Underwater robot path planning method and underwater robot based on ultrasonic radar

Abstract

The present invention provides an underwater robot path planning method and an underwater robot based on ultrasonic radar, which are used to plan the underwater driving path of the underwater robot at the bottom of a pool. The path planning method includes placing the underwater robot at any position on the bottom of the pool; starting the underwater robot, finding and driving to the nearest position against the wall at the edge of the pool; defining the position against the wall at the edge of the pool as the initial position, and the underwater robot driving along the bottom and edge of the pool; comparing the underwater driving path with the 3D model of the pool bottom to determine the current position of the underwater robot; taking the current position of the underwater robot as the driving origin, and dividing the pool bottom into a plurality of sequentially connected circular paths based on the 3D model of the pool bottom, to complete the path planning of the underwater robot. The path planning method designed by the present invention can achieve the purpose of accurately positioning the underwater robot at the bottom of the pool, quickly and efficiently performing operations, ensuring the quality of operations, and reducing the loss of the underwater robot.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the field of intelligent robots and relates to a path planning and design technology for an underwater robot, in particular to an underwater robot path planning method based on ultrasonic radar and an underwater robot. Background Art

[0002] Underwater robots, also known as unmanned remote-controlled submersibles, are extreme operation robots that work underwater. For example, underwater sweeping robots require path planning when operating underwater to achieve comprehensive coverage of the bottom of swimming pools, breeding pools, treatment pools, etc., thereby ensuring that the water completes the pool bottom cleaning operation comprehensively, quickly and efficiently.

[0003] Underwater robots have the following problems when performing cleaning operations: 1. Because it is an underwater operation, the robot can only obtain information within a limited range. Therefore, when the underwater robot is placed in the pool, it is difficult to accurately judge the position of the robot, making it impossible for the robot to clean the pool bottom according to the preset cleaning mode, nor can it determine whether the pool bottom has been thoroughly cleaned, affecting the quality of pool bottom cleaning; 2. Currently, the driving paths of underwater robots are mostly S-shaped, serpentine, straight, etc. During the driving process, the underwater robot has a large turning range and brakes frequently, which will cause great damage to the underwater robot and affect its lifespan.

[0004] Therefore, there is an urgent need to design a path planning method that can accurately position the underwater robot at the bottom of the pool, ensure the cleaning quality, and reduce the loss of the underwater robot. Summary of the invention

[0005] When an underwater robot is randomly placed at the bottom of a pool by an operator, it is difficult for the underwater robot to obtain its exact position and to accurately plan its path due to the underwater environment. To address the above problems, the present invention designs an underwater robot path planning method and an underwater robot based on ultrasonic radar, which can achieve the purpose of accurately positioning the underwater robot at the bottom of the pool, quickly and efficiently performing operations, ensuring operation quality, and reducing the loss of the underwater robot.

[0006] According to a first aspect of the present invention, the present invention provides an underwater robot path planning method based on ultrasonic radar, which is used to plan the underwater driving path of the underwater robot at the bottom of a pool, comprising the following steps:

[0007] S1. The underwater robot is placed at any position on the bottom of the pool;

[0008] S2: The underwater robot starts, searches for the nearest wall near the pool, and drives to the pool;

[0009] S3, define the position near the wall of the pool as the initial position, and the underwater robot moves along the bottom and edge of the pool;

[0010] S4, comparing the underwater driving path in S3 with the 3D model of the pool bottom to determine the current position of the underwater robot;

[0011] S5. Taking the current position of the underwater robot as the driving origin, and dividing the pool bottom into multiple sequentially connected circular paths based on the 3D model of the pool bottom, the underwater robot path planning is completed.

[0012] The principle of the path planning method designed in the present invention is: first, the underwater robot is made to find and drive to the wall position near the pool from the placement position; secondly, the underwater robot drives a certain distance or a circle along the bottom and edge of the pool, and compares the underwater driving path with the 3D model of the pool bottom to determine the current position of the underwater robot; finally, with the current position as the center point, the pool bottom is divided into multiple circular paths connected in sequence according to the 3D model of the pool bottom, and the path planning of the underwater robot can be completed.

[0013] Furthermore, in step S2, the underwater robot is started, and a method of finding and driving to a nearby wall position at the edge of the pool includes:

[0014] S201, the underwater robot takes the position placed in S1 as the starting point and moves in any direction;

[0015] S202, based on the ultrasonic signal emitted in real time by the ultrasonic radar probe, finding the position of the pool wall;

[0016] S203: When the ultrasonic radar probe does not receive a feedback signal, the position close to the pool wall is not found, and the underwater robot continues to travel along the path in S201; when the ultrasonic radar probe receives a feedback signal, the position close to the pool wall is found, and S204 is executed;

[0017] S204, after finding the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool, adjust the driving direction of the underwater robot and drive to the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool at the shortest distance until it reaches the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool.

