AUTONOMOUS FLOOR CLEANING WITH A REMOVABLE PAD

• US 20160270618A1
• Filed: 03/16/2015
• Published: 09/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: iRobot Corporation
• Original Assignee: iRobot Corporation
• Inventors: Foran, Dan, Johnson, Joe, Lu, Ping-Hong, Williams, Marcus, Graziani, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 9,907,449 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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. An autonomous floor cleaning robot, comprising:

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;

wherein 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.

2. The robot of claim 1, wherein the pad sensor comprises at least one of a radiation emitter and a radiation detector.

3. The robot of claim 2, wherein the radiation detector exhibits a peak spectral response in a visible light range.

4. The robot of claim 1, wherein the feature is a colored ink disposed on a surface of the cleaning pad, the pad sensor senses a spectral response of the feature, and the signal corresponds to the sensed spectral response.

5. The robot of claim 4, wherein the signal comprises the sensed spectral response, and the controller compares the sensed spectral response to a stored spectral response in an index of colored inks stored on a memory storage element operable with the controller.

6. The robot of claim 4, wherein the pad sensor comprises a radiation detector having first and second channels responsive to radiation, the first channel and the second channel each sensing a portion of the spectral response of the feature.

7. The robot of claim 6, wherein the first channel exhibits a peak spectral response in a visible light range.

8. The robot of claim 6, wherein the pad sensor comprises a third channel that senses another portion of the spectral response of the feature.

9. The robot of claim 6, wherein the first channel exhibits a peak spectral response in an infrared range.

10. The robot of claim 4, wherein the pad sensor comprises a radiation emitter configured to emit a first radiation and a second radiation, and the pad sensor senses a reflection of the first and the second radiations off of the feature to sense the spectral response of the feature.

11. The robot of claim 10, wherein the radiation emitter is configured to emit a third radiation, and the pad sensor senses the reflection of the third radiation off of the feature to sense the spectral response of the feature.

12. The robot of claim 1, wherein the feature comprises a plurality of identification elements, each identification element having a first region and a second region, and wherein the pad sensor is arranged to independently sense a first reflectivity of the first region and a second reflectivity of the second region.

13. The robot of claim 12, wherein the pad sensor comprises a first radiation emitter arranged to illuminate the first region, a second radiation emitter arranged to illuminate the second region, and a photodetector arranged to receive reflected radiation from both the first region and the second region.

14. The robot of claim 13, wherein the first reflectivity is substantially greater than the second reflectivity.

15. The robot of claim 1, wherein the multiple robot cleaning modes each define a spraying schedule and navigational behavior.

16. A set of autonomous robot cleaning pads of different types, each of the cleaning pads comprising:

a pad body having opposite broad surfaces, including a cleaning surface and a mounting surface; and

a mounting plate secured across the mounting surface of the pad body and defining pad mounting locator features;

wherein the mounting plate of each cleaning pad has a pad type identification feature unique to the type of the cleaning pad and that is positioned to be sensed by a robot to which the pad is mounted.

17. The set of claim 16, wherein the feature is a first feature, and the mounting plate has a second feature rotationally symmetric to the first feature.

18. The set of claim 16, wherein the feature has a spectral response attribute unique to the type of the cleaning pad.

19. The set of claim 16, wherein the feature has a reflectivity unique to the type of the cleaning pad.

20. 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 a floor to be cleaned;

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