Operation control method and mowing robot

Abstract

The invention provides an operation control method and a mowing robot, and the method comprises the steps: firstly recording the current pose data of the mowing robot as a reference quantity when the avoidance is triggered; then, the mowing robot is driven to retreat by a preset distance, and meanwhile, the first response strategy or the second response strategy is executed according to the posture change condition of the robot body in the retreating process. In the process of executing any response strategy, the mowing robot further correspondingly triggers steering, closing of the operation unit or shutdown to improve the safety of machine operation when the pose change condition becomes bad. The avoidance strategy of the robot can be adjusted in real time according to the posture change condition of the robot body of the mowing robot, the robot can be effectively prevented from rolling an object in the retreating process, and the influence on the instep of the human body or other obstacles is avoided.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of garden tools, and in particular to an operation control method and a lawn mowing robot. Background Art

[0002] The existing lawn mowing robot can reciprocate and perform traversal operations in an operation area enclosed by a physical boundary line or a virtual boundary line according to the restrictions.

[0003] In actual operation, since the machine works outdoors, the situations it faces are very complex, and it often encounters obstacles that need to be avoided during the movement. The existing avoidance strategies focus on designing the avoidance path, angle or avoidance distance. The existing avoidance strategies cannot be adjusted according to the actual operating conditions of the equipment during the avoidance process. In particular, when the machine encounters an obstacle again, it may be impossible to avoid it or the avoidance action may be inaccurate, leading to dangerous problems. Summary of the invention

[0004] In view of the shortcomings of the prior art, the present application provides an operation control method and a lawn mowing robot. When the intelligent lawn mowing robot of the present application encounters an obstacle, it can adjust in real time according to the posture state of the device to avoid it more safely. The present application specifically adopts the following technical solutions.

[0005] Firstly, to achieve the above-mentioned purpose, an operation control method is proposed, which is used to control the operation of a lawn mowing robot, and records the current posture data of the lawn mowing robot as a reference quantity; when the lawn mowing robot triggers avoidance, the following steps are executed: the lawn mowing robot is driven to retreat a preset distance, and according to the posture change situation, a first response strategy or a second response strategy is executed; in the process of executing any response strategy, when the posture change situation deteriorates, the operating unit is turned, closed or shut down.

[0006] Optionally, in any of the above operation control methods, the posture data includes any one of the following or a combination thereof: a body tilt angle of the lawn mowing robot, an offset angle or an offset distance of a body shell of the lawn mowing robot relative to a chassis.

[0007] Optionally, in any of the above operation control methods, the posture change is a difference between the current posture data of the lawn mowing robot and a reference value.

[0008] Optionally, in an operation control method as described in any of the above, the lawn mowing robot retreats a preset distance, and when the posture change is less than a first preset threshold, a first response strategy is executed; the first response strategy is to drive the lawn mowing robot to deflect and run in a preset direction.

[0009] Optionally, an operation control method as described in any of the above, wherein the lawn mowing robot retreats a preset distance, and when the posture change is greater than a first preset threshold, a second response strategy is executed; the second response strategy is to drive the lawn mowing robot to deflect and operate toward the side with a smaller lift according to its posture state.

[0010] Optionally, an operation control method as described in any of the above, wherein when the posture change condition deteriorates, turning, shutting down the working unit or shutting down is performed in the following manner: when the posture change condition is greater than a second preset threshold value, the lawn mowing robot is driven to deflect and run in another direction and shut down its working unit to stop working; after deflecting and running in another direction, when the posture change condition is still greater than the second preset threshold value, the lawn mowing robot is driven to shut down.

[0011] Optionally, in any of the operation control methods described above, the first threshold is less than the second threshold.

[0012] Optionally, in an operation control method as described in any of the above, the first threshold value is that the body tilt angle of the lawn mower robot reaches plus or minus 2° to plus or minus 4°; the second threshold value is that the body tilt angle of the lawn mower robot reaches plus or minus 6° to plus or minus 10°.

[0013] Optionally, in any of the above operation control methods, the preset distance for driving the lawn mowing robot to retreat is 5-10 cm.