[0018] Furthermore, in step S2, another method for starting the underwater robot and finding and driving to a nearby wall position at the edge of the pool includes:

[0019] S211, the underwater robot takes the position placed in S1 as the starting point;

[0020] S212, based on the ultrasonic signal emitted in real time by the ultrasonic radar probe, finding the position of the pool wall;

[0021] S213: When the ultrasonic radar probe does not receive a feedback signal, the position of the pool wall is not found, and the underwater robot moves in any direction and executes S212 until the position of the pool wall is found, and then enters S214; when the ultrasonic radar probe receives a feedback signal, the position of the pool wall is found, and then enters S214;

[0022] S214. After finding the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool, adjust the driving direction of the underwater robot and drive to the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool at the shortest distance until it reaches the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool.

[0023] Furthermore, the process of the underwater robot finding the position close to the pool wall and driving to the position close to the pool wall in the shortest distance also includes:

[0024] The current direction angle of the underwater robot is obtained in real time, and the driving direction of the underwater robot is adjusted according to the current direction angle and the direction angle at the previous moment, so that the current driving direction of the underwater robot is consistent with the driving direction at the previous moment.

[0025] Preferably, in step S3, the ratio of the distance of the underwater travel path to the perimeter of the pool bottom and pool edge is (0.2:1) to (2.0:1).

[0026] Furthermore, in step S4, the method for obtaining the 3D model of the pool bottom is:

[0027] It is generated by presetting the contours of the pool bottom and pool sides in the intelligent terminal, or by real-time collection of the underwater robot's movement along the pool bottom and pool sides and real-time distance measurement and scanning.

[0028] Furthermore, after the pool bottom 3D model is pre-generated in the intelligent terminal, the pre-generated pool bottom 3D model is also evaluated;

[0029] The evaluation method is: let the underwater robot drive along the bottom and edge of the pool for one circle to obtain the underwater driving path, and match and analyze the collected underwater driving path with the preset generated pool bottom 3D model.

[0030] Furthermore, in step S5, there is an overlap of 0 to 20% between adjacent zigzag paths.

[0031] Furthermore, in step S5, when planning the zigzag path, the position of the underwater robot is judged in real time according to the 3D model of the pool bottom to obtain the position of the underwater robot on the pool bottom (ie, the relative position of the underwater robot and the pool bottom).

[0032] Furthermore, in step S5, when planning the zigzag path, the current walking path of the underwater robot is also obtained in real time, and the current position of the underwater robot is judged and evaluated based on the 3D model of the pool bottom.

[0033] In an improved embodiment of the present invention, the underwater robot path planning method further includes:

[0034] S61. Based on the 3D model of the pool bottom and user feedback, the method in S5 is used to plan a circular path for several key areas of the pool bottom.

[0035] In another improved embodiment of the present invention, the underwater robot path planning method further includes:

[0036] S62, evaluating the underwater robot path planning results, and optimizing the underwater driving path of the underwater robot at the bottom of the pool for the next time based on the evaluation results.

[0037] In some embodiments of the present invention, the method for evaluating the path planning results of an underwater robot is as follows: the display interface of the intelligent terminal displays the driving path of the underwater robot in real time until the underwater robot completes the underwater path planning; the display interface provides an evaluation interface, and the user evaluates based on the underwater path planning results.

[0038] In some embodiments of the present invention, the method for displaying the driving path on the display interface is: gridding the 3D model of the pool bottom, using different display methods to distinguish the underwater robot's traveled path and untraveled path, and performing path planning evaluation based on the ratio of the traveled path to the untraveled path.

[0039] Preferably, the underwater driving path of the underwater robot is optimized according to the path planning evaluation results and / or user needs.

[0040] Preferably, the underwater robot is a swimming pool cleaning robot.

[0041] A second aspect of the present invention provides an underwater robot, comprising an underwater driving path planning system, wherein the underwater driving path planning system is used to plan the underwater driving path of the underwater robot at the bottom of a pool in an underwater environment.

[0042] In a third aspect of the present invention, an electronic device is provided, comprising a memory and a processor, wherein the memory is used to store a computer program running on the processor; and the processor is used to implement the steps of the underwater robot path planning method based on ultrasonic radar in the first aspect when executing the computer program.

