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.
8 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 having a perimeter; motors operably connected to wheels to move the robot across a floor surface; a bumper responsive to obstacles encountered by the robot; a controller in electrical communication with both the bumper 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; 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 robot is moved across the floor surface; and a driven side brush, comprising; a hub; a plurality of resilient brush arms extending outwardly from the hub; 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 perimeter and positioned to brush floor surface debris from beyond the perimeter toward a projected path of the driven cleaning brush. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A floor-cleaning robot comprising:
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a housing having a perimeter; motors operably connected to wheels to move the robot across a floor surface; a bumper responsive to obstacles encountered by the robot; a controller in electrical communication with both the bumper 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; 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 robot is moved across the floor surface; and a driven side brush, comprising; a hub; and bristles extending beyond the perimeter and positioned to brush floor surface debris from beyond the perimeter toward a projected path of the driven cleaning brush along the floor surface. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A self-propelled floor-cleaning robot comprising a housing defining a housing perimeter, the robot comprising:
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a right wheel module; a left wheel module; a vacuum system operable to ingest particulates; a driven side brush, comprising; a hub; bristles extending beyond the perimeter and positioned to brush floor surface debris from beyond the perimeter toward a location inside the perimeter; a removable dust cartridge in communication with the vacuum system, and operable to store the particulates collected by the floor-cleaning robot; a first cliff detector located on a right side of the robot forward of the right wheel module; and a second cliff detector located on a left side of the robot forward of the left wheel module, at least one of the first and second cliff detectors located behind the side brush assembly; a third cliff detector located forward of the first and second cliff detectors and forward of the side brush assembly; and a controller in electrical communication with a motor drive and configured to control the motor drive to maneuver the robot about detected obstacles located on the floor surface. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification