Why is laser radar the qualified "eye" for laser navigation sweeping and mopping robot?

With the accelerating pace of people’s lives and the reduction of housework time, people’s rigid demand for housework robots has become more and more obvious. According to data released by the China Business Industry Research Institute, the total sales of personal and household service robots worldwide from 2016 to 2019 The volume reached 42 million units, and the total sales of housekeeping service robots was 30.8 million units, accounting for nearly 75%. Sweeping robots have become the leading category of housekeeping service robots. It is understood that from 2013 to 2018, the sales of domestic sweeping robots have increased geometrically. In the future, with the continuous improvement of people's living standards, sweeping robots will become the new smart favorite of more and more young families.

It has been more than 20 years since the birth of the sweeping robot. From the first sweeping robot "Trilobite" that appeared in 1996 to the current intelligent planning sweeping robot, sweeping robots have also been criticized by consumers for "pseudo-intelligence" and "cleaning." "Lack of power" and "inflated prices".

For users, sweeping robots are home cleaning tools used to liberate manpower. Therefore, intelligence and cleaning power become the two most critical indicators. A sweeping robot with low cleaning power and poor floor cleaning cannot be consumed. For the sweeping robot, the degree of intelligence and cleaning power are mainly manifested in the path planning ability of the robot.

The sweeping robot has been in a random path planning state for a long time since its birth. Specifically, the sweeping robot randomly covers the area to be swept according to the built-in movement algorithm, and at the same time, it senses the surrounding obstacles through collision or infrared sensors. After the obstacle is located, the sweeping robot will automatically turn to a certain angle and continue forward in the new direction. This path planning method has two important drawbacks: one is that the cleaning coverage area of ​​the sweeping robot is difficult to control, which usually causes repeated cleaning of some areas or a large area of ​​missed cleaning; the other is that the robot and obstacles frequently collide during the cleaning process. , Causing damage to the robot or furniture.

In order to make the sweeping robot truly intelligent, many technology companies are studying sweeping robots in the planned path mode. After years of technology precipitation and accumulation, planned sweeping has become the main solution currently used in the sweeping robot market. The sweeping robot with planning function can realize autonomous positioning, mapping and path planning functions by relying on positioning and navigation technology. Since it avoids collision with obstacles, it can improve the efficiency of cleaning and achieve truly intelligent cleaning.

SLAM is the mainstream technology to realize the path planning of the sweeping robot. It can be understood as: the robot starts to move from an unknown position in an unknown environment. During the movement, it relies on the built-in sensor to estimate the position and map construction to locate itself, and at the same time locate itself Build incremental maps on the basis of, to realize autonomous positioning and navigation of robots.

It can be said that sensors are the "eyes" of sweeping robots. Before the rise of SLAM technology, lidar has always been the original equipment of sweeping robots. Later, with the rise of visual navigation technology, visual sensors have attracted much attention from the market. Another navigation technology that is different from lidar.

For a long time, people in the laser radar and vision sensor industries have their own views and opinions. For sweeping robots, who is the most qualified "eye"?

As far as the current situation is concerned, Lidar has advantages in terms of stability and technological maturity compared to vision sensors. In general, Lidar has higher ranging accuracy and no cumulative errors. The constructed map can be used directly Path planning, and the visual sensor cannot work in the dark due to the large influence of ambient light, and the calculation load is large. The built map itself is difficult to directly use for path planning and navigation. In addition, the dynamics of the visual sensor needs to be improved. There is a certain cumulative error. Therefore, it is recognized in the industry that lidar is currently more suitable for the "eyes" of sweeper robots, and sweeping robots with laser navigation are also considered the most intelligent sweepers.

The principle of laser navigation is mainly to scan the entire room through laser ranging induction. When an obstacle is touched, the built-in sensor of the machine can construct a map of the room according to the pixel number, and create a real-time map, locate and clean.

In addition, lidar is easily affected by indoor and outdoor ambient light, high-transmittance materials, rain, snow, and fog. In terms of ambient light, for lidar that uses the principle of triangular ranging, in addition to being able to resist light interference, Distinguish between ambient light and laser signal.

The team of Guangdong Anjiu Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. has been committed to providing overall technical solutions for intelligent sweeping robots for well-known brands such as Haier for many years. The team has accumulated a good reputation in the industry; technical strength and development capabilities have been recognized by many international brands and live in smart The forefront of AI development. For more information about laser navigation sweeping and mopping robots, please follow Anjiu Information.