阅读说明：本技术 用于对机器人进行自动充电的方法和相关产品 (Method for automatically charging a robot and related product ) 是由 张玉良 刘永生 李选聪 周祖鸿 彭佳勇 于 2021-08-16 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明涉及一种用于对机器人进行自动充电的方法、机器人、系统及计算机程序产品。其中,该方法包括：获取所述机器人的预充电范围内的激光反射数据,其中所述预充电范围内部署有带反光板的充电桩；从所述激光反射数据中筛选出关于所述反光板的目标数据；以及根据所述目标数据,控制所述机器人移动至所述充电桩处进行充电。通过本发明的技术方案,无需人工干预以及复杂的逻辑运算,即可实现对充电桩的精准定位。(The invention relates to a method, a robot, a system and a computer program product for automatically charging a robot. Wherein, the method comprises the following steps: acquiring laser reflection data within a pre-charging range of the robot, wherein a charging pile with a reflector is deployed within the pre-charging range; screening target data about the reflector from the laser reflection data; and controlling the robot to move to the charging pile for charging according to the target data. According to the technical scheme, the charging pile can be accurately positioned without manual intervention and complex logic operation.)

1. A method for automatically charging a robot, comprising:

acquiring laser reflection data within a pre-charging range of the robot, wherein a charging pile with a reflector is deployed within the pre-charging range;

screening target data about the reflector from the laser reflection data; and

and controlling the robot to move to the charging pile for charging according to the target data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein screening the laser reflection data for target data about the reflector plate comprises:

screening out linear data of the reflector from the laser reflection data; and

and determining the target data according to the straight line data of the reflector.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of screening the laser reflection data for the line of sight of the reflector comprises:

screening the laser reflection data based on the reflection intensity information to obtain initial screening data; and

and extracting the linear data of the reflector from the initial screening data based on the size information of the reflector.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

in response to that the straight line data of the reflector is not screened out from the laser reflection data, screening out data with the highest reflection intensity from the laser reflection data; and

and determining a new pre-charging range according to the data with the highest reflection intensity, and re-collecting laser reflection data in the new pre-charging range so as to screen out the linear data of the reflector.

5. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein controlling the robot to move to the charging post for charging according to the target data comprises:

determining a target charging position according to the target data;

and controlling the robot to move to the target charging position so as to charge the pile together with the charging pile.

6. A robot, comprising:

a processor; and

memory storing computer instructions for automatic charging of a robot, which when executed by the processor, cause the robot to perform the method according to any of claims 1-5.

7. A computer program product comprising program instructions for automatic charging of a robot, which when executed by a processor, cause the method according to any of claims 1-5 to be carried out.

8. A system for robot charging, comprising:

a charging pile including a reflector for reflecting laser light, and for charging the robot; and

the robot of claim 6, configured to perform the method of any of claims 1-6 to charge a pile with the charging post.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the charging post further comprises a charging pole piece as a charging interface, wherein a perpendicular bisector of the reflector coincides with a perpendicular bisector of the charging pole piece.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the reflector plate comprises a retaining plate and a reflective sticker, wherein the retaining plate is disposed on the charging post and above the charging plate, and wherein the reflective sticker is disposed on an upper surface of the retaining plate.

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to the field of robotics. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method, robot, system and computer program product for automatically charging a robot.

Background

This section is intended to provide a background or context to the embodiments of the invention that are recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Thus, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

With the rapid development of robotics, it can play an important role in various fields instead of human power. Generally, a robot is integrated with a large number of electric devices (such as laser radar, driving motor, and the like), so that the robot consumes power quickly as a whole and needs to be charged frequently.

The current charging methods for robots mainly include manual charging and automatic charging. Wherein artifical manual charging need invest into the manpower and pay close attention to the robot work state at any time, its greatly reduced user experience and convenience. For the existing automatic charging technology, a random positioning mode is usually adopted in the process of realizing automatic charging of the robot. This kind of mode is not only consuming time and wasting force to there is the inaccurate problem of fixing a position to filling electric pile, makes automatic charging success rate lower. For this reason, the related art also proposes to add hardware positioning devices (such as a collision sensor, a camera, an ultrasonic sensor, etc.) to the robot, which, although the positioning accuracy is improved to some extent, requires additional devices and complex logic operations. It can be seen that this approach is not only costly to deploy, but also difficult to implement.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve at least the technical problems described in the above background section, the present invention proposes a solution for automatically charging a robot. By using the scheme of the invention, the accurate positioning of the charging pile can be realized without manual intervention and complex logic operation. Therefore, the technical scheme of the invention not only effectively improves the success rate of charging, but also can reduce the cost and difficulty of deployment in the process of realizing automatic charging of the robot. In view of this, the present invention provides solutions in the following aspects.

