Autonomous lawn mower with edger and control method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12082524-B2
Application number	US-201917058983-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 30, 2019
Priority date	May 30, 2018
Publication date	Sep 10, 2024
Grant date	Sep 10, 2024

Abstract

An autonomous lawn mower, moving and working in a working region, is disclosed, and includes: a housing, including a central axis in the longitudinal direction; a movement module configured to drive the housing to move; a cutting module configured to rotate with a first rotational axis being the center to form a cutting region, and including a cutting element; a cut-to-edge module configured to rotate with a second rotational axis being the center to form a cut-to-edge region, and including a cut-to-edge element, the cut-to-edge element being different from the cutting element; and a control module configured to control the autonomous lawn mower to move and work, where the first rotational axis and the second rotational axis are respectively located on two sides of the central axis.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An autonomous lawn mower comprising:
a housing, comprising a central axis in a longitudinal direction;
a movement module, mounted in the housing and configured to drive the housing to move;
a cutting module, mounted in the housing and configured to rotate about a first rotational axis to form a cutting region, the cutting module comprising a cutting element;
a cut-to-edge module, mounted in the housing and configured to rotate about a second rotational axis to form a cut-to-edge region, the cut-to-edge module comprising a cut-to-edge element, and the cut-to-edge element being different from the cutting element, wherein a projection of the cutting region at least partially overlaps with a projection of the cut-to-edge region; and
a control module, electrically connected to the movement module, the cutting module, and the cut-to-edge module, and configured to control the autonomous lawn mower to move and work, wherein the first rotational axis and the second rotational axis are respectively located on two sides of the central axis.

2. The autonomous lawn mower according to claim 1 , wherein a projection of the cut-to-edge region in a height direction at least partially protrudes from the housing.

3. The autonomous lawn mower according to claim 1 , wherein a projection of the second rotational axis in a height direction is located in the housing.

4. The autonomous lawn mower according to claim 1 , wherein a distance between the first rotational axis and the central axis is less than or equal to a distance between the second rotational axis and the central axis.

5. The autonomous lawn mower according to claim 1 , wherein a distance between the first rotational axis and the central axis is a first distance, a distance between the second rotational axis and the central axis is a second distance, the first distance is less than the second distance, and a difference between the second distance and the first distance is less than or equal to a sum of a radius of the cutting region and a radius of the cut-to-edge region.

6. The autonomous lawn mower according to claim 1 , wherein:
in a cut-along-edge mode, the control module is further configured to control the cutting module to work, and the movement module is further configured to move along a boundary of the working region in a first direction to make a side on which the first rotational axis is located to face towards an outside of the working region; and
in a cut-along-edge mode, the control module is further configured to control the cut-to-edge module to work, and the movement module is further configured to move along the boundary of the working region in a second direction to make a side on which the second rotational axis is located face to face towards the outside of the working region, the first direction being opposite to the second direction.

7. An autonomous lawn mower comprising:
a housing, comprising a central axis in a longitudinal direction;
a movement module, mounted in the housing and configured to drive the housing to move;
a cutting module, mounted in the housing and configured to rotate about a first rotational axis to form a cutting region;
a cut-to-edge module, mounted in the housing and configured to rotate about a second rotational axis to form a cut-to-edge region, the second rotational axis being located on one side of the central axis, wherein a projection of the cutting region at least partially overlaps with a projection of the cut-to-edge region, and a distance between the first rotational axis and the central axis is less than or equal to a distance between the second rotational axis and the central axis; and
a control module, electrically connected to the movement module, the cutting module, and the cut-to-edge module, and configured to control the autonomous lawn mower to move and work, wherein: when the autonomous lawn mower operates in a cut-to-edge mode, the control module is further configured to control the cut-to-edge module to work, and the movement module is further configured to move along a boundary of a working region to make a side of the second rotational axis to face towards an outside of the working region.

8. The autonomous lawn mower according to claim 7 , wherein: when the autonomous lawn mower operates in a cut-along-edge mode, the control module is further configured to control the cutting module to work, and the movement module is further configured to move along the boundary.

9. The autonomous lawn mower according to claim 8 , wherein: in the cut-along-edge mode, a direction in which the movement module moves along the boundary is opposite to a moving direction in the cut-to-edge mode.

10. The autonomous lawn mower according to claim 8 , wherein when the cut-along-edge mode is completed, the control module is further configured to start the cut-to-edge mode.

11. The autonomous lawn mower according to claim 7 , wherein the autonomous lawn mower comprises a detection module configured to detect the boundary of the working region, and the control module is further configured to control, based on the boundary detected by the detection module, the movement module to move along the boundary.

12. The autonomous lawn mower according to claim 7 , wherein a distance between the first rotational axis and the central axis is a first distance, a distance between the second rotational axis and the central axis is a second distance, the first distance is less than the second distance, and a difference between the second distance and the first distance is less than or equal to a sum of a radius of the cutting region and a radius of the cut-to-edge region.

13. A control method comprising:
determining whether a cut-to-edge-mode start condition is met; and
in response to determining that the cut-to-edge-mode start condition is met, controlling a cut-to-edge module disposed on a front side of an autonomous lawn mower to work in a working region, and controlling the autonomous lawn mower to move along a boundary of the working region to make the front side of the autonomous lawn mower on which the cut-to-edge module is disposed to face towards an outside of the working region in a cut-to-edge mode, wherein a cutting module is located on another side of a central axis of the autonomous lawn mower in a longitudinal direction, and the control method further comprises:
determining whether a cut-along-edge mode start condition is met; and
in response to determining that the cut-along-edge mode start condition is met, controlling the autonomous lawn mower to move along the boundary to make the another side to face the outside of the working region in a cut-along-edge mode.

14. The control method according to claim 13 , further comprising:
detecting the boundary of the working region; and
controlling, based on a detection of the boundary, the autonomous lawn mower to move along the boundary.

15. The control method according to claim 13 , further comprising:
determining whether a cut-along-edge mode start condition is met; and
in response to determining that the cut-along-edge mode start condition is met, controlling a cutting module of the autonomous lawn mower to work, and controlling the autonomous lawn mower to move along the boundary of the working region.

16. The control method according to claim 13 , wherein:
the cut-to-edge-mode start condition comprises a condition that a cut-along-edge work is completed, and
controlling the cut-to-edge module to work in the working region, and controlling the autonomous lawn mower to move along the boundary of the working region to make the fr

Assignees

• Positec Power Tools Suzhou Co Ltd

Inventors

• Zhao Fengli
• Zha Xiahong
• Zhou Xiaoqing

Classifications

• A01D2101/00

  Lawn-mowers · CPC title

• A01D43/16 Primary

  with lawn edgers · CPC title

• A01D34/84

  for edges of lawns or fields, e.g. for mowing close to trees or walls ({for embankments A01D34/86 takes precedence;} edge trimmers A01G3/00) · CPC title

• A01D34/64

  mounted on a vehicle, e.g. a tractor, or drawn by an animal or a vehicle (A01D34/695 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A01D34/416

  Flexible line cutters · CPC title