[0014] At the same time, in order to achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the present application also provides a lawn mowing robot, which includes: a walking unit for driving the lawn mowing robot to walk; an operating unit for mowing; a sensing unit for detecting the posture state of the lawn mowing robot; a control unit, which is connected to the walking drive unit and the operating unit, and receives the posture data provided by the sensing unit, and is used to drive the walking unit and the operating unit to operate and adjust according to any of the operation control methods described above when the lawn mowing robot triggers avoidance. Beneficial Effects

[0015] The operation control method and lawn mowing robot provided in the present application, when triggering avoidance, first record the current posture data of the lawn mowing robot as a reference; then, drive the lawn mowing robot to retreat a preset distance, and at the same time, execute the first response strategy or the second response strategy according to the posture change of the robot body during the retreat process. In the process of executing any response strategy, the lawn mowing robot of the present application further triggers steering, shutting down the working unit or shutting down the machine to improve the safety of the machine operation when the posture change situation deteriorates. The present application can adjust the avoidance strategy of the lawn mowing robot in real time according to the posture change of the lawn mowing robot body, which can effectively avoid the machine from running over objects during the retreat process and avoid the impact on the human foot or other obstacles.

[0016] Other features and advantages of the present application will be set forth in the following description, and in part will become apparent from the description, or may be understood by practicing the present application. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] The accompanying drawings are used to provide a further understanding of the present application and constitute a part of the specification. Together with the embodiments of the present application, they are used to explain the present application and do not constitute a limitation of the present application. In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the working scenario of the system of the present invention.

[0018] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the lawn mowing robot being lifted by an obstacle and entering a safety state in the working scene of the present invention.

[0019] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the lawn mowing robot's retreat process.

[0020] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram showing that the posture of the lawn mower robot changes significantly due to the ground or obstacles during its backward movement.

[0021] In the figure, 100 represents a lawn mowing machine, 200 represents driving on a work site, and 300 represents an obstacle 300 . DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] In order to make the purpose and technical solution of the embodiment of the present application clearer, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application will be clearly and completely described in conjunction with the drawings of the embodiment of the present application. Obviously, the described embodiment is a part of the embodiment of the present application, not all of the embodiments. Based on the described embodiment of the present application, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of this application.

[0023] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that, unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as generally understood by those skilled in the art to which this application belongs. It should also be understood that terms such as those defined in common dictionaries should be understood to have meanings consistent with the meanings in the context of the prior art, and will not be interpreted with idealized or overly formal meanings unless defined as herein.

[0024] The meaning of "and / or" described in this application means that the situations where each exists alone or both exist at the same time are included.

[0025] The meaning of "inside" and "outside" mentioned in this application refers to the direction relative to the working area itself, that is, the direction pointing to the inside of the working area is inside, and the opposite direction is outside; it is not a specific limitation on the device mechanism of this application.

[0026] The meaning of "left and right" in this application refers to that when the user is facing the forward direction of the lawn mowing robot, the left side of the user is left and the right side of the user is right, rather than a specific limitation on the device mechanism of this application.

[0027] The term “connection” as used in this application may mean a direct connection between components or an indirect connection between components via other components.

[0028] The meaning of "up and down" mentioned in this application refers to that when the user is facing the forward direction of the lawn mower robot, the direction from the working ground to the top of the lawn mower robot body is up, and the opposite is down, rather than a specific limitation on the device mechanism of this application.

[0029] This solution is mainly used to control the reasonable operation of machines such as lawn mower robots when the machine encounters the avoidance moments specified by safety regulations to avoid danger in special circumstances. The avoidance moments specified by safety regulations here include but are not limited to: encountering obstacles in front of or on the side of the machine, the machine rolling over an object causing the machine body to tilt, and detecting a boundary line in front of or on the side of the machine, etc. These are moments when the machine needs to change its direction. The machine performs the following steps at the above moments: 1. Before the machine occurs the avoidance moment specified by the safety regulations, the machine records the current posture data as the benchmark data; the value of this benchmark data is the posture data under normal operation. When the machine is operating normally, its control unit always detects and records the current posture of the machine through the sensor element, obtains data every 10 milliseconds, and takes the average value of ten times as the benchmark. Here, the average processing of 10 times of data can play a filtering role. This value is an average value of 100 milliseconds before the abnormal moment of the machine. When an abnormality occurs, for example, a collision is detected or the posture of the vehicle body changes or the vehicle body reaches the warning distance from the obstacle, stop recording this data and take the average value obtained before as the benchmark. This is because when the machine needs to avoid an abnormality, it needs to retreat and turn. At this time, the cutting device of the machine may accidentally touch people or objects, so it is necessary to monitor in real time whether the posture of the machine has changed significantly during the avoidance process. When the machine is moving forward in normal operation, the distance between the cutting device and the front of the vehicle is relatively large, and it is not easy to touch people or objects.

