U.S. patent application number 11/226337 was filed with the patent office on 2006-08-24 for mobile robot having a humidifier therein.
This patent application is currently assigned to SAMSUNG GWANGJU ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.. Invention is credited to Sam-jong Jeung, Ki-man Kim, Jang-youn Ko, Ju-sang Lee, Kwang-soo Lim, Jeong-gon Song.
Application Number | 20060186561 11/226337 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 36294896 |
Filed Date | 2006-08-24 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060186561 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Song; Jeong-gon ; et
al. |
August 24, 2006 |
Mobile robot having a humidifier therein
Abstract
A mobile robot capable of humidifying an entire room. The mobile
robot comprises a driving part for movably supporting a body and
providing a driving force to move the body, a humidifier disposed
on the body; and a controller for controlling the driving part.
Inventors: |
Song; Jeong-gon;
(Gwangju-city, KR) ; Ko; Jang-youn; (Gwangju-city,
KR) ; Lim; Kwang-soo; (Seoul, KR) ; Jeung;
Sam-jong; (Gwangju-city, KR) ; Kim; Ki-man;
(Gwangju-city, KR) ; Lee; Ju-sang; (Gwangju-city,
KR) |
Correspondence
Address: |
BLANK ROME LLP
600 NEW HAMPSHIRE AVENUE, N.W.
WASHINGTON
DC
20037
US
|
Assignee: |
SAMSUNG GWANGJU ELECTRONICS CO.,
LTD.
|
Family ID: |
36294896 |
Appl. No.: |
11/226337 |
Filed: |
September 15, 2005 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
261/26 ;
261/DIG.65 |
Current CPC
Class: |
F24F 2221/42 20130101;
F24F 11/30 20180101; F24F 2221/125 20130101; F24F 2110/20 20180101;
F24F 6/00 20130101; A47L 7/04 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
261/026 ;
261/DIG.065 |
International
Class: |
B01F 3/04 20060101
B01F003/04 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Feb 24, 2005 |
KR |
2005-15461 |
Claims
1. A mobile robot comprising: a driving part for movably supporting
a body and providing a driving force to move the body; a humidifier
disposed on the body; and a controller for controlling the driving
part.
2. The mobile robot as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a
humidity sensor detecting an indoor humidity level, wherein the
controller controls an ON/OFF switching of the humidifier according
to the humidity level detected by the humidity sensor.
3. The mobile robot as claimed in claim 1, wherein the humidifier
comprises: a reservoir for containing a fluid; and an evaporating
module for converting the fluid supplied from the reservoir into
vapor and distributing the vapor to the outside.
4. The mobile robot as claimed in claim 3, wherein the evaporating
module comprises: an evaporator for converting the fluid into
vapor; and a discharge pipe for discharging the vapor to the
outside.
5. The mobile robot as claimed in claim 4, wherein the reservoir is
provided with an injection port for injecting the fluid
therethrough, and the injection port and the discharge pipe are
exposed to the outside through an injection port hole and a
discharge pipe hole formed on a cover for covering the body.
6. The mobile robot as claimed in claim 5, wherein the driving part
comprises: at least one driving motor controlled by the controller;
a pair of driving wheels connected to the driving motor and
disposed at opposite sides of the body; a pair of driven wheels
connected to the pair of driving wheel to transmit a driving force;
and a pair of idle wheels for supporting the body, wherein the
reservoir is disposed on the body in such a way that the driving
wheels, the driven wheels and the idle wheels are subjected to the
same load of the reservoir.
7. The mobile robot as claimed in claim 6, wherein a pair of the
reservoirs are disposed on opposite sides of the body to be located
above the driving wheel, the driven wheels, and the idle
wheels.
8. The mobile robot as claimed in claim 7, wherein the humidifier
further comprise a connection pipe for connecting the reservoir and
the evaporator to supply the fluid from the reservoir to the
evaporator.
9. A mobile robot comprising: a driving part for movably supporting
a body and providing a driving force to move the body; a humidifier
disposed on the body; a humidity sensor for detecting an indoor
humidity level; a dust suction part disposed in the body to perform
a cleaning operation with respect to a surface; and a controller
for controlling the driving of the driving part and an ON/OFF
switching of the humidifier according to the indoor humidity level
detected by the humidity sensor.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit 35 U. S. C. .sctn.
119(a) of Korean Patent Application No. 2005-15461, filed on Feb.