[0043] A fourth aspect of the present invention provides a computer storage medium storing computer executable instructions, wherein the computer executable instructions are used to execute the underwater robot path planning method based on ultrasonic radar in the first aspect.

[0044] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0045] 1. The underwater robot path planning method designed in the present invention can achieve the purpose of accurately positioning the underwater robot at the bottom of the pool, quickly and efficiently performing operations, ensuring the quality of operations, and reducing the loss of the underwater robot.

[0046] 2. The path method designed by the present invention can also acquire and record the image information of the underwater robot in real time while it is traveling, and can evaluate and analyze the path and operation effect planned by the underwater robot.

[0047] 3. The path planning method designed in the present invention can re-plan the key areas of the pool bottom according to user needs to ensure the operation effect.

[0048] 4. The present invention creatively overcomes the limitations of existing sensors, realizes the digitization of underwater cleaning work, and narrows the gap between land and underwater robots. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0049] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for use in the description of the embodiments. Obviously, the drawings described below are only for the purpose of more clearly illustrating the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention or the prior art. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative work.

[0050] Figure 1 A flow chart of an underwater robot path planning method based on ultrasonic radar according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0051] Figure 2 A flow chart of an underwater robot path planning method based on ultrasonic radar according to another embodiment of the present invention;

[0052] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of making the pool cleaning robot drive toward the pool wall and drive around the pool wall during path planning of the pool according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0053] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of a swimming pool cleaning robot performing zigzag path planning in a swimming pool based on a 3D model of the swimming pool in one embodiment of the present invention.

[0054] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a screen shot of a control device according to one embodiment of the present invention, showing the position of a pool cleaning robot and a cleaning completion ratio during a pool cleaning process.

[0055] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of a screen shot of a control device according to another embodiment of the present invention, showing the position of a pool cleaning robot and a cleaning completion ratio during a pool cleaning process.

[0056] Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of a screen shot of a control device according to one embodiment of the present invention, showing a user evaluation interface after cleaning is completed. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0057] The present invention will be further described below in conjunction with specific embodiments, and the advantages and features of the present invention will become clearer as the description proceeds. However, these embodiments are exemplary only and do not constitute any limitation to the scope of the present invention. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the details and forms of the technical solution of the present invention may be modified or replaced without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, but these modifications and replacements all fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0058] In the description of this embodiment, it should be understood that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "up", "down", "front", "back", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inside" and "outside" etc., indicating orientations or positional relationships, are based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the invention and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be understood as a limitation on the invention.

[0059] In addition, the terms "first", "second", "third", etc. are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features. Thus, a feature defined as "first", "second", etc. may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the features. In the description of the present invention, unless otherwise specified, "plurality" means two or more.

[0060] This specific embodiment provides an underwater robot path planning method based on ultrasonic radar. The underwater robot path planning method is used to plan the underwater driving path of the underwater robot at the bottom of the pool. In this embodiment, refer to Figure 1 As shown, the underwater robot path planning method includes the following steps:

[0061] S1. The underwater robot is placed at any position on the bottom of the pool.

[0062] It should be noted in this step that the pool bottom can be of regular or irregular shape; the underwater robot is placed in the pool (such as a swimming pool, sewage treatment pool, breeding pool, etc.) by the operator, and its position in the pool is random when it falls to the bottom of the pool.

[0063] S2: The underwater robot starts, searches for the nearest wall beside the pool, and drives to the pool.

[0064] In this step, since the underwater robot is in an underwater environment, its underwater position is difficult to obtain accurately. In order to grasp the accurate position of the underwater robot, if the contour of the pool bottom is known, the position of the pool wall on the pool bottom can be roughly judged. Therefore, the pool wall can be used as a reference for the positioning of the underwater robot.

[0065] What needs to be explained in this step is: when there is an obstacle at the bottom of the pool, the level of the ultrasonic radar probe on the underwater robot needs to be higher than the level of the obstacle, thereby ensuring that the level of the obstacle is lower than the level of the ultrasonic radar probe sending the ultrasonic signal in the horizontal direction, so as to avoid the influence of the obstacle on the pool bottom on finding the position close to the wall.

[0066] In this step, the first method for the underwater robot to find and drive to the nearby wall position of the pool is:

[0067] S201: The underwater robot takes the position placed in S1 as a starting point and moves in any direction.

[0068] Since the position of the underwater robot at the bottom of the pool is unclear, the underwater robot can be controlled to walk in any direction first. Although during the walking process, it may gradually approach the position against the wall of the pool around it, or gradually move away from the position against the wall of the pool around it and then gradually approach the position against the wall of the pool far away from it, no matter how the underwater robot walks, it can eventually reach the position against the wall of the pool.

