FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a robot, and more particularly, to a robot which can move to a charging station for charging by using transmitting signals of the charging station when the robot needs to be charged.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

In recent years, the fast-developing robot industry has made robotic products more and more common in daily life, especially the cleaning robots (automatic sweeping or mopping robots), whose sales are increasing year by year and still have a lot of room for growth; therefore, many companies are investing in this field and are constantly developing new technologies.

For example, most of the cleaning robots run on rechargeable batteries. In order to enable the cleaning robot to automatically move to the charging station to recharge with the remaining power before the rechargeable battery is exhausted to cause the robot to shut down, thus making it inconvenient for the user to find the cleaning robot since it could stop at anywhere. Therefore, many robotic companies have proposed solutions to this problem, for example, in the 31st column of the 13th paragraph of the U.S. Pat. No. 8,749,196 filed by iRobot Corporation, the charging station (base station) is equipped with a right signal transmitter and a left signal transmitter. The robotic device enters the signal range of the right signal or the left signal emitted by the right signal transmitter or the left signal transmitter when it needs to be charged, and then moves in the direction of the overlapping zone of the right signal and the left signal. Thereafter, the robot enters the overlapping zone and follows a path to approach the charging station, wherein at least a portion of this path is within the overlapping zone.

The path of the above-mentioned robot moving to the charging station is limited to the overlapping zone of the right signal and the left signal to follow the path, and the overlapping zone of the right signal and the left signal needs to be quite close to the charging station, so that the front and rear axes of the robot can be aligned with the charging station. In other words, the charging station needs to specify that the transmitter of a specific specification is selected and installed in a position limited to the extent that the robot can move to the overlapping zone, and the front and rear axis directions of the robot are aligned with the charging station. The prior art technique has limited the way the robot moves, so it is necessary to provide alternative solutions so that the robot does not have to move to the overlapping zone to accurately move to the charging station for charging.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the problems of the prior art, the object of the present invention is to allow a robot to approach the charging station with multiple paths and to perform the charging procedure.

According to an object of the present invention, the present invention provides a method for docking a robot with a charging station, which is applied between a robot and a charging station, and the charging station outputs two transmitting signals, the transmitting range of the two transmitting signals is at a predetermined distance in front of the charging station to form an overlapping zone and two non-overlapping zones, and a blank zone of the two transmitting signals is formed within the predetermined distance. The robot detects that the robot has entered the overlapping zone or the non-overlapping zone when the robot is moving to the charge station, then the robot moves in the direction of the charging station by alternately moving in and out between the overlapping zone and one of the non-overlapping zones, then the robot moves directly towards the charging station until the robot arrives at the blank zone, or the robot moves into the blank zone and then rotates and moves backwardly towards the charging station, thereby allowing the robot to dock at the charging station.

The charging station has two signal transmitters for transmitting signals respectively, wherein the signal transmitters can be RF signal, infrared signal or ultrasonic signal transmitters.

Each transmitting signal has different identification features, and each one of the identification features can be a different code, signal frequency, or signal phase. Each identification feature is provided for the robot to identify each transmitting signals.

Wherein, multiple paths can be formed in the moving way of the robot moving towards the charging station and alternately moving in and out between the overlapping zone and one of the non-overlapping zones. In detail, when the robot enters a first non-overlapping zone, the location of a second non-overlapping zone can be determined, and then the robot moves towards the overlapping zone and the charging station. Once the robot detects the entry into the overlapping zone, the robot further moves towards the first non-overlapping zone and the charging station, and alternately moves in and out between the overlapping zone and the first non-overlapping zone until the robot arrives at the blank zone. At this time, the robot then either moves directly towards the charging station, thereby allowing the robot to dock at the charging station, or the robot moves into the blank zone and then rotates and moves backwardly towards the charging station, so that the robot can effectively dock at the charging station.

Wherein, multiple paths can be formed in the moving way of the robot moving towards the charging station and alternately moving in and out between the overlapping zone and one of the non-overlapping zones. In detail, when the robot enters a first non-overlapping zone, the location of a second non-overlapping zone can be determined, and then the robot moves towards the second non-overlapping zone and the charging station, until the robot detects the entry into the second non-overlapping zone, then the robot moves towards the overlapping zone and the charging station; when the robot detects the entry into the overlapping zone, the robot moves back towards the first non-overlapping zone and the charging station, and alternately moves in and out between the overlapping zone and the non-overlapping zones until the robot arrives at the blank zone. At this time, the robot then either moves directly towards the charging station, or the robot moves into the blank zone and then rotates and move backwardly towards the charging station, so that the robot can effectively dock at the charging station.

Wherein, multiple paths can be formed in the moving way of the robot moving towards the charging station and alternately moving in and out between the overlapping zone and one of the non-overlapping zones. In detail, when the robot enters the overlapping zone, and moves continuously to either one of the two non-overlapping zones, so as to determine the location of the entered non-overlapping zone and the overlapping zone. The robot moves alternately in and out between the overlapping zone and the previously entered non-overlapping zone until the robot moves to the blank zone. At this point, the robot then either moves directly towards the charging station, thereby allowing the robot to dock at the charging station, or the robot moves into the blank zone and then moves backwardly towards the charging station, allowing the robot to dock at the charging station.

In summary, the present invention has one or more of the following advantages:1. The robot is able to provide a different moving path of moving to the charging station compared with the prior art.2. The robot has multiple paths to move to the charging station.3. The specifications and the location of transmitters of the charging station are no longer limited in order to cooperate with the technical features specified in the prior art. However, there are other available choices of the specifications and locations.

