A method, device and related products for preventing mobile robots from falling

Abstract

The application discloses a method and device for preventing a mobile robot from falling and related products, and relates to the technical field. The method comprises the following steps: preliminarily discriminating whether the robot has a falling risk according to a real-time detection result of a ground in front of a robot travel route by a distance sensor; if the robot has the falling risk, controlling the robot to stop advancing and determining whether the robot can perform a spatial continuity judgment of the falling risk; if the robot can perform the spatial continuity judgment of the falling risk, performing the judgment; if the robot has the spatial continuity, keeping the robot to stop advancing, otherwise, controlling the robot to resume movement; if the robot cannot perform the spatial continuity judgment of the falling risk, rotating and analyzing a span of a region with the falling risk according to the real-time detection result of the distance sensor, if the span is greater than a first preset value, keeping the robot to stop advancing, otherwise, resuming movement. The application can effectively detect a potholed ground, has the advantages of preventing the robot from falling, low cost and strong realization.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of mobile robots, and in particular to a method, a device and related products for preventing a mobile robot from falling. Background Art

[0002] With the advancement of robotics technology, robots are becoming increasingly diverse. Two-dimensional lasers and odometry are commonly used in the market today to localize and navigate mobile robots within their workspaces. This solution offers advantages such as low cost and high feasibility. However, because the two-dimensional lasers are located on a horizontal surface, robots cannot adequately detect potholes, making them prone to falls.

[0003] In view of this, it is necessary to study a method that can detect potholes on the ground and prevent the robot from falling. Summary of the Invention

[0004] In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a new method, device and related products for preventing robots from falling, which can effectively detect potholes on the ground, prevent robots from falling, have low cost and can achieve strong advantages.

[0005] The technical solutions adopted by the present invention to solve the technical problems are as follows:

[0006] In a first aspect, the present invention provides a method for preventing a mobile robot from falling, comprising:

[0007] Based on the real-time detection results of the ground ahead of the robot's route by the distance sensor, a preliminary assessment is made as to whether the robot is in danger of falling.

[0008] If the robot is initially identified as having a risk of falling, the robot is controlled to stop moving and determine whether it can perform a spatial continuity judgment of the risk of falling;

[0009] If the spatial continuity of the fall hazard can be determined, then determine whether the fall hazard has spatial continuity; if it has spatial continuity, then control the robot to stop moving; otherwise, control the robot to resume movement;

[0010] If the continuity judgment of the fall hazard cannot be performed, the robot is controlled to rotate, and the span of the area with the fall hazard is analyzed according to the real-time detection results of the distance sensor. If the span is greater than the first preset value, the robot is controlled to stop moving forward, otherwise the robot is controlled to resume movement.

[0011] In a preferred embodiment, the preliminary identification of whether the robot is in danger of falling requires meeting conditions 1, 2, and 3. Condition 1 is that the real-time detection result exceeds a first preset value, condition 2 is that the ground detection point corresponding to the real-time detection result falls within the robot path width, and condition 3 is that the ground detection point is not located on a ramp.

[0012] In a preferred embodiment, the determination of whether the spatial continuity of the fall hazard can be performed is specifically: determining whether the ground detection points in N consecutive grids on the robot's travel path can be detected by the distance sensor. If so, the spatial continuity of the fall hazard can be judged; if not, the spatial continuity of the fall hazard cannot be judged, and N is an integer greater than 1.

[0013] In a preferred embodiment, the condition for satisfying the spatial continuity of the fall hazard is that at least three consecutive grid data correspond to preliminary identification of the robot as having the fall hazard.

[0014] In a preferred embodiment, the number of the distance sensors is 2.

[0015] In a second aspect, the present invention provides a system for preventing a mobile robot from falling, comprising:

[0016] The first judgment module is used to preliminarily determine whether the robot is in danger of falling based on the real-time detection results of the ground ahead of the robot's travel path by the distance sensor;

[0017] The second judgment module is used to determine whether the spatial continuity judgment of the fall hazard can be performed;

[0018] a third judgment module, configured to judge whether the fall hazard has spatial continuity when the second judgment module judges that the spatial continuity of the fall hazard can be judged;

[0019] a third control module, configured to control the robot to rotate when the second judgment module determines that the spatial continuity of the fall hazard cannot be determined, and to analyze the span of the area with the fall hazard based on the real-time detection result of the distance sensor;

[0020] The first control module is configured to control the robot to stop moving and activate the second judgment module when the first judgment module preliminarily determines that the robot is in danger of falling; to control the robot to stop moving when the third judgment module determines that the risk of falling is spatially continuous; and to control the robot to stop moving when the span analyzed by the third control module is greater than a first preset value;

[0021] The second control module is used to control the robot to resume movement when the judgment result of the third judgment module is that the fall hazard does not have spatial continuity; it is also used to control the robot to resume movement when the span analyzed by the third control module is not greater than the first preset value.

