Robotic Vacuum Depth Camera Detection to Prevent Human Hair Suction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Robotic vacuum cleaners struggle to recognize human hair, leading to potential hair suction and user inconvenience due to limitations in object detection based on height, width, color, and material.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a depth camera using time-of-flight technology to acquire depth images, creating an elevation map, and employing a determination unit to differentiate between a human head and other objects by analyzing pixel elevation values and brightness, allowing the robot to adjust its operation to avoid hair.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a robotic vacuum cleaner uses conventional sensors to detect objects, then it can avoid most obstacles, but it cannot recognize human hair and may suck it up
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces depth information as a new dimension for object detection. Instead of relying solely on 2D image data from conventional cameras, the system uses a depth camera to capture 3D spatial information, enabling the robot to distinguish hair from other objects based on elevation and depth characteristics that are invisible to conventional sensors.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary processing layer that analyzes depth image data to identify hair-specific characteristics. This intermediary system processes the raw depth data, extracts features unique to hair (such as elevation patterns and spatial distribution), and provides enhanced recognition signals to the control unit, thereby preventing hair suction.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the robot uses depth camera to detect hair, then it can prevent hair suction, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The depth camera serves multiple functions: it detects hair, identifies other obstacles, and provides spatial mapping information. By making the depth camera a multi-functional sensor, the system avoids adding separate specialized sensors for each function, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity while achieving hair detection capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The depth camera and processing system are integrated into the robot's existing navigation and obstacle avoidance framework. The same depth information used for hair detection also contributes to the robot's overall spatial awareness and movement planning, allowing the system to serve itself by utilizing the depth data for multiple purposes without requiring entirely separate detection systems.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Effectively recognizes human hair and distinguishes it from other objects, preventing hair suction and enhancing user convenience by controlling the robot's movement and suction strength accordingly.
Implementation Method 1
acquire a depth image of a specific area
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a robot and a control method thereof. The robot includes: a camera configured to acquire a depth image of a specific area; a processor configured to create an elevation map for the specific area based on the depth image, and determine whether a head of a person is in the specific area based on the elevation map. The processor, when determining whether the head of the person is in the specific area, is further configured to partition pixels of the elevation map into floor pixels corresponding to a floor area and non-floor pixels corresponding to a non-floor area using elevation values of the elevation map, set paths through the elevation map with a subset of the non-floor pixels as starting points for the paths, and determine whether the head of the person is in the specific area based on whether the paths converge.