Travel device and self-propelled cleaner
AssigneeFunai Electric Co., Ltd.
InventorsHiroyuki Takenaka, Takao Tani
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A travel device is capable of determining a deviation angle by which the traveling direction thereof deviates from a travel line parallel to a wall by a simple method and of correcting the deviation of the traveling direction. when the travel device travels along a wall along a travel line parallel to the wall and at a fixed distance from the wall, a deviation angle by which the traveling direction of the body deviates from the travel line parallel to the wall by using: tan θ=H/L, where θ is deviation angle, L is a predetermined travel distance and H is a distance of deviation of the body from the travel line parallel to the wall.
Claims13
A self-propelled cleaner capable of traveling along a travel line parallel to and at a fixed distance from a wall, and provided with a body, a drive mechanism capable of carrying out steering and driving operations, a cleaning mechanism, a gyroscopic sensor capable of determining an angular direction of the body, rotary encoders for counting the numbers of rotation of wheels to determine a travel distance, and wall detectors for detecting walls, said self-propelled cleaner comprising:
- a calculating processor for calculating a deviation angle by which the traveling direction of the body deviates from a travel line parallel to the wall by using:
- tan θ=H/L (1)
- or θ=H/L (2)
- where θ is deviation angle, L is a predetermined travel distance and H is a distance of deviation of the body from the travel line parallel to the wall;
- and
- a traveling direction correcting mechanism for correcting the traveling direction of the body on the basis of the calculated deviation angle θ calculated by the calculating processor.
A travel device capable of traveling along a travel line parallel to and at a fixed distance from a wall, and provided with a body, a drive mechanism capable of carrying out steering and driving operations, a gyroscopic sensor capable of determining an angular direction of the body, a travel distance measuring mechanism for measuring a travel distance, and side-wall detectors for detecting obstacles lying beside the body, said travel device comprising:
- a calculating processor for calculating a deviation angle by which the traveling direction of the body deviates from the travel line parallel to the wall by using:
- tan θ=H/L (1)
- where θ is deviation angle, L is a predetermined travel distance and H is distance of deviation of the body from the travel line parallel to the wall;
- and
- a traveling direction correcting mechanism for correcting the traveling direction of the body on the basis of the calculated deviation angle θ calculated by the calculating processor.
A travel device capable of traveling along a travel line parallel to and at a fixed distance from a wall, and provided with a body, a drive mechanism capable of carrying out steering and driving operations, a gyroscopic sensor capable of determining an angular direction of the body, a travel distance measuring mechanism for measuring a travel distance, and side-wall detectors for detecting obstacles lying beside the body, said travel device comprising:
- a calculating processor for calculating a deviation angle by which the traveling direction of the body deviates from the travel line parallel to the wall by using:
- θ=H/L (2)
- where θ is deviation angle, L is a predetermined travel distance and H is distance of deviation of the body from the travel line parallel to the wall;
- and
- a traveling direction correcting mechanism for correcting the traveling direction of the body on the basis of the calculated deviation angle θ calculated by the calculating processor.
The travel device according to claim 7, wherein the driving mechanism includes two motor drivers, right and left driving wheels, two wheel driving motors respectively for driving the right and the left driving wheel, and gear trains interlocking the wheel driving motors and the driving wheels, the motor drivers drive the wheel driving motors and minutely control the respective directions and angles of rotation of the wheel driving motors when the body is turned, and the motor drivers provide driving signals corresponding to control instructions provided by a CPU.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.