[0022] In a third aspect, the present invention provides a storage medium storing a computer program, which, when executed by a processor, implements the method for preventing a mobile robot from falling as described in the first aspect.

[0023] In a fourth aspect, the present invention provides a mobile device comprising a storage medium and the processor described in the third aspect.

[0024] The present invention provides a method, device, storage medium, and mobile device for preventing a mobile robot from falling. Based on a downward-facing distance sensor detecting the ground in front of the robot, the system initially determines whether the robot might fall. If so, the robot is decelerated and stopped. A second determination is then made to determine whether there is a fall hazard ahead, using either a continuity determination method or a fall hazard zone span determination method. Finally, based on the determination result, the robot is controlled to maintain the stop or resume its initial motion speed. The present invention effectively detects potholes and uneven surfaces, simultaneously preventing the robot from falling and minimizing the impact on its travel speed. Furthermore, the system offers advantages such as low cost and high feasibility. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] Figure 1 The present invention is a flow chart of a method for preventing a mobile robot from falling.

[0026] Figure 2 A framework diagram of a system for preventing a mobile robot from falling.

[0027] Figure 3 A structural diagram of a mobile device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0028] In order to more clearly understand the above-mentioned objects, features and advantages of the present invention, the present invention is further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

[0029] In the following description, many specific details are set forth to facilitate a full understanding of the present invention. However, the present invention may also be implemented in other ways different from those described herein. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed below.

[0030] A method for preventing a mobile robot from falling, such as Figure 1 ,include:

[0031] Based on the real-time detection results of the ground ahead of the robot's route by the distance sensor, a preliminary assessment is made as to whether the robot is in danger of falling.

[0032] If the robot is initially identified as having a risk of falling, the robot is controlled to stop moving and determine whether it can perform a spatial continuity judgment of the risk of falling;

[0033] If the spatial continuity of the fall hazard can be determined, then determine whether the fall hazard has spatial continuity; if the fall hazard has spatial continuity, then control is maintained to stop the robot from moving forward; if the fall hazard does not have spatial continuity, then control the robot to resume movement;

[0034] If the continuity judgment of the fall hazard cannot be performed, the robot is controlled to rotate, and the span of the area with the fall hazard is analyzed according to the real-time detection results of the distance sensor. If the span is greater than the first preset value, the robot is controlled to stop moving forward, otherwise the robot is controlled to resume movement.

[0035] The aforementioned method for preventing mobile robots from falling involves initially identifying potholes, slowing down the robot upon detection, and then determining whether the robot will fall. This method uses a distance sensor to detect the ground in front of the robot, initially determining whether it is a possible fall point. A secondary determination method is then used: either continuous detection or analysis of the span of the fall risk zone to reconfirm the presence of a fall hazard. Finally, based on the determination, the robot is controlled to either stop or resume its initial speed. This method effectively detects potholes, preventing the robot from falling while minimizing the impact on its speed. It also offers advantages such as low cost and high feasibility.

[0036] The method is described in detail below.

[0037] The distance sensor is mounted diagonally downward on the robot and is capable of detecting the distance between it and the ground. Specifically, it is mounted on the front side of the robot to detect the distance between the ground and the distance sensor at a certain horizontal distance in front of the robot. In one embodiment, there are two distance sensors. The distance sensor continuously detects, and the method for preventing the mobile robot from falling is implemented by analyzing and processing the continuous real-time detection results of the distance sensor. Specifically, the steps include:

[0038] S1. The robot moves along its route, and the distance sensor performs real-time detection of the ground in front of the robot at an angle downward. The real-time detection result can be the distance between the distance sensor and the ground detection point, or it can refer to the height difference between the ground detection point and the lowest point of the robot calculated based on the distance between the distance sensor and the ground detection point. The following is a detailed description using the distance between the distance sensor and the ground detection point as an example.

[0039] S2, according to the real-time detection result of S1, preliminarily identify whether the robot has a falling risk. If the result of the preliminary identification is that the robot has a falling risk, control the robot to stop advancing, and at the same time, proceed to S3; usually control the robot to decelerate at the maximum acceleration to stop advancing.

