DOCKING SYSTEM FOR MOBILE ROBOT AND METHOD THEREOF

1 . A method for docking a mobile robot with a docking system, the method comprising:

acquiring, by a LiDAR provided in the mobile robot, terrain information around the mobile robot;

clustering consecutive points from distance and angle information to form a cluster;

determining a location of the charging station from the cluster; and

calculating a route to the charging station.

2 . The method for docking a mobile robot with a docking system of claim 1 , wherein the calculating of the route to the charging station includes:

determining whether a left-right error between a center point of the charging system and a center point of the mobile robot exceeds a first threshold value;

calculating a movement route based on an intermediate goal point closer to the mobile robot than the center point of the charging station in a front direction of the charging station when the left-right error exceeds the first threshold value; and

moving the mobile robot based on the calculated movement route.

3 . The method for docking a mobile robot with a docking system of claim 2 , wherein the calculating of the movement route includes:

determining a target intermediate goal point which comes in contact with a virtual circle surrounding the mobile robot among a plurality of candidate intermediate goal points which exist on a virtual line in a direction perpendicular to the charging station; and

calculating a route moving to the target intermediate goal point.

4 . The method for docking a mobile robot with a docking system of claim 2 , further comprising:

calculating the movement route in the direction of reducing a heading angle calculated based on an angle between the front direction of the charging station and a movement direction of the mobile robot when the left-right error does not exceed the first threshold value; and

moving the mobile robot through the calculated movement route.

5 . The method for docking a mobile robot with a docking system of claim 1 , wherein the determining of the location of the charging station includes:

comparing a length of the cluster and a length of the charging station, and when a difference value is greater than or equal to a predetermined size, excluding the corresponding candidate from a candidate cluster; and

determining the location of the charging station among candidates whose difference values are less than the predetermined size.

6 . A mobile robot comprising:

a LiDAR acquiring distance and angle information of surrounding objects of a mobile robot;

a storage unit storing reference information of a charging station; and

a control unit determining, as an intermediate goal point, a point where a virtual line in a direction perpendicular to the charging station and a virtual circle surrounding the mobile robot by using the distance and angle information, and calculating a route moving to the intermediate goal point and a route to the charging station.