CLEANING ROBOT (VARIANTS), ROBOTIZED CLEANING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING ROBOT AND SYSTEM Russian patent published in 2004 - IPC

FIELD: cleaning robot, cleaning system and method for controlling them provide effective cleaning realized by order due to determining distance and direction of robot motion in spite of upon wheel slipping or floor irregularities.

SUBSTANCE: cleaning robot includes main housing; drive unit for driving wheels mounted in lower part of main housing; directed downwards photo camera placed between wheels in lower part of main housing for making photos of floor in direction normal relative to motion direction of cleaning robot; control unit for determining distance and motion direction of wheels by means of images from photo camera and for controlling drive unit according to determined distance and motion direction in order to perform cleaning operations. In variant of invention cleaning robot and cleaning system are provided with photo camera oriented upwards, arranged in upper part of main housing for making photos of ceiling in direction normal to motion direction of wheels; control unit for determining position of cleaning robot on base of ceiling images and for determining distance and motion direction of wheels on base of floor images from camera directed downwards. Method for controlling cleaning robot and cleaning system comprises steps of calculating motion path towards desired zone according to cleaning command; storing images of floor; driving cleaning robot along calculated path and comparing current image of floor from camera directed downwards with stored images; calculating distance and motion direction; correcting motion path.

EFFECT: increased automatization degree of high -reliability cleaning system.

13 cl, 6 dwg