A first aspect of the invention provides a method for automatically charging a robot, comprising: acquiring laser reflection data within a pre-charging range of the robot, wherein a charging pile with a reflector is deployed within the pre-charging range; screening target data about the reflector from the laser reflection data; and controlling the robot to move to the charging pile for charging according to the target data.

In one embodiment, wherein the step of screening the laser reflection data for target data of the reflector comprises: screening out linear data of the reflector from the laser reflection data; and determining the target data according to the straight line data of the reflector.

In one embodiment, the step of screening the line data of the reflector from the laser reflection data comprises: screening the laser reflection data based on the reflection intensity information to obtain initial screening data; and extracting the linear data of the reflector from the initial screening data based on the size information of the reflector.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises: in response to that the straight line data of the reflector is not screened out from the laser reflection data, screening out data with the highest reflection intensity from the laser reflection data; and determining a new pre-charging range according to the data with the highest reflection intensity, and re-collecting laser reflection data in the new pre-charging range so as to screen out the linear data of the reflector.

In one embodiment, wherein controlling the robot to move to the charging pile for charging according to the target data comprises: determining a target charging position according to the target data; and controlling the robot to move to the target charging position so as to charge the pile together with the charging pile.

A second aspect of the present invention provides a robot comprising: a processor; and a memory storing computer instructions for automatically charging a robot, which when executed by the processor, cause the robot to perform the method of the foregoing first aspect and in a plurality of embodiments below.

A third aspect of the invention provides a computer program product comprising program instructions for automatically charging a robot, which when executed by a processor, cause the method described in the aforementioned first aspect and in a number of embodiments below to be carried out.

A fourth aspect of the present invention proposes a system for automatically charging a robot, comprising: a charging pile including a reflector for reflecting laser light, and for charging the robot; and a robot according to a second aspect of the invention, configured to perform a method according to the aforementioned first aspect and as described in a number of embodiments below, for charging a pile with the charging post.

By using the scheme provided by the invention, the charging pile with the reflector is deployed in the pre-charging range of the robot, so that the charging pile is identified by using the characteristic that the reflector has higher reflection intensity on laser. And then, target data about the reflector in a pre-charging range is acquired, so that the robot is adjusted and controlled based on the target data to realize automatic charging of the robot. The scheme of the invention does not need manual intervention and complex logic operation, and only needs to simply deploy the reflector for the charging pile, thereby not only effectively improving the success rate of charging, but also reducing the cost and difficulty of deployment.

Drawings

The above and other objects, features and advantages of exemplary embodiments of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following detailed description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Several embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings and in which like reference numerals refer to similar or corresponding parts and in which:

fig. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method for automatically charging a robot according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a screening method of target data with respect to a reflector according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a flow chart illustrating another method for automatically charging a robot according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

fig. 4 is a structural diagram illustrating a charging pile according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are some, but not all embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be obtained by a person skilled in the art without making creative efforts based on the embodiments of the present invention, belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

It should be understood that the terms "first", "second", "third" and "fourth", etc. in the claims, the description and the drawings of the present invention are used for distinguishing different objects and are not used for describing a particular order. The terms "comprises" and "comprising," when used in the specification and claims of this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

It is also to be understood that the terminology used in the description of the invention herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used in the specification and claims of this application, the singular form of "a", "an", and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should be further understood that the term "and/or" as used in the specification and claims of this specification refers to any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items and includes such combinations.

As used in this specification and claims, the term "if" may be interpreted contextually as "when", "upon" or "in response to a determination" or "in response to a detection". Similarly, the phrase "if it is determined" or "if a [ described condition or event ] is detected" may be interpreted contextually to mean "upon determining" or "in response to determining" or "upon detecting [ described condition or event ]" or "in response to detecting [ described condition or event ]".

The following detailed description of embodiments of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a method 100 for automatically charging a robot in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. It is understood that the robot may be configured without hardware devices, and the method 100 is applicable to any type of robot with laser positioning function on the market.

As shown in fig. 1, at step S101, laser reflection data in a pre-charging range of a robot in which a charging post with a reflector is disposed may be acquired. In one embodiment, the laser reflection data may be acquired by a laser sensor. It is understood that the laser sensor can be integrated with the robot for use, or can be used as a separate device. In particular when used integrated in a robot, the aforementioned laser sensor may be a single line lidar sensor. It should be noted that the laser reflection data collected by the laser sensor is only one possible implementation manner, and the solution of the present invention is not limited thereto. In addition, the pre-charging range can be adjusted according to actual requirements. For example, any position at a predetermined distance from the charging post may be determined as the precharge position, and a range between the precharge position and the charging post position may be determined as the above precharge range. In one implementation scenario, the robot may navigate to a pre-charge location to perform the aforementioned laser reflection data acquisition operation when charging is required.

In addition, for the foregoing charging pile and the reflective plate, specific structures thereof may refer to the charging pile and the reflective plate described later in conjunction with fig. 4, and details are not repeated here.