[0069] S202: Find the wall position of the pool side based on the ultrasonic signal emitted in real time by the ultrasonic radar probe.

[0070] The principle of the ultrasonic radar probe finding the wall position of the pool side is: the ultrasonic signal (i.e., pulse signal) emitted by the ultrasonic radar probe reaches the wall of the pool side, and the ultrasonic radar probe will receive a feedback signal, at which time the wall position of the pool side is found.

[0071] In this step, ultrasonic radar probes can be set in the front, back, left, and right directions of the underwater robot, and ultrasonic signals can be sent to different directions of the underwater robot to find the pool wall closest to the underwater robot. Alternatively, a continuously rotating ultrasonic radar probe can be set on the underwater robot to send ultrasonic signals 360° in all directions around the underwater robot to find the pool wall closest to the underwater robot.

[0072] S203: When the ultrasonic radar probe does not receive a feedback signal, the position close to the pool wall is not found, and the underwater robot continues to travel along the path in S201; when the ultrasonic radar probe receives a feedback signal, the position close to the pool wall is found, and the process proceeds to S204.

[0073] In this step, since the underwater robot is traveling underwater, the ultrasonic signal will be attenuated by the underwater resistance. Therefore, the transmission distance of the ultrasonic signal is limited. When the underwater robot is slightly far away from the wall of the pool, the ultrasonic signal cannot reach the wall of the pool. At this time, the ultrasonic radar probe cannot receive the feedback signal, and the position near the wall of the pool is not found. The underwater robot needs to continue to move forward.

[0074] S204, after finding the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool, adjust the driving direction of the underwater robot and drive to the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool at the shortest distance until it reaches the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool.

[0075] In this step, when the ultrasonic signal reaches the pool wall and the ultrasonic radar probe receives the feedback signal, the pool wall position is found. When the pool wall position is found, in order to facilitate the underwater robot to travel to the pool wall position at the shortest distance, the underwater robot needs to adjust its driving direction so that it drives towards the found pool wall position.

[0076] One method for adjusting the driving direction of an underwater robot is to use a line connecting the underwater robot and the wall beside the pool as one side, the current driving direction of the underwater robot as another side, and the underwater robot as the vertex to calculate the adjustment angle of the driving direction of the underwater machine. Other existing methods may also be used to calculate the adjustment angle of the driving direction of the underwater machine.

[0077] Another method of adjusting the driving direction of the underwater robot is to locate it through the navigation system in the underwater robot, and to obtain the coordinates of the underwater robot and match them with the coordinates of the 3D model of the pool bottom described below. The matching method adopts the existing method and will not be described in detail here.

[0078] In this step, the second method for the underwater robot to find and drive to the nearby wall position of the pool is:

[0079] S211: The underwater robot takes the position placed in S1 as the starting point.

[0080] S212, based on the ultrasonic signal emitted in real time by the ultrasonic radar probe, find the position of the pool wall.

[0081] In this step, the ultrasonic radar probe emits an ultrasonic signal to find the pool wall position, and if the pool wall position can be found directly, the underwater robot is directly driven to the pool wall position. If the pool wall position is not found, enter and execute S213.

[0082] S213. When the ultrasonic radar probe does not receive a feedback signal, the position against the wall of the pool is not found, and the underwater robot moves in any direction and executes S212 until the position against the wall of the pool is found, and then enters S214; when the ultrasonic radar probe receives a feedback signal, the position against the wall of the pool is found, and then enters S214.

[0083] S214. After finding the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool, adjust the driving direction of the underwater robot and drive to the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool at the shortest distance until it reaches the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool.

[0084] The difference between the above-mentioned two methods of the underwater robot finding and driving to the nearby wall position at the edge of the pool is: the underwater robot drives first, and then sends ultrasonic signals while driving to find the wall position at the edge of the pool; or the underwater robot sends ultrasonic signals first to find the wall position at the edge of the pool, and then drives while sending ultrasonic signals to find the wall position at the edge of the pool after failing to find the wall position.

[0085] Furthermore, the underwater robot is affected by water resistance, and its driving direction may deviate and produce errors. In order to make the underwater robot travel in a straight line or at a required angle underwater, in this specific embodiment, the underwater robot searches for a position against the wall at the edge of the pool and travels to the position against the wall at the edge of the pool at the shortest distance, and also includes: obtaining the current direction angle of the underwater robot in real time, and adjusting the driving direction of the underwater robot according to the current direction angle and the direction angle at the previous moment, so that the current driving direction of the underwater robot is consistent with the driving direction at the previous moment. In this specific embodiment, the current direction angle and the direction angle at the previous moment of the underwater robot are obtained by a gyroscope, and the gyroscope obtains the direction angle of the underwater robot in real time. When the current direction angle is inconsistent with the direction angle at the previous moment, it indicates that the driving direction has deviated and needs to be adjusted.

