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Autonomous floor-cleaning robot

  • US 10,420,447 B2
  • Filed: 04/14/2017
  • Issued: 09/24/2019
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2001
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A floor-cleaning robot comprising:

  • a housing having a substantially round perimeter;

    motors operably connected to wheels to move the floor-cleaning robot across a floor surface;

    a spring biased displaceable bumper configured for displacement with respect to the housing responsive to obstacles encountered by the floor-cleaning robot;

    a sensor responsive to displacement of the spring biased displaceable bumper;

    a controller in electrical communication with both the sensor and the motors and configured to control the motors to maneuver the robot to travel away from the encountered obstacles across the floor surface during a floor-cleaning operation;

    a vacuum assembly;

    a driven cleaning brush, rotatable about an axis substantially parallel to an underside of the housing, the driven cleaning brush being positioned to brush the floor surface as the floor-cleaning robot is moved across the floor surface to brush surface debris towards the vacuum assembly;

    a first cliff detector that detects a falling edge of the floor surface, the first cliff detector being located on a side of the floor-cleaning robot forward of the wheels; and

    a driven side brush, comprising;

    a hub;

    a plurality of resilient brush arms extending outwardly from the hub; and

    bristles at a distal end of each brush arm of the plurality of resilient brush arms, a portion of the driven side brush extending beyond the substantially round perimeter and positioned to brush floor surface debris from beyond the substantially round perimeter toward a projected path of the driven cleaning brush;

    wherein the first cliff detector is located on the same side as the driven side brush, behind the driven side brush, and forward of the wheels.

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