[0040] The preliminary identification at least needs to meet condition 1, which is:

[0041] Determine whether the distance between the real-time detection result and the ground detection point of the distance sensor is greater than a second preset value.

[0042] In some embodiments, the preliminary identification also needs to meet condition 2 or condition 3. Preferably, when and only when conditions 1, 2 and 3 are met, the result of the preliminary identification is that the robot has a falling risk.

[0043] Condition 2 is that the ground detection point corresponding to the real-time detection result falls within the robot path width range. Specifically, the robot path width range is the width range of the local path near the current time in the robot's untraveled path.

[0044] Condition 3 is that the ground detection point is not located on a slope. Specifically, the ground detection point is not located on a downhill slope relative to the robot.

[0045] The specific judgment method of whether condition 3 is met is to obtain historical detection results, determine whether the front road is a downhill slope for the robot, and if the historical detection results gradually increase over time to the real-time detection result at this time, it indicates that the front is a slope and is a downhill slope for the robot.

[0046] As an embodiment, the distance between the ground detection points of the two distance sensors is not less than the grid size.

[0047] As an embodiment, if only the real-time detection result of one distance sensor can meet the preliminary identification condition, it also belongs to the preliminary identification that the robot has a falling risk.

[0048] S3, determine whether the spatial continuity of the falling risk can be judged, if the spatial continuity of the falling risk can be judged, proceed to S4, otherwise proceed to S5.

[0049] S4, determine whether the falling risk has spatial continuity, if the falling risk has spatial continuity, maintain control of the robot to stop advancing; if the falling risk does not have spatial continuity, control the robot to resume motion.

[0050] S5. If the continuity judgment of the fall hazard cannot be performed, the robot is controlled to rotate, and the span of the area with the fall hazard is analyzed according to the real-time detection results of the distance sensor to determine whether the span is greater than the first preset value. If the span is greater than the first preset value, the robot is controlled to stop moving and continue to decelerate. Otherwise, the robot is controlled to resume movement.

[0051] The recovery motions mentioned above are all to recover to the motion speed before the step of controlling the robot to stop moving forward is performed, and the robot travels on the route.

[0052] For S3, several implementation methods are listed below.

[0053] In the first embodiment, determining whether spatial continuity of a fall hazard can be performed specifically involves determining whether the distance sensor can detect ground detection points in N consecutive grids along the robot's path. If so, the spatial continuity of the fall hazard can be determined; if not, the spatial continuity of the fall hazard cannot be determined. Where N is an integer greater than 1. This can be determined by setting a time limit (1 second) to determine whether N consecutive ground detection points along the robot's path can be detected. Alternatively, it can be determined based on the robot's initial travel speed (which can be the travel speed before deceleration, i.e., the robot speed in S1), the actual deceleration acceleration, the real-time speed, the frequency at which the distance sensor obtains detection results, and the horizontal distance between the ground detection point in S1 and the robot, to determine whether N grid data can be obtained before the robot reaches a fall point. The fall point is the ground detection point determined by S2 as a fall hazard. The grid division area includes the spatial area within the width of the robot's path. This embodiment does not specifically limit the spatial grid division and can be designed based on actual conditions.

[0054] In the second embodiment, the determination of whether the spatial continuity of the fall risk can be performed is specifically as follows: Can the robot stop before reaching the position where the robot is preliminarily identified as having a fall risk? If so, the spatial continuity of the fall risk can be determined; otherwise, the spatial continuity of the fall risk cannot be determined. Due to the uncertainty and variability of the friction conditions of the road surface on which the robot is traveling, the time it takes for the robot to decelerate to a stop may vary. This embodiment avoids the situation where the robot is likely to fall before the continuity determination is completed when the ground friction is low, i.e., reaching the location where the robot is preliminarily identified as having a fall risk in S2 before the continuity determination is completed. The robot's speed information and the distance information between the robot and the point of fall risk are analyzed and determined. If the robot cannot stop, the robot is immediately rotated to reduce the risk of falling.

[0055] In the third embodiment, if both the first and second embodiments are judged to be "yes", the continuity judgment of the fall hazard can be performed and S4 is performed; otherwise, S5 is performed.

[0056] The condition for satisfying spatial continuity of the fall hazard is that the grid data of three consecutive grids (or at least two) corresponds to the preliminary identification of the robot as being at risk of falling. If the preliminary identification of the robot as being at risk of falling is based on three consecutive grids of data, the robot is determined to be at risk of falling, and control of the robot is maintained to stop, and the robot continues to decelerate until it stops. If the condition is not continuous, the robot is determined to no longer be at risk of falling, and control of the robot is controlled to resume motion, gradually accelerating to a certain speed and continuing along its original route.

