Intelligent robot cleaner

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020375425-A1
Application number	US-201916499142-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 28, 2019
Priority date	Jun 28, 2019
Publication date	Dec 3, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed herein is an intelligent robot cleaner. The intelligent robot cleaner primarily senses foreign matter sucked through a suction unit under the control of a control unit, and secondarily senses an article collected in a collection unit, if articles other than the foreign matter are sensed, thus allowing a use to recognize accurate information about the article collected in the collection unit and preventing valuables or small articles from being lost. The intelligent robot device may be associated with an artificial intelligence module, a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a robot, an augmented reality (AR) device, a virtual reality (VR) device, devices related to 5G services, and the like.

First claim

1 . An intelligent robot cleaner, comprising:
a housing; a travel driver mounted on the housing, and configured to move on a cleaning target region along a travel path; a suction mounted on the housing, and configured to suck foreign matter on the travel path; a collection detachably mounted on the housing, and configured to collect the foreign matter sucked through the suction while being mounted on the housing; a controller configured to control the travel driver moving along the travel path; and a sensor mounted on the housing, and configured to primarily sense the foreign matter sucked through the suction under the control of the controller, and to secondarily sense an article collected in the collection, if articles other than the foreign matter are sensed.

2 . The intelligent robot cleaner of claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises first to third sensors disposed around the suction or the collection.

3 . The intelligent robot cleaner of claim 2 , wherein the intelligent robot cleaner further comprises:
a transceiver configured to exchange a signal with a user's mobile device; and a display configured to display a state of the intelligent robot cleaner.

4 . The intelligent robot cleaner of claim 3 , wherein the first sensor is disposed between the suction and the collection or on an upper portion of the collection, and is configured to sense an image of the foreign matter or the article introduced through the suction.

5 . The intelligent robot cleaner of claim 4 , wherein the controller extracts a color of the article from the image sensed by the first sensor by comparative analysis with a preset color distribution.

6 . The intelligent robot cleaner of claim 5 , wherein the controller sets a region of interest based on the color of the article extracted from the image to remove unnecessary portions.

7 . The intelligent robot cleaner of claim 6 , wherein the controller extracts characteristics of the article by learning a portion of the article displayed on the region of interest with a neural network, and acquires information about the article by analyzing the characteristics of the extracted article.

8 . The intelligent robot cleaner of claim 3 , wherein the second sensor is disposed on a lower portion of the collection, and is configured to sense a weight or a pressure of the foreign matter or the article collected in the collection.

9 . The intelligent robot cleaner of claim 8 , wherein the controller senses that the article is present in the collection when the weight of the collection significantly exceeds a preset range, and transmits a notification message to the user's mobile device registered in the intelligent robot cleaner using the transceiver, or displays the notification message on the display.

10 . The intelligent robot cleaner of claim 3 , wherein the third sensor is disposed on a circumferential surface of the collection or a lower portion of the collection, and is configured to sense a sound or a noise generated when the article collides with the collection by the pressure of the collection.

11 . The intelligent robot cleaner of claim 3 , wherein the controller senses that the article is present in the collection when the sound generated in the collection significantly exceeds a preset range, and transmits a notification message to the user's mobile device registered in the intelligent robot cleaner using the transceiver, or displays the notification message on the display.

12 . The intelligent robot cleaner of claim 2 , wherein the controller primarily senses the foreign matter sucked through the suction using the first sensor, and secondarily senses the article collected in the collection using the second sensor or the third sensor, if articles other than the foreign matter are sensed.

13 . The intelligent robot cleaner of claim 12 , wherein the controller secondarily senses the article collected in the collection using the second sensor, and then third senses the article collected in the collection using the third sensor.

14 . The intelligent robot cleaner of claim 12 , wherein the controller learns the primarily sensed article with the neural network, and secondarily senses the article collected in the collection by selecting the second sensor or the third sensor based on the learned result.

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Kim Taehyun
• Kim Beomoh
• Maeng Jichan
• Shin Wonho
• Chae Jonghoon

Classifications

• G01G19/52 Primary

  Weighing apparatus combined with other objects, e.g. furniture (with walking sticks A45B3/08) · CPC title

• A47L9/281 Primary

  the amount or condition of incoming dirt or dust · CPC title

• G06V10/80

  Fusion, i.e. combining data from various sources at the sensor level, preprocessing level, feature extraction level or classification level (multimodal speaker identification or verification G10L17/10) · CPC title

• G06V10/82

  using neural networks · CPC title

• G06V10/764

  using classification, e.g. of video objects · CPC title