Patent ID: 7501780

Claim:
A docking system comprising: a station comprising: a light emitter comprising a plurality of light emitting elements arranged in a circular arc form so as to cause optical axes of light generated from the light emitting elements to pass through a curvature center of the circular arc; and a first connection terminal, and a self-moving robot comprising: a body part having a circular arc part which is substantially the same in curvature radius as the circular arc included in the station; a movement mechanism attached to the body part to move the body part and capable of causing the body part to conduct on-the-spot rotation at a curvature center of the circular arc part; a first controller which generates a movement route on the basis of a position of the station and map information input thereto, and which controls the movement mechanism to self-move the robot to a vicinity region of the station along the generated movement route; light receivers attached to the body part to receive a light from the light emitter; a direction detector which detects a direction in which the light is emitted; a second controller which controls the movement mechanism to move the body part in the direction detected by the direction detector; and a second connection terminal for docking with the first connection terminal.