[0057] If the spatial continuity of the fall hazard cannot be determined, the robot is controlled to rotate. Based on the real-time detection results of the distance sensor on the rotation arc formed by the robot's rotation, the span of the area with the fall hazard is analyzed, including the width. If the span is greater than a first preset value (for example, 40 cm), the robot is determined to be at risk of falling, and control of the robot is maintained to stop, and the robot continues to decelerate until it stops. If the span does not exceed the first preset value, it is determined that there is no fall risk, and the robot is controlled to resume movement, gradually accelerating to a certain speed and continuing along its original route.

[0058] This embodiment does not limit the rotation angle. For example, a 360° rotation can be performed. For example, with the robot's travel path as the center reference line, the robot rotates a certain angle to the left and then to the right. The maximum leftward rotation angle does not exceed 90°, and the maximum rightward rotation angle does not exceed 90°. If the distance between any two ground detection points on the arc formed by the two distance sensors is greater than 40 cm, the robot is considered capable of falling.

[0059] The present invention also provides a system for preventing a mobile robot from falling, as shown in the figure, comprising: a first judgment module, a second judgment module, a third judgment module, a first control module, a second control module, and a third control module.

[0060] The first judgment module is used to preliminarily identify whether the robot is in danger of falling based on the real-time detection results of the ground ahead of the robot's route by a distance sensor. The distance sensor is installed on the robot at an angle downward and can detect the distance between it and the ground.

[0061] The second judgment module is used to determine whether the spatial continuity judgment of the fall hazard can be performed.

[0062] The third judgment module is configured to judge whether the fall hazard has spatial continuity when the second judgment module judges that the spatial continuity of the fall hazard can be judged.

[0063] The third control module is used to control the robot to rotate when the second judgment module determines that the spatial continuity of the fall risk cannot be judged, and analyze the span of the area with the fall risk based on the real-time detection results of the distance sensor.

[0064] The second control module is used to control the robot to resume movement when the judgment result of the third judgment module is that the fall hazard does not have spatial continuity; the second control module is also used to control the robot to resume movement when the span analyzed by the third control module is not greater than the first preset value.

[0065] The first control module is configured to control the robot to stop moving and activate the second judgment module when the first judgment module preliminarily determines that the robot is in danger of falling. The first control module is configured to maintain control of the robot stopping moving when the third judgment module determines that the danger of falling is spatially continuous. The first control module is further configured to maintain control of the robot stopping moving when the span determined by the third control module is greater than a first preset value.

[0066] Specifically, the third control module is further configured to determine whether the span is greater than a first preset value. Specifically, the third control module includes a control unit and a determination unit. The control unit is configured to, when the second determination module determines that spatial continuity of the fall hazard cannot be determined, control the robot to rotate and analyze the span of the area with the fall hazard based on the real-time detection results of the distance sensor. The determination unit is configured to determine whether the span is greater than the first preset value.

[0067] When the system for preventing a mobile robot from falling is specifically implemented, reference may be made to the implementation process of the method for preventing a mobile robot from falling, and the specific implementation steps will not be repeated here.

[0068] The present invention also provides a storage medium storing a computer program, characterized in that when the computer program is executed by a processor, the above-mentioned method for preventing a mobile robot from falling is implemented.

[0069] Based on the above storage medium, a mobile device is also provided, which includes the above storage medium and the processor. Figure 3 When the processor executes the computer program on the storage medium, the steps of the method for preventing a mobile robot from falling are implemented.

[0070] Specifically, the mobile device is a robot, and the robot is further provided with the distance sensor, which is installed obliquely downward on the robot and can detect the distance between it and the ground. The robot's movement mode is not limited, for example, the robot's movement mode can be wheeled, tracked, or legged.

[0071] The processor may be a central processing unit (CPU), or other general-purpose processors, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor, etc.

[0072] The storage medium may include various types of storage units, such as system memory, read-only memory (ROM), and permanent storage devices. In addition, the storage medium may include any combination of computer-readable storage media, such as semiconductor memory chips, magnetic disks, and optical disks.

[0073] The storage medium stores executable codes, and when the executable codes are processed by the processor, the processor can execute part or all of the above-mentioned methods.

