Robot Vacuum Mapping With Virtual Walls to Avoid Isolation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing moving robot systems face challenges in preventing isolation during cleaning, as they may enter narrow areas or become entangled, leading to battery discharge and incomplete cleaning due to repeated escape attempts, and existing solutions like virtual walls require user intervention and rely on external apparatuses with power supply considerations.
Innovation Solution
A moving robot system that generates a map of the cleaning area, determines isolation positions, and sets virtual walls to restrict travel in areas where isolation is likely to occur, using a combination of sensors and image acquisition units to detect obstacles and patterns, allowing the robot to autonomously avoid isolation by transmitting data to a terminal for virtual wall settings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If the moving robot autonomously performs cleaning without user intervention, then cleaning automation is improved, but the robot may enter isolated areas and become trapped, leading to battery discharge and incomplete cleaning
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by generating a map of the cleaning area before cleaning operations begin. The map generation unit creates a detailed representation of the environment including walls, obstacles, and narrow passages. This preliminary mapping enables the robot to plan cleaning paths that avoid isolated areas where it could become trapped, thus preventing battery discharge and ensuring cleaning completion while maintaining automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the robot continuously monitors its position, battery status, and environmental conditions during cleaning operations. When the robot detects it is approaching an isolated area or experiences difficulty moving, it sends status information to the external apparatus. The external apparatus analyzes this feedback and can adjust the cleaning plan or provide guidance signals to the robot, ensuring reliable cleaning completion while maintaining high automation levels.
2Reliability
If virtual walls are set up using external apparatus to restrict robot movement, then isolation prevention is improved, but user intervention and external apparatus requirements increase system complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service by allowing the moving robot to autonomously generate its own cleaning map and identify potential isolation areas using its onboard sensors and processors. The robot can detect narrow passages and enclosed spaces during map generation and cleaning operations, then autonomously adjust its cleaning path to avoid these areas. This eliminates the need for users to manually set up virtual walls or deploy external apparatus, reducing system complexity while maintaining reliable isolation prevention.
Solution Approach 2:
The external apparatus serves multiple functions: it receives status information from the robot, analyzes the cleaning environment, generates or updates the cleaning map, plans cleaning paths, and provides control signals to the robot. This multi-functional external apparatus consolidates what would otherwise require separate dedicated devices for mapping, path planning, and control, thereby reducing overall system complexity while ensuring reliable isolation prevention.
Data Source
AI summary
A moving robot system includes a moving robot which travels in a cleaning area, generates a map of the cleaning area, moves based on the map, and sucks foreign substances; and a terminal which inputs a cleaning command to the moving robot, based on the map, wherein the moving robot determines that the moving robot is in an isolation state, when the moving robot is unable to move due to a surrounding obstacle while traveling in the cleaning area, and sets a virtual wall in an isolation position where isolation is occurred and avoids the isolation position during a next cleaning operation.