24, 2005, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the
disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its
entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates to a mobile robot having a
humidifier therein.
[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0005] In general, humidifiers can be classified into centrifugal
spray humidifiers, ultrasonic humidifiers, heat humidifiers, and
filter evaporative humidifiers according to how water is
evaporated.
[0006] The centrifugal spray humidifiers spray drawn-in water using
a centrifugal force and have the water collide with an inner wall,
thereby evaporating the water. The ultrasonic humidifiers transmit
an electric signal of a predetermined frequency to a vibrator
immersed in water and vibrate the vibrator, thereby evaporating the
water. The heat humidifier heat water using a heater or an
electrode rod, thereby generating vapor. The filter evaporative
humidifiers pass air through a wet filter, thereby evaporating
water.
[0007] Such humidifiers maintain indoor humidity in appropriate
level for a fresh room environment, and mostly are stationary at a
predetermined place. The stationary humidifier, however, has a
disadvantage that its humidifying effect is limited to an area in
proximity to a place where the humidifier is installed,
particularly if there is no convection current caused by the
humidifier. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve a desired level
of humidity in the entire room, and humidifying efficiency
deteriorates.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] The present invention has been developed in order to solve
the above problems in the related art. Accordingly, an aspect of
the present invention is to provide a mobile robot having a
humidifier to uniformly humidify an entire room.
[0009] Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a
mobile robot capable of simultaneously performing cleaning and
humidifying operations.
[0010] The above aspects are achieved by providing a mobile robot
comprising a driving part for movably supporting a body and
providing a driving force to move the body, a humidifier disposed
on the body, and a controller for controlling the driving part.
[0011] The mobile robot may further comprise a humidity sensor
detecting an indoor humidity level; and a cover for covering the
body. The controller controls a ON/OFF switching of the humidifier
according to the humidity level detected by the humidity
sensor.
[0012] The humidifier comprises a reservoir for containing a fluid,
an evaporating module for converting the fluid supplied from the
reservoir into vapor and distributing the vapor to the outside; and
a connection pipe for connecting the reservoir to the evaporating
module to supply the fluid contained in the reservoir to the
evaporating module.
[0013] The evaporating module comprises an evaporator for
converting the fluid into vapor, and a discharge pipe for
discharging the vapor to the outside. The reservoir is provided
with an injection port for injecting the fluid therethrough, and
the injection port and the discharge pipe are exposed to the
outside through an injection port hole and a discharge pipe hole
formed on a cover for covering the body.
[0014] The driving part comprises at least one driving motor
controlled by the controller, a pair of driving wheels connected to
the driving motor and disposed at opposite sides of the body; a
pair of driven wheels connected to the pair of driving wheel to
transmit a driving force; and a pair of idle wheels for supporting
the body. The reservoir is disposed on the body in such a way that
the driving wheels, the driven wheels and the idle wheels are
subjected to the same load of the reservoir. A pair of the
reservoirs are disposed on opposite sides of the body to be located
above the driving wheel, the driven wheels, and the idle
wheels.
[0015] The mobile robot may further comprise a dust suction part
disposed on the body to perform a cleaning operation with respect
to a surface.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0016] The above aspects and other advantages of the present
invention become apparent by describing an embodiment of the
present invention in greater detail with reference to the
accompanying drawings, in which:
[0017] FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a mobile
robot according to an embodiment of the present invention;
[0018] FIG. 2 is a bottom view showing the mobile robot of FIG
1;
[0019] FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control system of the
mobile robot of FIG. 1; and
[0020] FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the mobile robot of
FIG. 1 in an assembled state.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EXEMPLEARY EMBODIMENT
[0021] Hereinafter, a mobile robot according to an embodiment of
the present invention will now be described in greater detail with
reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0022] Referring to FIGS. 1 to 4, a mobile robot according to an
embodiment of the present invention comprises a body 10, a cover 20
covering the body 10, a dust suction part 30, a driving part 40, an
upper camera 50, a front camera 52, an obstacle sensor 54, a memory
device 60, a transmitting/receiving part 70, a controller 80, and a
humidifier 90. An arrow direction I indicates a forwarding
direction of the mobile robot cleaner.
[0023] The dust suction part 30 is disposed on the body 10 to draw
in dust-laden air from a cleaning surface and collect the dust. The
dust suction part 30 is used in order for the mobile robot to
perform a cleaning operation, and it may employ a well-known dust
suction part of a general robot cleaner. For example, the dust
suction part 30 comprises a suction motor (not shown), a suction
port 31 formed on the body 10, for drawing in dust from a cleaning
surface by using a suction force generated by the suction motor, a
brush 31 exposed to the outside through the suction port 31 to
scrub the dust, and a dust collecting chamber (not shown) for
collecting dust drawn in through the suction port.
