Method for operating a self-traveling vehicle
AssigneeVorwerk & Co. Interholding GmbH
InventorLorenz Hillen
Life of this patent
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AssigneeVorwerk & Co. Interholding GmbH
InventorLorenz Hillen
Estimating the term…
The invention pertains to a method for operating an unmanned vehicle (1) that travels by itself within an environment, particularly a cleaning robot, wherein the vehicle (1) detects obstacles and/or persons located within the environment, and wherein information (3) is displayed for a user (2) on a screen (4) of the vehicle (1), which with respect to a displaying plane is usually aligned horizontally during the operation of the vehicle (1). In order to enable a user (2) of the vehicle (1) to always optimally read the information (3) regardless of his position, it is proposed that, when the presence of a user (2) is detected, a spatial position of the user (2) relative to the vehicle (1) is determined and an orientation of the displayed information (3) is varied in dependence on the determined spatial position of the user (2).
A method for operating an unmanned vehicle (1) that travels by itself within an environment, comprising the steps of:
An unmanned vehicle (1) that travels by itself within an environment, with an image acquisition device (5) for detecting obstacles and/or persons located within the environment, wherein the vehicle (1) features a screen (4) for displaying information (3), which is aligned horizontally relative to a displaying plane during the operation of the vehicle (1), the unmanned vehicle comprising a computer device that, when the presence of a user (2) is detected, is designed for determining the spatial position of the user (2) relative to the vehicle (1) and for varying a displaying direction (rA, rB, rC) of the information (3) displayed on the screen (4) in dependence on the determined spatial position of the user (2), wherein the computer device is designed for rotating the information (3) by up to +/−1800 based on a previous orientation of the information (3) relative to the display such, that the user can conventionally read the information (3) without having to move relative to the vehicle, and wherein operating elements (15) displayed on the screen (4) are regrouped relative to one another in dependence on the spatial position of the user (2) relative to the vehicle (1) wherein the computer device is configured for determining a viewing direction of the user by means of a face recognition process and detecting an operating direction from which the user operates the vehicle, vectorially comparing the viewing direction and the operating direction and combing the viewing direction and operating direction into a vector that corresponds to the arithmetical average of the viewing direction and the operating direction, and wherein the computer device is configured for associating a displaying direction of the screen, in which the information displayed on the screen is oriented relative to the housing of the vehicle, with the averaged direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.