Next, at step S102, target data of the reflector may be screened out from the aforementioned laser reflection data. It is understood that the laser reflection data may include reflection intensity information and angle information. For the aforementioned acquisition of target data, in one embodiment, the acquisition may be realized by step S201 and step S202 in fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a method 200 of screening target data regarding a reflector according to an embodiment of the present invention. The reflector herein may include a fixing plate and a reflective sticker for reflecting laser, and the specific structure thereof may refer to the reflector described later with reference to fig. 4, which will not be described in detail herein.

As shown in fig. 2, at step S201, the linear data of the reflector may be screened from the laser reflection data. In one implementation scenario, the screening of the line data for the reflector may involve screening of the reflection intensity and screening of the size. In this scenario, the laser data may be screened based on the reflection intensity information, for example, data in which the reflection intensity value is within a predetermined threshold range and the position of the laser point does not exceed the position of the charging pile may be screened as initial screening data. Then, the data corresponding to the size of the reflector can be screened out from the initial screening data to be used as the linear data of the reflector. It is understood that the method for screening the line data is only one possible implementation manner, and the scheme of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Next, at step S202, target data may be determined from the straight line data of the reflector. In some implementation scenarios, the aforementioned target data may include, but is not limited to, the length of a straight line, the relative position and distance to the robot, the angle between the center line direction of the robot and the straight line, and the like. It is to be understood that the data listed herein are merely exemplary for the target data and are not limiting of the data that the target data may contain. It is understood that step S201 and step S202 are only one possible implementation manner, and the scheme of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Further, in one embodiment, if the target data cannot be extracted through the above steps 201 and 202. The invention can also readjust the robot position to extract the target data again. Specifically, the data with the highest reflection intensity may be screened out from the aforementioned laser reflection data, and a new precharge range may be determined based on the aforementioned data with the highest reflection intensity. Specifically, the average value calculation may be performed on the aforementioned data with the highest reflection intensity to determine a new precharge position according to the settlement result. The position may then be adjusted to a new pre-charge position and the laser reflection data may be re-collected to screen out the aforementioned target data from the re-collected laser reflection data.

After the screening of the target data is completed, next, at step S103, the robot may be controlled to move to the charging pile for charging according to the target data. In one embodiment, the position regulation and control of the robot may involve position and distance adjustment relative to the straight line, for example, when it is determined that the distance between the robot and the straight line is smaller than a preset value and the error of the perpendicular bisector angle between the robot and the straight line is smaller than a threshold value, the robot may be triggered to perform position and angle adjustment to charge the pile with the charging pile, so as to realize automatic charging of the robot.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a method 300 for automatically charging a robot in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

In some implementation scenarios, method 300 may be performed by a robot to accomplish automatic charging. In this scenario, the robot needs only its installed single line lidar sensor, inertial sensor, encoder, and PID (proportional-integral-derivative) controller to support the method 300 in fig. 3 without adding additional hardware.

As shown in fig. 3, at step S301, the robot may be navigated to a pre-charge position. It is to be understood that the setting of the precharge position herein may refer to the precharge position described above in connection with fig. 1, so that the description regarding the precharge position is equally applicable hereinafter.

Next, at step S302, the data collected by the lidar sensor may be preprocessed and the qualified data saved. It can be understood that, after the robot reaches the pre-charge level, the lidar sensor may be used to collect data within the pre-charge range (i.e., the aforementioned laser reflection data), and to pre-process the collected data. In one embodiment, the preprocessing may include rejecting data that exceeds a reflection intensity threshold and error data that the laser spot position exceeds the charging spot position to obtain qualified data.

Next, at step S303, the foregoing eligible data may be subjected to straight line extraction. In one embodiment, the foregoing straight line extraction specifically involves the steps of detecting a set of neighboring points, segmenting a line segment, performing least squares fitting, and calculating a fitting error. It is understood that the straight line extraction step described herein is only one possible implementation and the inventive solution is not limited thereto.

Next, at step S304, it is determined whether a straight line with respect to the reflector can be fitted. In one embodiment, the length and position threshold range of the fitted straight line may be set according to information (e.g., length and position, etc.) of the reflector. Then, the straight lines not within the threshold range are deleted to extract a straight line satisfying the condition as a straight line with respect to the reflector. The extracted straight line information can comprise length information, relative position and distance with the robot, included angle between the center line direction of the robot and the straight line and the like.

Next, at step S305, in response to a straight line with respect to the reflector not being fitted, the robot position is readjusted to be close to the charging post. In one embodiment, the data of the first N points in the scanning range where the reflection intensity is highest can be averaged to obtain a new position. Then, the regulating robot approaches the position, and the straight line is extracted again to determine the charging pile position.