[0024] As shown in FIG. 2, the driving part 40 comprises a pair of
driven wheels 41 disposed at front opposite sides of the body 10, a
pair of driving wheels 42 disposed at rear opposite sides of the
body 10, a pair of driving motors 43 for rotating the pair of
driving wheels 42, respectively, a power transmitting member 44 for
transmitting a driving force from the driving wheels 42 to the
driven wheels 41, and a pair of idle wheels 45 disposed at rear
sides of the body 10 for movably supporting the body 10. In this
embodiment, the power transmitting member 44 uses a timing belt,
but this should not be considered as limiting. The power
transmitting member 44 may adopt a gear pulley assembly. Although
in this embodiment driving motors 43 are provided in pair, one
single driving motor can be applied. Also, the idle wheels 45 can
be omitted if the driving wheels 42 and the driven wheels 41 are
arranged appropriately to maintain a balance of the mobile robot.
Well-known various driving mechanisms are applicable if they
activate the mobile robot and maintain the balance of the mobile
robot.
[0025] The driving part 40 rotates the driving motors 43
independently in a forward direction or a backward direction
according to a control signal of the controller 80. A traveling
direction is determined by changing RPMs of the respective driving
motors 43.
[0026] The upper camera 50 is disposed on the body 10 to photograph
an upper image and outputs the photographed image to the controller
80. Preferably, the upper camera 50 employs a fisheye lens (not
shown). Since the structure of the fish eye lens is disclosed in
Korean Patent Publication Nos. 1996-7005245, 1997-48669 and
1994-22112, and the fisheye lenses are manufactured and sold at
market by many lens manufactures, its description is omitted.
[0027] The front camera 52 is disposed on the body to photograph a
front image and outputs the photographed image to the controller
80.
[0028] The obstacle sensor 54 is arranged around an edge of the
body 10 to transmit signals to the outside and receive reflected
signals. The obstacle sensor 54 may use an optic sensor or an
ultrasonic sensor. The obstacle sensor 54 may be used to measure a
distance to an obstacle or a wall.
[0029] The memory device 60 stores the upper image photographed by
the upper camera 50, and the controller 80 calculates location
information or travel information based on image information stored
in the memory device 60.
[0030] The transmitting/receiving part 70 sends out data to an
external device 72 and transmits signals received from the external
device 72 to the controller 80. The external device 72 is generally
a wireless relay device (not shown) or a remote controller (not
shown) which are enabled to input and output data.
[0031] The controller 80 processes the signal received from the
transmitting/receiving part 70 and controls the respective parts
based on the signals. The mobile robot may further comprise a key
input device (not shown) having a plurality of keys for setting
functions of the mobile robot. In this case, the controller 80
processes key signals inputted through the key input device.
[0032] The controller 80 extracts an image of a location
recognition mark, which is installed on a ceiling of a working
area, from the upper image photographed by the upper camera 50, and
recognizes a location of the mobile robot based on the image of the
location recognition mark. The controller 80 controls the
respective parts to perform a target work based on location
information. Also, the controller 80 controls an ON/OFF switching
of the humidifier 90 according to a value inputted from a humidity
sensor 97 (see FIG. 3).
[0033] The humidifier 90 comprises a pair of reservoirs 91, an
evaporating module 93 and a connection pipe 96 for supplying fluid
contained in the reservoirs 91 to the evaporating module 93.
[0034] The pair of reservoirs 91 contain the fluid to be evaporated
and are disposed at opposite sides of the body 10 and above the
pairs of wheels 41, 42, and 45 so that the pairs of wheels 41, 42,
45 are subjected to equal load of the reservoirs 91. That is, the
reservoirs 91 are disposed on the body 10 in such a way that a
center of gravity of the reservoirs 91 is the same as that of the
mobile robot. The reservoirs 91 are arranged on the body 10 in
various manners if only their arrangements satisfy the condition
that the center of gravity is identical to that of the mobile
robot. Each reservoir 91 has an injection port 92 through which
fluid is injected into the reservoir 19. The injection port 92 is
exposed to the outside through an injection port hole 22 formed on
the cover 20 so that a user can directly inject the fluid without
opening the cover 20. An openable and closable cover 23 is provided
at the injection port hole 22.