[0030] 2. Drive the machine to perform a backward movement when an abnormality occurs. The backward movement usually drives the lawn mower robot to retreat a preset distance. At the end of the backward movement, the current posture data is compared with the benchmark data in step 1, and the difference between the current posture data and the benchmark data is used to determine whether to execute the first response strategy or the second response strategy. Among them, the first response strategy can set the turning direction of a machine: when the difference is less than a predetermined threshold, the machine turns left by default; when the difference is greater than the predetermined threshold, jump to the second response step to further determine the lifting degree of the left and right sides of the machine. If the left side is higher, the machine will subsequently execute a forward movement to turn right, otherwise it will execute a forward movement to turn left.

[0031] 3. In the process of executing any response strategy, that is, in any turning process of the machine, the machine posture data is recorded in real time, and the real-time posture data is compared with the benchmark data. When the deviation between the real-time posture data and the benchmark data exceeds the predetermined threshold, it is considered that the posture change has deteriorated. At this time, it is necessary to drive the machine to turn in the opposite direction and stop or shut down the rotation of the working units such as the cutter disc. If the deviation between the recorded real-time posture data and the benchmark data exceeds the predetermined threshold after the machine is reversed, the machine can be directly shut down.

[0032] In the above step 2, the preset distance for the machine to retreat can usually be set to 5-10cm based on the safety requirement of avoiding the machine pressing on the instep. In step 2, when the posture change is less than the first preset threshold, the first response strategy is executed to drive the mowing robot to deflect and run in the preset direction. The preset threshold is generally set to the machine inclination angle of plus or minus 2°. In some occasions where safety requirements are not high or the blade of the vehicle body is small, the first threshold can be expanded to plus or minus 4°; this value is mainly determined based on the pressure of the wheel on the instep, and may be adjusted; In the above step 3, the second threshold of the real-time posture data and the reference data used to determine whether the posture change is deteriorating can usually be set to the machine tilt angle of plus or minus 6 degrees. This threshold can also be adjusted according to the pressure of the wheel on the foot surface, and generally, it can be expanded to a range of plus or minus 10 degrees; Of these two thresholds, the first threshold is generally set to be relatively small to determine which direction the machine is safer to turn in and to decide whether the machine rotates in the safe direction. At the same time, the second threshold is set to be relatively large relative to the first threshold to determine whether the wheels of the machine press on something during the rotation, causing the machine to tilt severely, and whether the machine is tilted greatly or lifted.

[0033] The above operation control method is applied to an intelligent lawn mowing robot with a self-propelled function. The lawn mowing robot comprises: A walking unit, used for driving the lawn mowing robot to walk; An operation unit, used for mowing operations; The sensor unit is used to detect the posture state of the lawn mowing robot; for example, we can install an accelerometer and a gyroscope inside the machine, which can reflect the posture of the machine in the three-dimensional space of the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis in real time. We use the data of the XYZ axes to calculate the pitch angle of the machine in the front and back directions and the roll angle in the left and right directions. We obtain the data of the accelerometer at a period of 10ms to calculate the posture of the machine at that time, and take the average value of ten times as a comparison threshold. When an abnormality occurs, we stop calculating this threshold. When the machine is moving backward, the real-time value is compared with this threshold to determine a safer steering strategy; A control unit is connected to the walking drive unit and the working unit, and receives the posture data provided by the sensor unit, and is used for: The lawn mower robot is driven to retreat a preset distance, and according to the posture change, when the posture change is less than a first preset threshold, a first response strategy is executed to drive the lawn mower robot to deflect and run in a preset direction; when the posture change is greater than the first preset threshold, a second response strategy is executed to drive the lawn mower robot to deflect and run to the side with a smaller lift according to its posture state; In the process of executing any response strategy, when the posture change situation deteriorates, the work unit is turned, shut down or stopped.

[0034] For example, when the machine is moving normally, the roll angle calculated in the left and right directions is M=3 degrees. When an abnormality occurs, we assume that the real-time angle value is R. If RM>2 during the backward movement, it means that the machine's posture is higher on the left side and lower on the right side, and the machine turns right. If RM<-2, it means that the machine's right side is higher than the left side, and the machine turns left. Otherwise, the machine turns left by default.

