Cleaner and control method thereof

A method comprising:

• sucking dust outside the cleaner;
• emitting light at an outside of a dust container included in the cleaner in a direction of an inlet of the dust container using at least one light emitting element;
• detecting light amount of the light using at least one light receiving element;
• identifying a dust inflow state and a dust amount in the dust container based on voltage values output by the at least one light receiving element;
• and
• controlling an operation of the cleaner based on the identified dust inflow state and the dust amount.

A cleaner comprising:

• a suction device configured to suck dust from outside of the cleaner, and having a suction flow path through which the sucked dust passes;
• a dust container having an inlet, and configured so that the sucked dust passed through the suction flow path of the suction device passes through the inlet to be stored in the dust container;
• a dust detection sensor configured to
• emit some light that passes through the inlet of the dust container to be reflected from a reflection position inside the dust container, and other light that passes through, or to, the suction flow path to be reflected from a reflection position inside the suction device, and
• receive the light reflected from the reflection position inside the dust container and the light reflected from the reflection position inside the suction device, and to output voltage values based on the received light,
• wherein the dust detection sensor is disposed so that a distance from the reflection position inside the dust container to the dust detection sensor is farther than a distance from the reflection position inside the suction device to the dust detection sensor;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• identify a dust inflow state and a dust amount of the dust container based on the voltage values output by the dust detection sensor, and control an operation of the cleaner based on the identified dust inflow state and dust amount.