Next, at step S306, PID control may be performed according to the extracted straight line information. In one embodiment, the aforementioned PID control may involve adjustments based on the angle and distance between the robot's perpendicular bisector and the straight line perpendicular bisector. For example, when the angle and the distance between the perpendicular bisector of the robot and the perpendicular bisector of the straight line are smaller than the threshold values, it is determined that the robot has a high probability of being aligned with the charging pile, and the robot can be adjusted and controlled to charge the pile at the moment. And when the angle and the distance between the perpendicular bisector and the straight line perpendicular bisector of the robot are both larger than the threshold value, the robot needs to be adjusted and controlled to retreat for a certain distance, and then the pile is charged.

Next, in step S307, the robot is controlled to adjust the angle so as to align the pile. In one embodiment, the robot may be adjusted to rotate a certain angle (e.g., 180 degrees). And then, controlling a charger relay switch on the robot to be turned on, and then retreating for a set distance to enable a charging interface (such as a charging pole piece) on the robot to be in contact with the charging pile so as to charge the pile with the charging pile. It is understood that the method of controlling the robot to perform the pile is only one possible implementation and the inventive solution is not limited thereto.

Next, at step S308, it is detected whether the robot is successfully charged. In one embodiment, the robot is determined to have failed to charge when it is detected that the robot has not yet charged (e.g., the current value is less than 0) after retreating beyond the set distance. And if the robot is charged after retreating the set distance, determining that the robot is charged successfully. It is understood that the method for detecting whether charging is successful is only one possible implementation manner, and the scheme of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Next, at step S309, in response to the robot charging failure, the pile operation is re-performed. For example, a charging relay switch on the robot may be turned off, and then the relative position and distance between the robot and the charging pile may be adjusted (for example, the robot may be controlled to be away from the charging pile for a certain distance and then rotated for a certain angle), and the process returns to step S306.

As can be seen from fig. 1 to 3, the charging pile deployed with the reflector is utilized, and the reflector has a strong laser reflection characteristic, so that the charging pile is quickly and accurately positioned. Therefore, the scheme of the invention does not need manual intervention and complex logic operation, and not only can effectively improve the success rate of charging. Compared with the existing automatic charging technology, the method has better robustness, and has the advantages of time saving and labor saving during deployment.

Specifically, the specific structure of the charging pile described in fig. 1 to 3 above may refer to the charging pile 400 in fig. 4.

As shown in fig. 4, the charging post 400 may include a charging pole piece 401 as a charging interface and a reflective plate 402 for reflecting laser light. In one implementation, the perpendicular bisector of the reflector 402 coincides with the perpendicular bisector of the charging plate. Based on this design, the robot can utilize the position of the reflector panel of discerning to come the accurate charging plate who fixes a position the electric pile of filling when the position of electric pile is filled in the discernment, further improves the success rate of charging.

As with the previously described retroreflective sheeting 402, in one embodiment, it may include a fixed sheet 402-1 and retroreflective decals 402-2. Wherein the fixing plate 402-1 can be disposed on the charging pile and above the charging plate. For example, the fixing plate may be fixed to the charging pile by bolts. The reflective sticker can be arranged on the upper surface of the fixing plate. In another embodiment, the aforementioned reflective plate 402 may further include a fixing plate and a reflective coating layer coated on the fixing plate. Wherein the fixing plate can refer to the arrangement of the fixing plate in the above embodiments. It is understood that the positioning of the fixing plate, the light reflecting sticker or the light reflecting coating is only one possible implementation and the solution of the invention is not limited thereto. In addition, the sizes of the fixing plate and the reflective sticker can be specifically adjusted according to the type of the charging pile so as to be matched with the height of the charging pile.

The invention can form a complete recharging system based on the robot and the charging pile 400. Specifically, the charging pile 400 may be deployed within a pre-charging range of the robot. Next, the robot performs the method described above with reference to fig. 1 to 3 to achieve accurate pile charging with the charging pile.

From the above description of the modular design of the present invention, it can be seen that the system of the present invention can be flexibly arranged according to application scenarios or requirements without being limited to the architecture shown in the accompanying drawings. Further, it should also be understood that any module, unit, component, server, computer, or device performing operations of examples of the invention may include or otherwise access a computer-readable medium, such as a storage medium, computer storage medium, or data storage device (removable) and/or non-removable) such as a magnetic disk, optical disk, or magnetic tape. Computer storage media may include volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information, such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Based on this, the invention also discloses a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer readable instructions for automatic charging of a robot, which when executed by one or more processors, perform the method and operations described previously in connection with the figures.

While various embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described herein, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that such embodiments are provided by way of example only. Numerous modifications, changes, and substitutions will occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It should be understood that various alternatives to the embodiments of the invention described herein may be employed in practicing the invention. It is intended that the following claims define the scope of the invention and that the module compositions, equivalents, or alternatives falling within the scope of these claims be covered thereby.