[0035] The evaporating module 93 comprises an evaporator 94 for
evaporating the fluid supplied from the reservoirs 91 and a
discharge pipe 95 for guiding vapor generated by the evaporator 94
to the outside of the mobile robot. The evaporator 94 is disposed
on the body 10 and at a lower position than the reservoir 91 so
that the fluid contained in the reservoirs 91 is easily supplied to
the evaporator 94. The evaporator 94 adopts well known various
humidifying methods such as a centrifugal spray method, an
ultrasonic method, a heat method and a filter evaporative method.
Since the structure and principle of the evaporator 94 are
well-known to those skilled art in the art, detailed description is
omitted. The discharge pipe 95 is exposed to the outside through a
discharge pipe hole 21 formed on the cover 20.
[0036] In this embodiment, two (2) connection pipes 96 are provided
to connect the evaporating module 93 to the respective reservoirs
91.
[0037] Hereinafter, the operation of the mobile robot having the
above construction will now be described.
[0038] The controller 80 controls the driving part 40 in order for
the mobile robot to travel a working area according to a travel
pattern, creates an image map with respect to an upper area based
on an image photographed by the upper camera 50, and stores the
image map in the memory device 60. Alternatively, when the mobile
robot receives a working command from a key input device or an
external device 72 in a wireless manner, the mobile robot can be
set to create the image map before performing its actual
operation.
[0039] The controller 80 determines a location of the mobile robot
based on the image map created in advance. More specifically, when
the controller 80 is inputted with a work request signal from the
key input device or the external device 72 in a wireless manner,
the controller 80 compares a current image inputted by the upper
camera 50 or the upper camera 50 and the front camera 52 with a
memorized image map, and thereby determines a current location of
the mobile robot. The controller 80 controls the driving part 40 to
correspond to a traveling path from the determined current location
to a target location. In here, the work request signal includes a
signal for cleaning operation, a signal for monitoring operation to
be performed by the cameras 50 and 52 and a signal for humidifying
operation.
[0040] When the mobile robot travels along the traveling path to
the target, it calculates a traveling error by use of a traveling
distance measured by an encoder and a current location determined
by the comparison of a currently-photographed image with a
memorized image map, and controls the driving part 40 to compensate
for the traveling error and follow the traveling path to the target
location.
[0041] While the mobile robot travels, the controller 80 activates
the dust suction part 30 and the humidifier 90 selectively or
simultaneously according to the work request signal.
[0042] That is, when a power is supplied from a power source (not
shown) provided in the body 10, a dust suction motor (not shown) is
driven. By a suction force generated by the driven suction motor,
the mobile robot performs a cleaning operation of drawing in dust
from a cleaning surface through the suction port 31.
[0043] The controller 80 determines whether to humidify based on a
value inputted from the humidity sensor 97 and a reference value
pre-set in the memory device 60, and the humidifier performs
humidifying operation when a humidity level is determined to be
low. Under the control of the controller 80, the mobile robot
humidifies at the area where a humidity is low, and does not
humidify at the area where a humidity is high. Accordingly, the
mobile robot can maintain the indoor humidity in a constant level
within an entire working area and improve the humidification
efficiency. Meanwhile, the humidifying and the cleaning operations
are performed simultaneously and separately.
[0044] If a user inputs a signal to stop the operation of the
driving part 40 through the external device 72, the mobile robot
stays at a certain place but may continue cleaning or humidifying
operation.
[0045] If the user inputs a work stopping command through the
external device 72 when the cleaning or the humidifying operation
is completed, the controller 80 stops the cleaning or the
humidifying operation and returns the mobile robot to an initial
location.
[0046] As described above, since the humidifier 90 is movable
within a room, it can humidify the entire room.
[0047] Since the humidifier 90 is mounted in the mobile robot
having a cleaning function, an additional humidifier is not
required and thus a cost-saving effect is achieved. Also, since the
cleaning and the humidifying operations are performed
simultaneously, a much fresher living space can be obtained
[0048] The foregoing embodiments and advantages are merely
exemplary and are not to be construed as limiting the present
invention. The description of the present invention is intended to
be illustrative, and not to limit the scope of the claims. Many
alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to
those skilled in the art. In the claims, means-plus-function
clauses are intended to cover the structures described herein as
performing the recited function and not only structural equivalents
but also equivalent structures.
* * * * *