[0086] S3. Define the position near the wall of the pool as the initial position, and the underwater robot moves along the bottom and edge of the pool.

[0087] S4: Compare the underwater driving path in S3 with the 3D model of the pool bottom to determine the current position of the underwater robot.

[0088] In steps S3 and S4, after the underwater robot drives to the position against the wall at the edge of the pool, the specific position of the underwater robot on the bottom of the pool is judged. The judgment method and principle are as follows: the underwater robot drives along the bottom and edge of the pool from the initial position, and the underwater driving path of the underwater robot is obtained in real time. The underwater driving path is compared with the 3D model of the pool bottom obtained earlier, and the overlapping part of the underwater driving path and the 3D model of the pool bottom is found. Preferably, the overlapping part is a feature point, such as a corner or other line segment area with obvious features, so that the current position of the underwater robot can be found.

[0089] In this step, one method for obtaining the 3D model of the pool bottom is to pre-set and generate it in a smart terminal (a mobile phone or an APP or other smart terminal) according to the contours of the pool bottom and pool edge; another method is to make an underwater robot walk along the pool bottom and pool edge for a week and measure the distance and scan it in real time. The pre-set generation method includes but is not limited to 3D modeling by taking photos with a mobile phone, etc.

[0090] Furthermore, when the pool bottom 3D model is generated by the smart terminal, in order to ensure that the generated pool bottom 3D model is consistent with the actual situation of the pool bottom, the preset pool bottom 3D model needs to be evaluated. The evaluation method is: the underwater robot drives along the pool bottom and pool edge for one week to obtain the underwater driving path, and the collected underwater driving path is matched and analyzed with the preset pool bottom 3D model.

[0091] In the above steps, the ratio of the distance of the underwater driving path to the circumference of the pool bottom and pool edge is (0.2:1) to (2.0:1). Preferably, the ratio of the underwater driving path to the circumference of the pool bottom and pool edge is in the range of 0.1 to 0.5, that is, when the length of the pool bottom and pool edge is 300 meters, the range of the underwater driving path is 30 to 150 meters.

[0092] S5. Taking the current position of the underwater robot as the driving origin, and dividing the pool bottom into multiple sequentially connected circular paths based on the 3D model of the pool bottom, the underwater robot path planning is completed.

[0093] Specifically, the method of dividing the pool bottom into multiple sequentially connected circular paths is:

[0094] S501, define the current position in S4 as the driving origin, and name the path after the underwater robot walks along the bottom and edge of the pool for one circle as the zigzag reference path;

[0095] S502: With reference to the zigzag reference path, the pool bottom is divided into a plurality of zigzag paths connected in sequence from the edge of the pool bottom toward the center of the pool bottom.

[0096] Specifically, the underwater robot is adjusted in a driving angle toward the center of the pool bottom, so that the underwater robot drives from the outer previous level circular path (or circular reference path) toward the center of the pool bottom until the underwater robot drives to the edge of the outer previous level circular path (or circular reference path), or walks until the outer previous level circular path (or circular reference path) is covered by 5.0% to 10%, and reaches the starting point of the next level circular path;

[0097] S503, adjusting the driving angle of the underwater robot and driving it back to the starting position;

[0098] S504, repeat S502 to S503 until the pool bottom is fully covered and the underwater robot path planning is completed.

[0099] Furthermore, in order to ensure the operating effect of the underwater robot, there is a 0-20% overlap between adjacent zigzag paths. For example, when the underwater robot is a cleaning robot, the overlap between the next zigzag path and its previous zigzag path is 0-20%, even if the next zigzag path covers the previous zigzag path by 0-20% (the preferred coverage area is 5% to 10%).

[0100] Furthermore, in step S5, when planning the zigzag path, the current walking path of the underwater robot is also obtained in real time, and the current position of the underwater robot is judged and evaluated based on the 3D model of the pool bottom. By judging the current walking path of the underwater robot, the specific position of the underwater robot on the bottom of the pool can be determined, so that corresponding measures can be taken in time when the underwater robot has an abnormality.

[0101] In this specific implementation, according to different needs of users, some positions on the bottom of the pool may require repeated operations or focused operations. Therefore, in an improved embodiment of the above-mentioned underwater robot path planning method based on ultrasonic radar, as shown in FIG. Figure 2 As shown, the underwater robot path planning method also includes:

[0102] S61. Based on the 3D model of the pool bottom and user feedback, the path of the key area of ​​the pool bottom is re-planned.

