Autonomous floor cleaning with a removable pad

• US 10,499,783 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2017
• Issued: 12/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: iRobot Corporation
• Original Assignee: iRobot Corporation
• Inventors: Lu, Ping-Hong, Foran, Dan, Williams, Marcus, Johnson, Joe, Graziani, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Dung Van
• Application Number:
  US15/798,813
• Publication Number:
  US 20180064305A1
• Time in Patent Office: 770 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4044 Vacuuming or pick-up tools; Squeegees
• 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 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 9/0673 with removable brushes, combs, lips or pads
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2805 Parameters or conditions being sensed

Abstract

An autonomous floor cleaning robot includes a robot body defining a forward drive direction, a controller supported by the robot body, a drive supporting the robot body and configured to maneuver the robot across a surface in response to commands from the controller, a pad holder disposed on an underside of the robot body and configured to retain a removable cleaning pad during operation of the cleaning robot; and a pad sensor arranged to sense a feature of a cleaning pad held by the pad holder and generate a corresponding signal. The controller is responsive to the signal generated by the pad sensor, and configured to control the robot according to a cleaning mode selected from a set of multiple robot cleaning modes as a function of the signal generated by the pad sensor.

Claims

1. A cleaning pad comprising:

a pad body including a cleaning surface; and

a mounting plate secured on the pad body;

wherein the mounting plate has a pad type identifier unique to a type of the cleaning pad selected from multiple different types, the identifier being positioned to be sensed by an autonomous robot to which the cleaning pad is mounted.

2. The cleaning pad of claim 1, wherein the identifier is a first pad type identifier, and the mounting plate has a second pad type identifier rotationally symmetric to the first identifier, the first and the second identifiers both being indicative of the type of the cleaning pad.

3. The cleaning pad of claim 1, wherein the identifier has a spectral response attribute that is unique to the type of the cleaning pad.

4. The cleaning pad of claim 1, wherein the identifier has a reflectivity unique to the type of the cleaning pad.

5. The cleaning pad of claim 1, wherein the cleaning pad comprises:

a cutout on an edge of the mounting plate, the cutout engageable to a protrusion of a pad holder of the robot.

6. The cleaning pad of claim 1, wherein the cleaning pad comprises:

a plurality of cutouts comprising

a first cutout positioned on a first longitudinal edge of the mounting plate and aligned along a longitudinal center axis of the cleaning pad, and

a second cutout positioned on a second longitudinal edge of the mounting plate and aligned along the longitudinal center axis of the cleaning pad.

7. The cleaning pad of claim 6, wherein the plurality of cutouts comprises a second set of cutouts positioned on one or more lateral edges of the mounting plate and aligned along a lateral center axis of the cleaning pad.

8. The cleaning pad of claim 6, wherein the plurality of cutouts of the cleaning pad are configured to engage a plurality of protrusions of a pad holder of the robot to inhibit lateral motion of the cleaning pad relative to the pad holder of the robot when the cleaning pad is held by the pad holder during operation of the robot.

9. The cleaning pad of claim 1, wherein:

the identifier is a first pad type identifier, and the cleaning pad comprises a second pad type identifier, and

the first and second identifiers are oriented such that the first identifier is detectable by a pad sensor of the robot when the cleaning pad in a first orientation is received by a pad holder of the robot and such that the second 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, the first orientation of the cleaning pad being 180 degrees rotated relative to the second orientation of the cleaning pad.

10. The cleaning pad of claim 1, wherein the mounting plate has longitudinal edges protruding beyond the pad body.

11. The cleaning pad of claim 1, wherein the identifier comprises an identification sequence comprising a plurality of identification elements defining a state of the identification sequence, the state being indicative of the type of the cleaning pad.

12. The cleaning pad of claim 11, wherein:

each of the plurality of identification elements comprises a right portion and a left portion, a reflectivity of the right portion and a reflectivity of the left portion defining a state of the identification element, and

states of the plurality of identification elements define the state of the identification sequence.

13. The cleaning pad of claim 11, wherein the plurality of identification elements comprise a combination of light segments and dark segment detectable by a pad sensor of the robot.

14. The cleaning pad of claim 1, wherein the identifier is defined by one or more cutouts on the mounting plate indicative of the type of the cleaning pad.

15. The cleaning pad of claim 1, wherein the mounting plate comprises a thickness substantially between 0.5 and 0.8 millimeters.

16. The cleaning pad of claim 1, wherein the identifier comprises a marking on a surface of the cleaning pad, the marking having a width between 1% and 10% of a length of a cleaning pad.

17. The cleaning pad 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 cleaning pad of claim 1, wherein the identifier is indicative of a spraying schedule and navigational behavior of the robot.

19. A method of cleaning a floor, the method comprising:

attaching a cleaning pad to an underside surface of an autonomous floor cleaning robot;

placing the robot on the floor; and

initiating a floor cleaning operation in which the robot senses the attached cleaning pad, identifies a type of the cleaning pad from among multiple pad types, and then autonomously cleans the floor in a cleaning mode selected according to the identified type of the cleaning pad.