Autonomous floor cleaning with removable pad

• US 9,265,396 B1
• Filed: 08/17/2015
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: iRobot Corporation
• Original Assignee: iRobot Corporation
• Inventors: Johnson, Joseph M., Williams, Marcus, Lu, Ping-Hong, Foran, Daniel, Graziani, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, DUNG V
• Application Number:
  US14/828,285
• Time in Patent Office: 190 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/24 Floor-sweeping machines, motor-driven
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/28 Floor-scrubbing machines, motor-driven A47L11/29 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4002 Installations of electric equipment
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4036 Parts or details of the surface treating tools
• 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 11/4083 Liquid supply reservoirs; Preparation of the agents, e.g. mixing devices
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4088 Supply pumps; Spraying devices; Supply conduits
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 13/16 Cloths; Pads; Sponges metal scraping sponges A47L13/07
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 13/24 Frames for mops; Mop heads handles B25G
• 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 2201/06 Control of the cleaning action for autonomous devices; Automatic detection of the surface condition before, during or after cleaning
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/0673 with removable brushes, combs, lips or pads
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2805 Parameters or conditions being sensed
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2815 using optical detectors
• CPC Class Codes: B08B 1/10 characterised by the type of cleaning tool
• CPC Class Codes: B08B 7/04 by a combination of operations
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 Mobile robot

Abstract

An autonomous floor cleaning robot includes a body, a controller supported by the body, a drive supporting the body to maneuver the robot across a floor surface in response to commands from the controller, and a pad holder attached to an underside of the body to hold a removable cleaning pad during operation of the robot. The pad includes a mounting plate and a mounting surface. The mounting plate is attached to the mounting surface. The robot includes a pad sensor to sense a feature on the pad and to generate a signal based on the feature, which is defined in part by a cutout on the card backing. The mounting plate enables the pad sensor to detect the feature. The controller is responsive to the signal to perform operations including selecting a cleaning mode based on the signal, and controlling the robot according to a selected cleaning mode.

Claims

1. An autonomous floor cleaning robot, comprising:

a robot body;

a controller supported by the robot body;

a drive supporting the robot body to maneuver the robot across a floor surface in response to commands from the controller;

a pad holder attached to an underside of the robot body and to hold a removable cleaning pad during operation of the cleaning robot, the removable cleaning pad comprising a mounting plate and a mounting surface, the mounting plate being attached to the mounting surface; and

a pad sensor to sense a feature on the removable cleaning pad and to generate a signal based on the feature, the feature defined at least in part by a cutout on the mounting plate;

wherein the mounting plate enables the pad sensor to detect the feature, and wherein the controller is responsive to the signal generated by the pad sensor to perform operations comprising;

selecting a cleaning mode from among cleaning modes based on the signal, and

controlling the robot according to a selected cleaning mode.

2. The robot of claim 1, wherein:

the mounting surface comprises a wrap layer wrapped around absorptive layers that absorb fluid on the floor surface, and

the feature is further defined by a marking on the wrap layer, the marking occupying an area greater than an area of the cutout, and the cutout enabling the pad sensor to detect the marking.

3. The robot of claim 2, wherein the feature comprises identification elements defined at least in part by the marking and the cutout, 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.

4. The robot of claim 3, wherein at least one of the first and second reflectivities is defined by a reflectivity of the mounting plate, and at least one of the first and second reflectivities is defined by a reflectivity of the marking.

5. The robot of claim 3, wherein the identification elements define a perimeter, and the marking occupies an area that extends beyond the perimeter.

6. The robot of claim 3, wherein the pad sensor comprises:

a first radiation emitter to illuminate the first region,

a second radiation emitter to illuminate the second region, and

a photodetector to receive reflected radiation from both the first region and the second region and to generate the signal based on the reflected radiation.

7. The robot of claim 3, wherein the controller is configured to select the cleaning mode by performing operations comprising:

determining a state of each of the identification elements based on the first reflectivity and the second reflectivity;

determining a state of the feature based on the state of each of the identification elements;

comparing the state of the feature to an index of states stored in a memory; and

selecting the cleaning mode from among the cleaning modes based on the comparing.

8. The robot of claim 7, wherein the state of each of the identification elements is based on a detectability of the marking on the wrap layer.

9. The robot of claim 3, wherein the first reflectivity is substantially greater than the second reflectivity.

10. The robot of claim 2, wherein the marking comprises a colored ink, the pad sensor is for sensing a spectral response of the marking, and the signal corresponds to the sensed spectral response.

11. The robot of claim 10, 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 marking.

12. The robot of claim 11, wherein the first channel exhibits a peak spectral response in a visible light range.

13. The robot of claim 10, 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 marking to sense the spectral response of the marking.

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