[0103] Specifically, when the underwater robot completes the first path planning according to steps S1 to S5, the underwater robot is located in the middle of the pool bottom. Combined with the 3D model of the pool bottom, the path from the middle of the pool bottom to the key area of ​​the pool bottom can be determined. When reaching the key area of ​​the pool bottom, the method in S5 is used to plan a circular path for several key areas of the pool bottom.

[0104] In this specific implementation manner, after the underwater robot path planning is completed, it is necessary to evaluate the path planning result in order to improve the planning of the next driving path of the underwater robot and improve the working efficiency. Therefore, in another improved embodiment of the underwater robot path planning method based on ultrasonic radar, the underwater robot path planning method further includes:

[0105] S62, evaluating the underwater robot path planning results, and optimizing the underwater driving path of the underwater robot at the bottom of the pool for the next time based on the evaluation results.

[0106] Among them, the evaluation method of the underwater robot path planning results is: the display interface of the intelligent terminal displays the driving path of the underwater robot in real time until the underwater robot completes the cleaning task specified by the underwater path planning; the display interface provides an evaluation interface, and the user evaluates according to the results of the cleaning task.

[0107] Preferably, the method for displaying the travel path on the display interface is: gridding the 3D model of the pool bottom, using different display methods to distinguish the traveled and untraveled paths of the underwater robot, and evaluating the path planning based on the ratio of the traveled and untraveled paths. For example, before the underwater robot travels, all grids are displayed in dark colors, and as the underwater robot travels, the grids where the traveled paths (i.e., the planned paths) are located are displayed in bright colors, and the path planning process is calculated by the ratio of dark colors to bright colors. When the path planning process increases from 0% to close to or reaches 100%, it is considered that the cleaning task planned by the underwater robot's path planning is completed, and the evaluation of the path planning is performed based on the cleaning effect.

[0108] Among them, according to the path planning evaluation results and user needs, the underwater driving path of the underwater robot at the bottom of the pool is optimized.

[0109] Preferably, there are multiple methods for optimizing the underwater driving path of the underwater robot at the bottom of the pool. One method is: according to the path planning process, when the path planning process does not reach 100%, it means that there are some areas on the bottom of the pool that have not been walked by the underwater robot. At this time, it is necessary to adjust the overlap between adjacent circular paths, or adjust the turning angle of the underwater robot, so that the path planning process can reach 100% as much as possible. Taking the swimming pool cleaning robot as an example, Figure 5 and Figure 6 An example of underwater operation of a pool cleaning robot is shown displayed on a control device. Figure 5 In the figure, the standard swimming pool 630 is gridded into 4×8 small partitions. When the pool cleaning robot 626 has completed the cleaning of 3 small partitions, the cleaned area 632 is covered with shadows, and the uncleaned area 631 is still clearly visible. The cleaning progress 625 is shown as 9.4%, which is calculated by the formula: cleaning progress = cleaned area area / total cleaned area area, with one decimal place. Figure 6 In the example, the pool cleaning robot 626' has cleaned 12 small partitions along the edge, and the cleaning progress 625' is shown as 37.5%.

[0110] Since the position of the pool cleaning robot can be located in the pool, the cleaning process is digitized for the first time in the industry. The gridding method, the cleaning progress, the representation of the cleaned area and the uncleaned area, and the selection of the calculation results can all be displayed in other known ways, and those skilled in the art can decide according to actual needs.

[0111] Another method is to adjust the underwater robot's driving speed, work intensity, etc. to optimize the driving path according to user needs or job site assessments. For example, when cleaning the bottom of a pool, you can choose to optimize these areas by reducing the driving speed, increasing the cleaning suction, repeating the walking, or other methods based on the user's requirements for key cleaning areas or areas that are not cleaned properly.

[0112] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of the user evaluation interface after the cleaning is completed is shown. Evaluation level 710 is the user's score for this cleaning. In the overall cleaning area 730, area A is a very satisfactory area 731, area B is an unsatisfactory area 732, and the blank area is an unrated area 733. It should be understood that the expression method of different satisfaction and different needs can be determined as needed, and those skilled in the art can freely choose, which will not be repeated here. It can also be based on the user's choice, or the user's uploaded pictures as the evaluation content, or re-evaluate after a period of use as a follow-up review.

