boundary and the mowing robot can be obtained according to the depth information in the image.

[0028] In one embodiment, the method for the lawn mowing robot to determine whether the area outside the lawn boundary can turn around includes:

[0029] Step S21, after determining the position of the lawn boundary, the mowing robot detects whether there is an obstacle in front, if yes, then proceeds to step S22, if no, then proceeds to step S23. Optionally, a distance measuring sensor is provided on the mowing robot to cooperate with the depth camera to detect obstacles. The distance measuring sensor includes any one or a combination of a TOF sensor, an infrared sensor or an ultrasonic sensor.

[0030] In step S22, the lawn mower robot determines the distance between the position of the lawn boundary and the position of the obstacle based on the depth information of the collected depth image. If the distance is greater than or equal to the preset distance, the process proceeds to step S23. If the distance is less than the preset distance, the area outside the lawn boundary cannot be turned around. It should be noted that the preset distance depends on the body length of the lawn mower robot. Specifically, the size of the preset distance is equal to the distance from the head of the lawn mower robot to the wheels (taking the center line). Obviously, if the preset distance is less than the distance from the head to the wheels, the wheels of the lawn mower robot will stay within the lawn boundary, and turning around at this time will still damage the lawn. Therefore, when the distance between the position of the lawn boundary and the position of the obstacle is less than the preset distance, it is determined that the area outside the lawn boundary cannot be turned around, and the lawn mower robot does not need to cross the lawn boundary. At this time, it walks according to the original route.

[0031] Preferably, the mowing robot completes the mulching mowing in a bow-shaped walking manner. Specifically, the mowing trajectory route generated by the mowing robot in the lawn area is composed of a plurality of parallel motion trajectory segments, wherein the vertical distance between two adjacent parallel motion trajectory segments (adjacent in position) is less than the body diameter of the mowing robot, and the two adjacent parallel motion trajectory segments have an endpoint connected by a bend line or a short line segment (shorter than the parallel motion trajectory segments). It can be understood by those skilled in the art that these parallel motion trajectory segments are long-side mowing routes belonging to the bow-shaped mowing route, and the aforementioned bend line or short line segment is the short-side mowing route between two adjacent motion trajectory segments, so that these parallel motion trajectory segments cover the accessible area of ​​the mowing robot, and at the same time, the mowing robot marks the path nodes along the motion trajectory segments and maps them to the grid map, and the aforementioned short line segment can be set to be perpendicular to the motion trajectory segment or the initial mowing direction.

[0032] Step S23, the lawn mowing robot crosses the boundary and monitors the distance it has traveled from the boundary. If the distance from the boundary cannot reach a preset distance, the area outside the lawn boundary cannot be turned around. If the distance from the boundary reaches or exceeds a preset distance, the area outside the lawn boundary can be turned around. Optionally, the lawn mowing robot monitors the distance it has traveled from the boundary through data fed back by a code disk and / or an odometer.

[0033] Among them, there are two situations in which the lawn mower robot cannot reach the preset distance from the boundary: one is because of a collision. In step S22, if the lawn mower robot miscalculates the distance to the obstacle in front, this situation may occur. At this time, the lawn mower robot retreats a certain distance, then turns around and walks along the original route. The second is because a cliff is detected. In step S21, although the lawn mower robot detects that there is no obstacle in front, it cannot know whether there is a cliff in front (such as steps, depressions or pools). Therefore, after the lawn mower robot crosses the boundary, it is necessary to analyze the data collected by the cliff detection sensor in real time to avoid the lawn mower robot from falling, prevent the lawn mower robot from being unable to return to the lawn boundary, and even cause machine damage or other safety accidents. Similarly, at this time, the lawn mower robot retreats a certain distance, then turns around and walks along the original route.

[0034] When the mowing robot crosses the boundary, there is no collision and no cliff detection, and the distance it has traveled from the boundary reaches or exceeds the preset distance, then the wheels of the mowing robot have left the lawn area, and the mowing robot performs a U-turn. As described above, the mowing robot completes mulching mowing in a bow-shaped walking manner, and has a long side mowing route and a short side mowing route. Figure 2, the mowing robot 1 crosses the lawn boundary 3 and turns around, which is equivalent to "extending" the long-side mowing route 2 and placing the short-side mowing route 4 outside the lawn boundary 3. This turning method can prevent the wheels from exerting excessive pressure on the lawn during the turning process, thereby reducing damage to the lawn and preventing vehicle marks.