[0074] Those skilled in the art to which the present invention belongs can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, only the division of the above-mentioned functional units and modules is used as an example for illustration. In actual applications, the above-mentioned functions can be distributed and completed by different functional units and modules as needed, that is, the internal structure of the device can be divided into different functional units or modules to complete all or part of the functions described above. The functional units and modules in the embodiment can be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit can exist physically alone, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit. The above-mentioned integrated unit can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional units. In addition, the specific names of the functional units and modules are only for the convenience of distinguishing each other, and are not used to limit the scope of protection of this application. The specific working process of the units and modules in the above-mentioned system can refer to the corresponding process in the aforementioned method embodiment, and will not be repeated here.

[0075] It should be noted that, in the above embodiments, the description of each embodiment has its own focus. For parts that are not described in detail in a certain embodiment, reference can be made to the relevant description of other embodiments.

[0076] Obviously, those skilled in the art may make various changes and modifications to the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, if such changes and modifications fall within the scope of the claims and their equivalents, the present invention is intended to include such changes and modifications.

Claims

1. A method for preventing a mobile robot from falling, characterized in that: include: Based on the real-time detection results of the ground ahead of the robot's route by the distance sensor, a preliminary assessment is made as to whether the robot is in danger of falling. If the robot is initially identified as having a risk of falling, the robot is controlled to stop moving and determine whether it can perform a spatial continuity judgment of the risk of falling; If the spatial continuity of the fall hazard can be determined, then determine whether the fall hazard has spatial continuity; if it has spatial continuity, then control the robot to stop moving; otherwise, control the robot to resume movement; If the fall hazard continuity judgment cannot be performed, the robot is controlled to rotate, and the span of the area with the fall hazard is analyzed based on the real-time detection results of the distance sensor. If the span is greater than a first preset value, the robot is controlled to stop moving forward; otherwise, the robot is controlled to resume movement; The preliminary identification of whether the robot is in danger of falling requires satisfying condition 1, which is that the real-time detection result exceeds a first preset value; the preliminary identification of whether the robot is in danger of falling requires satisfying condition 3, which is that the ground detection point is not located on a slope.

2. A method for preventing a mobile robot from falling according to claim 1, characterized in that: The preliminary identification of whether the robot has a risk of falling requires satisfying condition 2, which is that the ground detection point corresponding to the real-time detection result falls within the robot path width.

3. A method for preventing a mobile robot from falling according to claim 1, characterized in that: The determination of whether the spatial continuity of the fall hazard can be performed is specifically as follows: determining whether the ground detection points in N consecutive grids on the robot's travel path can be detected by the distance sensor. If so, the spatial continuity of the fall hazard can be judged; if not, the spatial continuity of the fall hazard cannot be judged, and N is an integer greater than 1.

4. A method for preventing a mobile robot from falling according to claim 3, characterized in that: The condition for satisfying the spatial continuity of the falling hazard is that at least three consecutive grid data correspond to preliminary identification of the robot as having a falling hazard.

5. The method for preventing a mobile robot from falling according to claim 1, wherein: The number of the distance sensors is 2.

6. A system for preventing a mobile robot from falling, characterized in that: include: The first judgment module is used to preliminarily determine whether the robot is in danger of falling based on the real-time detection results of the ground ahead of the robot's travel path by the distance sensor; The second judgment module is used to determine whether the spatial continuity judgment of the fall hazard can be performed; a third judgment module, configured to judge whether the fall hazard has spatial continuity when the second judgment module judges that the spatial continuity of the fall hazard can be judged; a third control module, configured to control the robot to rotate when the second judgment module determines that the spatial continuity of the fall hazard cannot be determined, and to analyze the span of the area with the fall hazard based on the real-time detection result of the distance sensor; A first control module is configured to control the robot to stop moving forward and activate the second judgment module when the first judgment module preliminarily determines that the robot is in danger of falling; for maintaining control of stopping the robot from moving forward when the third judgment module determines that the fall hazard is spatially continuous; and for maintaining control of stopping the robot from moving forward when the span obtained through analysis by the third control module is greater than a first preset value; a second control module, configured to control the robot to resume movement when the third judgment module determines that the fall hazard does not have spatial continuity; and further configured to control the robot to resume movement when the span obtained through analysis by the third control module is not greater than a first preset value; The preliminary identification of whether the robot is in danger of falling requires satisfying condition 1, which is that the real-time detection result exceeds a first preset value; the preliminary identification of whether the robot is in danger of falling requires satisfying condition 3, which is that the ground detection point is not located on a slope.

7. A storage medium storing a computer program, characterized in that: When the computer program is executed by a processor, the steps of the method for preventing a mobile robot from falling as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 are implemented.

8. A mobile device, characterized in that: The method comprises the storage medium according to claim 7 and the processor.

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