[0113] The principle of the path planning method designed in the present invention is: first, the underwater robot is made to find and drive to the wall position near the pool from the placement position; secondly, the underwater robot drives a certain distance or a circle along the bottom and edge of the pool, and compares the underwater driving path with the 3D model of the pool bottom to determine the current position of the underwater robot; finally, with the current position as the center point, the pool bottom is divided into multiple circular paths connected in sequence according to the 3D model of the pool bottom, and the path planning of the underwater robot can be completed.

[0114] This specific embodiment also provides an underwater robot, which includes an underwater driving path planning system. The underwater driving path planning system is used to plan the underwater driving path of the underwater robot at the bottom of a pool in an underwater environment.

[0115] This specific implementation method takes the underwater cleaning path planning of a swimming pool by a swimming pool cleaning robot as an example to illustrate the above path planning method:

[0116] The swimming pool can be a regular swimming pool or an irregular swimming pool. Figure 3 and Figure 4 Taking the irregular swimming pool shown in the figure as an example, the process of underwater path planning of the swimming pool cleaning robot is as follows:

[0117] First, the pool cleaning robot drives along the wall of the swimming pool, scans the size of the swimming pool, forms a 3D model of the swimming pool, and then stores it on the smart terminal;

[0118] Secondly, put the pool cleaning robot underwater in the swimming pool, start the pool cleaning robot and drive in any direction. At the same time, the ultrasonic radar probe sends out ultrasonic signals in real time to find the wall of the swimming pool. When the ultrasonic radar probe receives the feedback signal, it finds the wall of the swimming pool and adjusts the driving direction of the pool cleaning robot to drive to the wall of the swimming pool in the shortest distance.

[0119] Next, the pool cleaning robot drives along the wall of the pool, obtains the underwater driving path, compares and analyzes the underwater driving path with the 3D model of the pool, and determines the current position of the pool cleaning robot;

[0120] Then, the pool cleaning robot drives with the current position as the driving origin, and divides the bottom of the pool into multiple circular paths connected in sequence according to the 3D model of the pool, completing the first planning of the path of the pool cleaning robot. At this time, the pool cleaning robot stops in the middle of the pool;

[0121] Finally, multiple key cleaning areas are set according to needs. According to the 3D model of the swimming pool, the pool cleaning robot walks from the middle of the swimming pool to the key cleaning area closest to it, and performs a circular path planning for the key area until the path planning is completed for all key cleaning areas.

[0122] In this example, during the path planning process of the pool cleaning robot, the intelligent terminal can determine information such as the cleaned area of ​​the swimming pool, the cleaned proportion, and the cleaning quality assessment based on the information continuously output by the pool cleaning robot.

[0123] An embodiment of this specific implementation also provides an electronic device, including a memory and a processor, the memory is used to store a computer program running on the processor; the processor is used to implement the steps of the underwater robot path planning method based on ultrasonic radar in the first aspect when executing the computer program.

[0124] Another embodiment of this specific implementation further provides a computer storage medium storing computer executable instructions, and the computer executable instructions are used to execute the underwater robot path planning method based on ultrasonic radar in the first aspect.

[0125] In the context of the present invention, a machine-readable medium may be a tangible medium that may contain or store a program for use by or in conjunction with an instruction execution system, device, or equipment. A machine-readable medium may be a machine-readable signal medium or a machine-readable storage medium. A machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor systems, devices, or equipment, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A more specific example of a machine-readable storage medium may include an electrical connection based on one or more lines, a portable computer disk, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0126] To provide interaction with a user, the methods and apparatus described herein may be implemented on a computer having: a display device (e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor) for displaying information to the user; and a keyboard and a pointing device (e.g., a mouse or trackball) through which the user can provide input to the computer. Other types of devices may also be used to provide interaction with the user; for example, the feedback provided to the user may be any form of sensory feedback (e.g., visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback); and input from the user may be received in any form (including acoustic input, voice input, or tactile input).

[0127] The methods and apparatus described herein may be implemented in a computing system that includes backend components (e.g., as a data server), or a computing system that includes middleware components (e.g., an application server), or a computing system that includes frontend components (e.g., a user computer with a graphical user interface or a web browser through which a user can interact with implementations of the systems and techniques described herein), or a computing system that includes any combination of such backend components, middleware components, or frontend components. The components of the system may be interconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication (e.g., a communications network). Examples of communications networks include: a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), and the Internet.

[0128] A computer system may include a client and a server. The client and the server are generally remote from each other and usually interact through a communication network. The relationship between the client and the server is generated by computer programs running on the corresponding computers and having a client-server relationship with each other. The server may be a cloud server, also known as a cloud computing server or cloud host, which is a host product in the cloud computing service system to solve the defects of difficult management and weak business scalability in traditional physical hosts and VPS services ("Virtual Private Server", or "VPS" for short). The server may also be a server of a distributed system, or a server combined with a blockchain.

