Self-moving lawn mower and supplementary operation method for an unmowed region thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12414501-B2
Application number	US-202217665951-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 7, 2022
Priority date	Aug 27, 2019
Publication date	Sep 16, 2025
Grant date	Sep 16, 2025

Abstract

A self-moving mowing system includes a self-moving lawn mower and a control unit. The control unit includes a boundary acquisition module, an unmowed region determination module, a filling planning module, and a control module. The boundary acquisition module is configured to acquire information about an operation boundary so as to control the self-moving lawn mower to operate within the operation boundary. The unmowed region determination module is configured to identify information about unmowed regions within the operation boundary. The filling planning module is configured to generate an operation route along which mowing is sequentially performed in at least one unmowed region among all the unmowed regions. The control module is configured to control the self-moving lawn mower to mow in the at least one unmowed region among all the unmowed regions according to the operation route.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A self-moving lawn mower, comprising:
a main body comprising a casing;
a mowing element connected to the main body and configured to cut vegetation;
an output motor configured to drive the mowing element;
moving wheels connected to the main body;
a drive motor configured to drive the moving wheels to rotate; and
a control unit connected to the output motor and the drive motor and configured to control the output motor and the drive motor,
wherein the control unit is configured to:
identify all unmowed regions within an operation boundary;
generate an operation route for mowing in at least one unmowed region among the all unmowed regions; and
control the drive motor so that the self-moving lawn mower mows in the at least one unmowed region among the all unmowed regions according to the operation route, and
wherein the control unit is configured to identify the all unmowed regions within the operation boundary according to at least one of a moving trajectory of the self-moving lawn mower or a positional image information related to the moving trajectory.

2. The self-moving lawn mower of claim 1 , wherein a shortest route along which mowing is sequentially performed in the at least one unmowed region among the all unmowed regions is defined as a shortest operation route and a ratio of a length of the operation route to a length of the shortest operation route is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to 1.2.

3. The self-moving lawn mower of claim 1 , wherein the control unit comprises a filling planning module configured to calculate a shortest operation route for the self-moving lawn mower to supplementary operate the all unmowed regions.

4. The self-moving lawn mower of claim 3 , wherein the control unit is configured to control the self-moving lawn mower to sequentially perform the supplementary operation on the all unmowed regions along the shortest operation route.

5. The self-moving lawn mower of claim 4 , wherein after the self-moving lawn mower performs the supplementary operation on each of the all unmowed regions and a coverage rate of the supplementary operation the self-moving lawn mower is controlled to perform on the each of the all unmowed regions is greater than 80%.

6. The self-moving lawn mower of claim 1 , wherein the self-moving lawn mower further comprises a positioning assembly and the positioning assembly comprises one of or a combination of a global positioning system (GPS) positioning unit, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), a displacement sensor, and an image sensor.

7. The self-moving lawn mower of claim 6 , wherein the positioning assembly acquires an operation trajectory of the self-moving lawn mower, a non-operated region of the self-moving lawn mower within the operation boundary is determined according to the operation trajectory of the self-moving lawn mower and information about the operation boundary and, in a case where an area of the non-operated region is greater than a preset value, the non-operated region is determined to be an unmowed region.

8. The self-moving lawn mower of claim 1 , wherein the self-moving lawn mower further comprises an image sensor and the image sensor is configured to acquire a two-dimensional image or a three-dimensional image within the operation boundary to acquire information about the all unmowed regions operated by the self-moving lawn mower.

9. The self-moving lawn mower of claim 1 , wherein the self-moving lawn mower further comprises a positioning assembly comprising at least one of an image sensor configured to sense the moving trajectory or the positional image information of the self-moving lawn mower.

10. The self-moving lawn mower of claim 9 , wherein the image sensor is configured to sense and form a first positional image information and a second positional image information in chronological order, the first positional image information and the second positional image information have at least one common feature area, and the control unit is configured to obtain a relative displacement of the self-moving lawn mower by analyzing at least a temporal moving trajectory of the at least one common feature area of the first positional image information and the second positional image information.

11. The self-moving lawn mower of claim 9 , wherein the image sensor is disposed behind the moving wheels.

12. The self-moving lawn mower of claim 9 , wherein a distance between the image sensor and one of the moving wheels is greater than or equal to 1.5 cm and less than or equal to 3.5 cm.

13. The self-moving lawn mower of claim 9 , wherein the image sensor comprises a lens and a package for installing the lens and the lens is arranged downward so that a ground or the vegetation is capable of entering an image sensing region.

14. The self-moving lawn mower of claim 1 , wherein the self-moving lawn mower further comprises an interactive interface communicatively connected to the control unit and operated so as to add or remove an unmowed region.

15. A supplementary operation method for unmowed region of a self-moving mowing system, comprising:
selecting an operation region of the self-moving mowing system;
starting the self-moving mowing system, positioning a self-moving lawn mower of the self-moving mowing system to acquire an operation moving trajectory, and determining that a coverage region of moving operation of the self-moving lawn mower is an operated region;
acquiring a non-operated region in the operation region by analyzing the operation region and the operated region and determining that a non-operated region with an area greater than a preset value is the unmowed region;
planning an operation route for supplementary operation on unmowed regions according to information about the unmowed regions; and
controlling the self-moving lawn mower to perform the supplementary operation on at least one unmowed region among all the unmowed regions according to the operation route,
wherein positioning the self-moving lawn mower of the self-moving mowing system comprises:
detecting, by an inertial sensor, a posture of the self-moving lawn mower;
sensing, by an image sensor, a region through which the self-moving lawn mower passes, forming positional image information, and sensing and forming a first positional image information and a second positional image information in chronological order;
acquiring at least one common feature area of the first positional image information and the second positional image information;
detecting, by a height sensor, a height parameter of the self-moving lawn mower relative to the positional image information, and
calculating a displacement of the self-moving lawn mower according to a temporal moving trajectory of the at least one common feature area, the posture of the self-moving lawn mower, and the height parameter.

Assignees

• Nanjing Chervon Ind Co Ltd
• Nanjing Chevron Ind Co Ltd

Inventors

• Chen Weipeng
• Yang Dezhong
• Mei Qingxiao

Classifications

• G05D2111/50

  Internal signals, i.e. from sensors located in the vehicle, e.g. from compasses or angular sensors · CPC title

• G05D1/6482

  by dividing the whole area or space in sectors to be processed separately · CPC title

• G01S19/47

  the supplementary measurement being an inertial measurement, e.g. tightly coupled inertial · CPC title

• A01D2101/00

  Lawn-mowers · CPC title

• A01D69/02

  electric · CPC title