Autonomous floor cleaning with removable pad

• US 10,064,533 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2016
• Issued: 09/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: iRobot Corporation
• Original Assignee: iRobot Corporation
• Inventors: Lu, Ping-Hong, Johnson, Joseph M., Foran, Daniel, Williams, Marcus, Graziani, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, DUNG V
• Application Number:
  US15/383,008
• Publication Number:
  US 20170100010A1
• Time in Patent Office: 624 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/24 Floor-sweeping machines, motor-driven
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/28 Floor-scrubbing machines, motor-driven A47L11/29 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4002 Installations of electric equipment
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4036 Parts or details of the surface treating tools
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4061 Steering means; Means for avoiding obstacles; Details related to the place where the driver is accommodated
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4066 Propulsion of the whole machine
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4083 Liquid supply reservoirs; Preparation of the agents, e.g. mixing devices
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4088 Supply pumps; Spraying devices; Supply conduits
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 13/16 Cloths; Pads; Sponges metal scraping sponges A47L13/07
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 13/24 Frames for mops; Mop heads handles B25G
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/00 Robotic cleaning machines, i.e. with automatic control of the travelling movement or the cleaning operation
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/04 Automatic control of the travelling movement; Automatic obstacle detection
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/06 Control of the cleaning action for autonomous devices; Automatic detection of the surface condition before, during or after cleaning
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/0673 with removable brushes, combs, lips or pads
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2805 Parameters or conditions being sensed
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2815 using optical detectors
• CPC Class Codes: B08B 1/10 characterised by the type of cleaning tool
• CPC Class Codes: B08B 7/04 by a combination of operations
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 Mobile robot

Abstract

An autonomous floor cleaning robot includes a body, a controller supported by the body, a drive supporting the body to maneuver the robot across a floor surface in response to commands from the controller, and a pad holder attached to an underside of the body to hold a removable cleaning pad during operation of the robot. The pad includes a mounting plate and a mounting surface. The mounting plate is attached to the mounting surface. The robot includes a pad sensor to sense a feature on the pad and to generate a signal based on the feature, which is defined in part by a cutout on the card backing. The mounting plate enables the pad sensor to detect the feature. The controller is responsive to the signal to perform operations including selecting a cleaning mode based on the signal, and controlling the robot according to a selected cleaning mode.

Claims

1. A set of autonomous robot cleaning pads, each of the cleaning pads including:

a pad body including a cleaning surface and a mounting surface opposing the cleaning surface, the mounting surface facing a robot when a cleaning pad is mounted to a pad holder of the robot; and

a mounting plate secured to the mounting surface of the pad body and enabling the cleaning pad to be received by the pad holder, the mounting plate including

cutouts positioned along edges of the mounting plate and being engageable with the pad holder of the robot when the cleaning pad is received by the pad holder, and

first and second pad type identifiers being oriented such that the first pad type identifier is detectable by a pad sensor of the robot when the cleaning pad in a first orientation is received by the pad holder and the second pad type identifier is detectable by the pad sensor of the robot when the cleaning pad in a second orientation is received by the pad holder of the robot.

2. The set of claim 1, wherein the cutouts include a first set of cutouts positioned on longitudinal edges of the mounting plate and aligned along a longitudinal center axis of the cleaning pad.

3. The set of claim 2, wherein the first set of cutouts are symmetric about a lateral center axis of the cleaning pad.

4. The set of claim 2, wherein the cutouts include a second set of cutouts positioned on lateral edges of the mounting plate and aligned along a lateral center axis of the cleaning pad.

5. The set of claim 4, wherein the second set of cutouts are symmetric about a longitudinal center axis of the cleaning pad.

6. The set of claim 1, wherein the first orientation of the cleaning pad is 180 degrees rotated relative to the second orientation of the cleaning pad.

7. The set of claim 1, wherein the mounting plate defines longitudinal edges protruding beyond the pad body.

8. The set of claim 1, the cutouts of the cleaning pad are configured to engage protrusions of the pad holder of the robot to inhibit lateral motion of the cleaning pad relative to the pad holder of the robot.

9. The set of claim 1, wherein a location of the first pad type identifier is symmetric to a location of the second pad type identifier about longitudinal and horizontal axes of the cleaning pad.

10. The set of claim 1, wherein:

the pad body comprises a wrap layer wrapped around absorptive layers that absorb fluid,

the wrap layer defines the mounting surface, and

the first and second pad type identifiers are further defined by one or more markings on the wrap layer.

11. The set of claim 10, wherein the first and second pad type identifiers define perimeters, and the one or more markings occupies areas extending beyond the perimeters.

12. The set of claim 1, wherein the mounting plate comprises one or more transparent portions covering the first pad type identifier and the second pad type identifier.

13. The set of claim 1, wherein the first and second pad type identifiers are defined at least in part by a plurality of cutouts on the mounting plate.

14. The set of claim 1, wherein:

the mounting plate is a first mounting plate for a first cleaning pad, and the cleaning pads comprise a second mounting plate for a second cleaning pad;

a shape and a size of an outer perimeter of the first mounting plate are substantially identical to a shape and a size of an outer perimeter of the second mounting plate; and

an absorptivity of absorptive layers of the first cleaning pad is greater than an absorptivity of absorptive layers of the second cleaning pad.

15. The set of claim 1, wherein a type of the cleaning pad indicated by the first and second pad type identifiers is indicative of a spraying schedule and navigational behavior of the robot.

16. The set of claim 1, wherein the mounting plate comprises a water resistant coating.

17. The set of claim 1, wherein:

the pad body comprises a wrap layer wrapped around absorptive layers that absorb fluid, and

the absorptive layers are exposed at a longitudinal end of the pad body.

18. The set of claim 1, wherein the mounting plate comprises a thickness substantially between 0.5 and 0.8 millimeters.