[0129] It should be understood that the various forms of processes shown above can be used to reorder, add or delete steps. For example, the steps described in the present invention can be executed in parallel, sequentially or in different orders, as long as the desired results of the technical solution disclosed in the present invention can be achieved, and this document does not limit this.

[0130] The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

[0131] In addition, it should be understood that although the present specification is described according to implementation modes, not every implementation mode contains only one independent technical solution. This description of the specification is only for the sake of clarity. Those skilled in the art should regard the specification as a whole. The technical solutions in each embodiment may also be appropriately combined to form other implementation modes that can be understood by those skilled in the art.

Claims

1. A path planning method for an underwater robot based on ultrasonic radar, characterized in that: The method is used to plan the underwater driving path of the underwater robot at the bottom of the pool, including the following steps: S1. The underwater robot is placed at any position on the bottom of the pool; S2: The underwater robot starts, searches for the nearest wall near the pool, and drives to the pool; S3, define the position near the wall of the pool as the initial position, and the underwater robot moves along the bottom and edge of the pool; S4, comparing the underwater driving path in S3 with the 3D model of the pool bottom to determine the current position of the underwater robot; S5. Taking the current position of the underwater robot as the driving origin, and dividing the pool bottom into multiple sequentially connected circular paths based on the 3D model of the pool bottom, the underwater robot path planning is completed.

2. The underwater robot path planning method according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step S2, the underwater robot is started, and the method of finding and driving to the nearest wall position at the edge of the pool includes: S201, the underwater robot takes the position placed in S1 as the starting point and moves in any direction; S202, based on the ultrasonic signal emitted in real time by the ultrasonic radar probe, finding the position of the pool wall; S203: When the ultrasonic radar probe does not receive a feedback signal, the position close to the pool wall is not found, and the underwater robot continues to travel along the path in S201; when the ultrasonic radar probe receives a feedback signal, the position close to the pool wall is found, and S204 is executed; S204: After finding the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool, adjust the driving direction of the underwater robot and drive to the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool at the shortest distance until it reaches the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool.

3. The underwater robot path planning method according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step S2, the underwater robot is started, and the method of finding and driving to the nearest wall position at the edge of the pool includes: S211, the underwater robot takes the position placed in S1 as the starting point; S212, based on the ultrasonic signal emitted in real time by the ultrasonic radar probe, finding the position of the pool wall; S213: When the ultrasonic radar probe does not receive a feedback signal, the position of the pool wall is not found, and the underwater robot moves in any direction and executes S212 until the position of the pool wall is found, and then enters S214; when the ultrasonic radar probe receives a feedback signal, the position of the pool wall is found, and then enters S214; S214. After finding the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool, adjust the driving direction of the underwater robot and drive to the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool at the shortest distance until it reaches the position close to the wall at the edge of the pool.

4. The underwater robot path planning method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that: The process of the underwater robot finding the position close to the pool wall and driving to the position close to the pool wall in the shortest distance also includes: The current direction angle of the underwater robot is obtained in real time, and the driving direction of the underwater robot is adjusted according to the current direction angle and the direction angle at the previous moment, so that the current driving direction of the underwater robot is consistent with the driving direction at the previous moment.

5. The underwater robot path planning method according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step S4, the method for obtaining the 3D model of the pool bottom is: It is generated by presetting the contours of the pool bottom and pool sides in the intelligent terminal, or by real-time collection of the underwater robot's movement along the pool bottom and pool sides and real-time distance measurement and scanning.

6. The underwater robot path planning method according to claim 5, characterized in that: After the pool bottom 3D model is pre-generated in the intelligent terminal, the pre-generated pool bottom 3D model is also evaluated; The evaluation method is: let the underwater robot drive along the bottom and edge of the pool for one circle to obtain the underwater driving path, and match and analyze the collected underwater driving path with the preset generated pool bottom 3D model.

7. The underwater robot path planning method according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step S5, adjacent zigzag paths have an overlap of 0-20%.

8. The underwater robot path planning method according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 5 to 7, characterized in that: The underwater robot path planning method also includes: S61. Based on the 3D model of the pool bottom and user needs, the method in S5 is used to plan a circular path for several key areas of the pool bottom.

9. The underwater robot path planning method according to any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 5 to 7, characterized in that: The underwater robot path planning method also includes: S62, evaluating the underwater robot path planning results, and optimizing the underwater driving path of the underwater robot at the bottom of the pool for the next time based on the evaluation results.

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