[0035] Here, the change of the mowing robot's posture can be reflected by the difference between the current posture data of the mowing robot and the reference value. The difference here uses vector addition and subtraction, which can be positive or negative. If it was originally tilted to the left, and after moving backwards it tilts to the right, then turn according to the side with the smaller lift, that is, turn right. If it still tilts to the left after moving backwards, then turn left.

[0036] When the machine is turning left, it judges the relationship between R and M in real time. If RM>6 degrees during the left turn, the left rear side of the machine becomes higher, indicating that there is a risk on the left side. The machine cannot continue to turn left and turns right instead. The direction change is recorded once. If the difference in RM is normal during the right turn, the machine performs the next action. If RM<-6 during the right turn, it means that there is also a risk on the right side, the machine stops and moves forward.

[0037] When the machine is turning right, it judges the relationship between R and M in real time. If RM<-6 degrees during the right turn, the right rear side of the machine becomes higher, indicating that there is a risk on the right side. The machine cannot continue to turn right, and turns left instead. The direction change is recorded once. If the difference in RM is normal during the left turn, the machine performs the next action. If RM>6 degrees during the left turn, it means that there is also a risk on the left side, the machine stops and moves forward.

[0038] In summary, reference Figures 1 to 4 The machine 100 of the present application is normally Figure 1 Said working site 200 is driven. Figure 2 When the obstacle 300 is shown, the machine 100 is lifted into the safety state and starts to follow Figure 3 During the backward movement, the machine may experience a significant change in posture due to the influence of the ground, obstacles, etc. (e.g. Figure 4 This control scheme provides a control method based on the above situation, which ensures that the machine can operate safely under the safety regulations. The avoidance strategy can be adjusted in real time according to the posture changes of the lawn mower robot body, which can effectively prevent the machine from running over objects during the backward movement and avoid the impact on the human feet or other obstacles.

[0039] The above is only an implementation method of the present application, and its description is relatively specific and detailed, but it cannot be understood as limiting the scope of the patent of the present application. 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, which all belong to the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. An operation control method for controlling the operation of a lawn mowing robot, characterized in that: Record the current posture data of the lawn mowing robot as the reference quantity; When the robot mower triggers an avoidance maneuver, perform the following steps: Drive the lawn mowing robot back a preset distance, and execute a first response strategy or a second response strategy according to the change of posture; In the process of executing any response strategy, when the posture change situation deteriorates, the work unit is turned, shut down or stopped.

2. The operation control method according to claims 1 to 6, characterized in that: The posture data includes any one of the following or a combination thereof: a body tilt angle of the lawn mowing robot, an offset angle or an offset distance of a body shell of the lawn mowing robot relative to a chassis.

3. The operation control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The posture change is the difference between the current posture data of the lawn mowing robot and the reference value.

4. The operation control method according to claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: The lawn mowing robot retreats a preset distance, and when the posture change is less than a first preset threshold, executes a first response strategy; The first response strategy is to drive the lawn mowing robot to deflect and run in a preset direction.

5. The operation control method according to claim 4, characterized in that: The lawn mowing robot retreats a preset distance, and when the posture change is greater than a first preset threshold, executes a second response strategy; The second response strategy is to drive the lawn mowing robot to deflect and run toward the side with a smaller lift according to its posture state.

6. The operation control method according to claims 1 to 5, characterized in that: When the posture change situation deteriorates, turn around, shut down the work unit or stop the machine in the following ways: When the posture change is greater than a second preset threshold, the lawn mowing robot is driven to deflect and run in another direction and its operating unit is closed to stop working; After deflecting and running in another direction, when the posture change is still greater than the second preset threshold, the lawn mowing robot is driven to stop.

7. The operation control method according to claim 6, characterized in that: The first threshold is smaller than the second threshold.

8. The operation control method according to claim 7, characterized in that: The first threshold is that the inclination angle of the robot mower body reaches between plus or minus 2° and plus or minus 4°; The second threshold is that the inclination angle of the robot mower body reaches between plus or minus 6° and plus or minus 10°.

9. The operation control method according to claim 7, characterized in that: The preset distance for driving the lawn mower robot backward is 5-10 cm.

10. A lawn mowing robot, characterized in that: include: A walking unit, used for driving the lawn mowing robot to walk; An operation unit, used for mowing operations; A sensor unit, used for detecting the position and posture state of the lawn mowing robot; A control unit is connected to the walking drive unit and the working unit, and receives the posture data provided by the sensor unit, and is used to drive the walking unit and the working unit to adjust their operation according to the operation control method described in any one of claims 1 to 9 when the lawn mowing robot triggers avoidance.

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