AUTONOMOUS FLOOR-CLEANING ROBOT
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An autonomous floor-cleaning robot comprising a housing infrastructure including a chassis, a power subsystem; for providing the energy to power the autonomous floor-cleaning robot, a motive subsystem operative to propel the autonomous floor-cleaning robot for cleaning operations, a command and control subsystem operative to control the autonomous floor-cleaning robot to effect cleaning operations, and a self-adjusting cleaning head subsystem that includes a deck mounted in pivotal combination with the chassis, a brush assembly mounted in combination with the deck and powered by the motive subsystem to sweep up particulates during cleaning operations, a vacuum assembly disposed in combination with the deck and powered by the motive subsystem to ingest particulates during cleaning operations, and a deck adjusting subassembly mounted in combination with the motive subsystem for the brush assembly, the deck, and the chassis that is automatically operative in response to an increase in brush torque in said brush assembly to pivot the deck with respect to said chassis. The autonomous floor-cleaning robot also includes a side brush assembly mounted in combination with the chassis and powered by the motive subsystem to entrain particulates outside the periphery of the housing infrastructure and to direct such particulates towards the self-adjusting cleaning head subsystem.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. (canceled)
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2. A floor-cleaning robot, comprising:
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a housing structure; a motive system operable to generate movement of the robot across a surface during floor-cleaning, the motive system including a left wheel module and a right wheel module, a vacuum system operable to ingest particulates; a primary brush assembly operable to collect particulates from the surface during floor-cleaning; a side brush assembly operable to direct particulates outside a periphery of the housing structure, which would be otherwise outside a range of the primary brush assembly, toward the primary brush assembly during floor-cleaning; a removable dust cartridge in communication with the primary brush assembly, and operable to store particulates collected by the primary brush assembly; a sensor system operable to generate signals representative of conditions encountered by the robot during floor-cleaning, the sensor system including one or more cliff detectors operable to generate a cliff signal upon detection of a cliff; and a control system in communication with the motive system and responsive to signals generated by the sensor system to control movement of the robot the control system being responsive to the cliff signal to control movement of the robot upon detection of the cliff to enable the robot to escape from the cliff and to continue movement. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A floor-cleaning robot, comprising:
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a motive system operable to generate movement of the robot across a surface during floor-cleaning, the motive system including a left wheel module and a right wheel module; a vacuum system operable to ingest particulates; a primary brush assembly operable to collect particulates from the surface during floor-cleaning, the primary brush assembly including a flapper brush comprising a plurality of cleaning strips and secured to and extending along a central member; a side brush assembly operable to direct particulates outside a periphery of the housing structure, which would be otherwise outside a range of the primary brush assembly, toward the primary brush assembly during floor-cleaning; and a removable dust cartridge in communication with the primary brush assembly, and operable to store particulates collected by the primary brush assembly. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification