Autonomous traveling body and vacuum cleaner
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional autonomous traveling bodies, such as cleaning robots, face challenges in smoothly navigating along walls and changing directions due to the time required for sensor measurements, leading to potential misdetctions and inefficient operation.
Innovation Solution
An autonomous traveling body equipped with driving wheels, motors, distance measuring sensors, object sensors, and a control unit that maintains a specified distance from obstacles while allowing for directional changes through swing control, enabling smooth travel along objects by disregarding distance measurements during directional changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the autonomous traveling body measures wall angle by sensor to determine new advancing direction, then the directional change is accurate, but the operation time increases and smoothness decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses ultrasonic sensors to create acoustic copies or representations of the wall structure and spatial relationships. By measuring the time of flight of ultrasonic waves, the system constructs a virtual model of the environment that allows rapid directional determination without direct physical measurement of wall angles, thus reducing detection time while maintaining accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary ultrasonic scanning of the environment before actual navigation decisions are made. By continuously maintaining an updated acoustic map of walls and obstacles in advance, the autonomous body can quickly determine directional changes without performing time-consuming measurements at the moment of decision, enabling smoother and faster navigation
2Measurement precision
If the autonomous traveling body uses sensor measurement to determine advancing direction, then the directional accuracy is improved, but the operation smoothness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical or contact-based wall-following mechanisms with ultrasonic acoustic field-based detection. This substitution allows the system to determine wall positions and angles through acoustic wave propagation and reflection patterns, providing more precise and smoother directional control without the mechanical delays and inaccuracies of physical contact sensors
Solution Approach 2:
By creating acoustic copies of the environment through ultrasonic sensing, the system can process spatial information more smoothly and continuously. The acoustic field provides a continuous representation of wall positions and orientations, enabling smoother navigation decisions compared to discrete sensor measurements, while maintaining high directional accuracy through precise acoustic time-of-flight measurements
3Measurement precision
If the autonomous traveling body changes direction by measuring wall angle, then the directional determination is accurate, but misdetection occurs in some cases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs ultrasonic sensors that serve multiple functions: they can detect wall positions, measure distances, determine angles, and identify obstacles simultaneously. This multi-functionality allows the system to cross-validate information from different sensing modes, reducing misdetections by verifying wall angle measurements through alternative acoustic measurement methods
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors ultrasonic echo patterns and wall position data, providing real-time feedback to verify and correct directional measurements. By comparing expected acoustic reflections with actual sensor readings, the system can detect and correct potential misdetections of wall angles, thereby improving overall detection reliability while maintaining measurement accuracy
Data Source
AI summary
A vacuum cleaner capable of smoothly traveling along an obstacle. A control unit has modes of travel control and directional change control. In the travel control, while a distance between a main casing and a sideward obstacle detected by a distance measuring sensor is kept within a specified distance range, a motor is driven so as to make the main casing travel along the obstacle. In the directional change control, when an obstacle forward of the main casing is detected by a contact sensor during the travel control, the motor is driven so as to make the main casing change in advancing direction along the detected forward obstacle. The directional change control includes at least swing control for driving the motor so as to make the main casing swing to a specified swing angle while disregarding a distance detected by the distance measuring sensor.