[0035] In the process of executing step S23, according to the distance of the lawn boundary calculated by the depth image, when the mowing robot is about to cross the lawn boundary, the rotation speed of the blade assembly is reduced, or the operation of the blade assembly is shut down, and the height of the blade assembly is raised at the same time. Since the area outside the lawn boundary is not a working area, there are certain safety hazards, so this can improve the safety performance of the mowing robot. It should be noted that the mowing robot in this embodiment has the function of adjusting the height of the blade assembly, which is mainly used to control the height of mowing, and in this embodiment, it plays a role in avoiding cutting objects outside the lawn boundary. When the mowing robot successfully turns around outside the boundary and walks in the direction of the lawn boundary, the blade assembly is restored to its original state after entering the lawn boundary. Similarly, this can improve the safety performance of the mowing robot.

[0036] In the above embodiment, when the mowing robot crosses the lawn boundary, it takes a certain amount of time to raise and lower the height of the blade assembly, so that the mowing quality of the area near the lawn boundary cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, after the mowing robot traverses the entire lawn, it mows along the edge to fill in the gaps, thereby improving the mowing quality.

[0037] In another embodiment, the method for the lawn mowing robot to determine whether an area outside the lawn boundary can be turned around includes:

[0038] When the mowing robot moves forward, it determines the type of the area outside the lawn boundary in front according to its own positioning information and the information of the global map. If the type is a restricted area, the area outside the lawn boundary cannot be turned around. If the type is a non-restricted area, the area outside the lawn boundary can be turned around. The global map is pre-stored in the memory of the mowing robot. The information of the global map includes information inside the lawn boundary and information outside the lawn boundary. The information outside the lawn boundary includes pre-planned restricted area information and non-restricted area information.

[0039] In this embodiment, the lawn mowing robot collects environmental information through the visual sensors and / or laser sensors it is equipped with, and then uses SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) technology to build a global map of the lawn area. The global map is transmitted to the smart terminal so that the user can edit it and divide it into restricted areas and non-restricted areas. The restricted area can be the area within the lawn boundary or the area outside the lawn boundary. After the restricted area is divided, the remaining areas are considered non-restricted areas. It should be noted that the area outside the lawn boundary does not necessarily have to be displayed on the global map. Users can mark lawn boundaries of any length, and these marked boundaries indicate that the non-lawn areas adjacent to them are restricted areas and cannot be turned around. As one implementation method, the user sets the base station to a non-restricted area. Refer to Figure 2 When the lawn mower robot 1 detects that there is a base station 5 in front of it, it can turn around at the base station 5, making full use of existing resources and improving the intelligence of the lawn mower robot.

[0040] like Figure 3 As shown, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a lawn mowing robot, which includes: a depth image acquisition module, which includes a depth camera, and is used to acquire a depth image of the environment in front of the lawn mowing robot; a lawn boundary recognition module, which is a virtual module, and is used to identify the position of the lawn boundary in the depth image according to a preset recognition algorithm and lawn model features; wherein the lawn model features include at least one of the color of the lawn or the texture of the lawn; an obstacle detection module, which is a virtual module, and is used to detect obstacles in the environment in front of the lawn mowing robot according to the depth image, and determine the distance between the position of the lawn boundary and the position of the obstacle; a cliff detection module, which includes a cliff detection sensor, and is used to detect whether there is a cliff in the area outside the lawn boundary; a turn control module, which is a virtual module, and is used to control the lawn mowing robot to perform a turn operation according to the detection results of the obstacle detection module and the cliff detection module. The lawn mowing robot also includes: a blade assembly control module, which is a virtual module, used to reduce the rotation speed of the blade assembly, or shut down the operation of the blade assembly, and raise the height of the blade assembly when the lawn mowing robot crosses a boundary; and a side mowing module, which is a virtual module, used to control the lawn mowing robot to mow along the side after the lawn mowing robot traverses the entire lawn.

[0041] The embodiment of the present invention also provides a chip, which can be mounted on the aforementioned lawn mowing robot. Compared with the prior art, the chip described in the present invention can enable the lawn mowing robot to judge the situation of the area outside the lawn boundary. If it is passable, it will cross the boundary and use the non-lawn area to turn around, preventing the wheels from applying excessive pressure on the lawn during the turning process, thereby reducing damage to the lawn and preventing vehicle marks. In particular, when the lawn mowing robot crosses the boundary, the lawn mowing robot is controlled to reduce the rotation speed of the blade assembly, or shut down the operation of the blade assembly, and at the same time increase the height of the blade assembly, which can improve the safety performance of the lawn mowing robot. After the lawn mowing robot traverses the entire lawn, the lawn mowing robot is made to mow along the edge, which can achieve leak repair and improve the quality of mowing.

[0042] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the processes in the above-mentioned embodiment methods can be implemented by instructing the relevant hardware through a computer program, and the computer program can be stored in a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium. When the computer program is executed, it can include the processes of the embodiments of the above-mentioned methods. Among them, the references to memory, storage, database or other media used in the embodiments provided in this application can include non-volatile and / or volatile memory. Non-volatile memory may include read-only memory ROM, programmable memory PROM, electrically programmable memory DPROM, electrically erasable programmable memory DDPROM or flash memory. Volatile memory may include random access memory RAM or external cache memory.

[0043] The technical features of the above embodiments may be arbitrarily combined. To make the description concise, not all possible combinations of the above embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0044] The above embodiments only express several embodiments of the present invention, and the descriptions thereof are relatively specific and detailed, but they cannot be understood as limiting the scope of the invention patent. It should be pointed out that, for ordinary technicians in this field, several variations and improvements can be made without departing from the concept of the present application, and these all belong to the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A lawn mowing robot control method, characterized in that: The method comprises: Step S1, the lawn mowing robot determines the position of the lawn boundary in front of it; Step S2, the lawn mowing robot determines whether the area outside the lawn boundary can turn around. If it can turn around, it crosses the boundary, turns around in the area outside the lawn boundary, and then returns to the original path within the lawn boundary to perform the operation; In the step S2, the method for the lawn mowing robot to determine whether the area outside the lawn boundary can turn around includes: step S21, after determining the position of the lawn boundary, the lawn mowing robot detects whether there is an obstacle in front, if there is, it enters step S22, if not, it enters step S23; step S22, the lawn mowing robot determines the distance between the position of the lawn boundary and the position of the obstacle according to the depth information of the collected depth image, if the distance is greater than or equal to the preset distance, it enters step S23, if the distance is less than the preset distance, the area outside the lawn boundary cannot turn around; step S23, the lawn mowing robot crosses the boundary and monitors the distance it has driven away from the boundary, if the distance from the boundary cannot reach the preset distance, the area outside the lawn boundary cannot turn around, if the distance from the boundary reaches or exceeds the preset distance, the area outside the lawn boundary can turn around; Alternatively, in step S2, the method for the lawn mower robot to determine whether the area outside the lawn boundary can turn around includes: during the forward movement of the lawn mower robot, the lawn mower robot determines the type of the area outside the front lawn boundary based on its own positioning information and information on the global map; if the type is a restricted area, the area outside the lawn boundary cannot turn around; if the type is a non-restricted area, the area outside the lawn boundary can turn around; wherein the global map is pre-stored in the memory of the lawn mower robot, the information on the global map includes information within the lawn boundary and information outside the lawn boundary, and the information outside the lawn boundary includes pre-planned restricted area information and non-restricted area information.

2. A lawn mowing robot control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step S1, the method for the lawn mowing robot to determine the position of the lawn boundary includes: When the lawn mowing robot moves forward, it collects depth images of the environment ahead and uses a preset recognition algorithm and lawn model features to identify and process the collected depth images, thereby determining the location of the lawn boundary; wherein the lawn model features include at least one of the color of the lawn or the texture of the lawn.

3. The lawn mowing robot control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step S23, when the lawn mowing robot crosses the boundary, the rotation speed of the blade assembly is reduced, or the operation of the blade assembly is shut down, and the height of the blade assembly is raised.

4. The lawn mowing robot control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The method further comprises: after the mowing robot traverses the entire lawn, mowing along the edge.

5. A lawn mowing robot, the lawn mowing robot being used to implement the lawn mowing robot control method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The lawn mowing robot comprises: A depth image acquisition module, used to acquire a depth image of the environment in front of the mowing robot; A lawn boundary recognition module, used to recognize the position of the lawn boundary in the depth image according to a preset recognition algorithm and lawn model features; wherein the lawn model features include at least one of the color of the lawn or the texture of the lawn; An obstacle detection module, used to detect obstacles in the environment in front of the mowing robot according to the depth image, and determine the distance between the position of the lawn boundary and the position of the obstacle; The cliff detection module is used to detect whether there is a cliff in the area outside the lawn boundary; The turning control module is used to control the mowing robot to perform a turning operation according to the detection results of the obstacle detection module and the cliff detection module.

6. The lawn mowing robot according to claim 5, characterized in that: The lawn mowing robot also includes: The blade assembly control module is used to reduce the rotation speed of the blade assembly, or shut down the operation of the blade assembly, and at the same time increase the height of the blade assembly when the mowing robot crosses a boundary.

7. The lawn mowing robot according to claim 5, characterized in that: The lawn mowing robot also includes: The edge mowing module is used to control the mowing robot to mow along the edge after the mowing robot has traversed the entire lawn.

8. A chip storing computer program code, characterized in that: When the computer program code is executed, the steps of the lawn mowing robot control method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 are implemented.

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