Robotic floor care appliance with improved remote management

• US 20060293788A1
• Filed: 06/26/2005
• Published: 12/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Pavel Pogodin
• Original Assignee: Pavel Pogodin
• Inventors: Pogodin, Pavel
• Application Number:
  US11/167,675
• Publication Number:
  US 20060293788A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/245
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/04 Automatic control of the travelling movement; Automatic obstacle detection
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0011 associated with a remote control arrangement
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0225 involving docking at a fixed facility, e.g. base station or loading bay parking aids B62D15/027
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0227 using mechanical sensing means, e.g. for sensing treated area
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0246 using a video camera in combination with image processing means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 2201/0215 Vacuum cleaner
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A robotic floor care appliance with flexible web-enabled scheduling and status information/diagnostics systems. The robotic floor care appliance is supplied with a wireless network interface unit, which enables the appliance to establish network connections with remote network entities. The appliance may be provided with web and/or e-mail server(s) to enable the user to easily access the status/diagnostic information of the appliance and to furnish scheduling information to the appliance via various web-enabled protocols. The status/diagnostic information may be displayed to the user as a web page or sent to the user via e-mail. The scheduling information may be received from the user and transmitted to the appliance via HTTP protocol. The appliance may use web or e-mail connections to automatically notify the user of the status of the cleaning supplies, presence of malfunctions, if any, and the need for service. The appliance may also send the performance information to the manufacturer, which can be used to diagnose performance problems, create software patches, and to improve design of future products. Finally, the appliance may automatically download control software updates via a network connection.

Claims

1. A method for managing a robotic floor care appliance, the robotic floor care appliance comprising a drive unit and a control unit, the control unit comprising a central processing unit, a storage unit, a network interface unit and a plurality of sensors, the robotic floor care appliance being managed by a user accessing a client computer connected to a network, the method comprising:

establishing a network connection between the robotic floor care appliance and a client computer through the network using the network interface unit;

transmitting a first information from the floor care appliance to the client computer, the first information comprising a control interface of the robotic floor care appliance;

displaying the control interface on the client computer to the user;

receiving scheduling information from the user of the client computer using the displayed control interface of the floor care appliance;

transmitting the scheduling information from the client computer to the robotic floor care appliance via network;

receiving the scheduling information transmitted by the client computer by the robotic floor care appliance;

storing the scheduling information in the storage unit of the robotic floor care appliance; and

activating the robotic floor care appliance in accordance with the stored scheduling information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting further comprises sending information on the status of the robotic floor care appliance to the client computer.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the status information comprises the information on the remaining capacity of the dust container of the robotic floor care appliance.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the status information comprises the video signal from a video camera installed in the robotic floor care appliance.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the network is a wireless network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the said establishing comprises receiving a network address for the robotic floor care appliance and establishing connection with a network entity designated by the received address.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the displayed control interface comprises a web document.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the control interface of the robotic floor care appliance is displayed on a web browser.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the control interface of the robotic floor care appliance comprises a web form.

10. A robotic floor care appliance comprising:

a drive unit, the drive unit comprising at least one motor;

a power unit for supplying power to the robotic floor care appliance;

a control unit, the control unit comprising;

a central processing unit;

a data storage unit;

a network interface unit; and

a plurality of sensors;

wherein the data storage unit of the robotic floor care appliance embodies a software program, which causes the robotic floor care appliance to;

establish a network connection between the robotic floor care appliance and a client computer through a network using the network interface unit;

transmit a first information from the floor care appliance to the client computer for displaying to the user, the first information comprising a control interface of the robotic floor care appliance;

receive from the client computer scheduling information input by the user into the client computer;

store the scheduling information in the storage unit of the robotic floor care appliance; and

activate the robotic floor care appliance in accordance with the stored scheduling information.

11. The robotic floor care appliance of claim 10, wherein the first information further comprises the information on the status of the robotic floor care appliance.

12. The robotic floor care appliance of claim 11, wherein the status information comprises the information on the remaining capacity of the dust container of the robotic floor care appliance.

13. The robotic floor care appliance of claim 11, further comprising at least one video camera, wherein the status information comprises the video signal from the at least one video camera.

14. The robotic floor care appliance of claim 10, wherein the network is a wireless network.

15. The robotic floor care appliance of claim 10, wherein said establishing comprises requesting a network address for the robotic floor care appliance and receiving the requested network address.

16. The robotic floor care appliance of claim 11, wherein the control interface displayed to the user comprises controls for controlling the drive unit of the robotic floor care appliance.

17. The robotic floor care appliance of claim 11, wherein the network interface unit is a Bluetooth protocol compliant.

18. The robotic floor care appliance of claim 11, wherein the plurality of sensors comprises a voice sensor, and wherein the data storage unit of the robotic floor care appliance further embodies a voice recognition software.

19. A robotic floor care appliance comprising:

a drive unit, the drive unit comprising at least one motor;

a power unit for supplying power to the robotic floor care appliance;

a control unit, the control unit comprising;

a central processing unit;

a data storage unit;

a network interface unit; and

a plurality of sensors;

wherein the data storage unit of the robotic floor care appliance embodies a at least one event notification criteria and a software program, which causes the robotic floor care appliance to;

monitor at least one event, the at least one event comprising the status of the components of the floor care appliance;

establish a network connection between the robotic floor care appliance and a client computer through a network using the network interface unit; and

notify a user of the robotic floor care appliance via an established network connection of at least one event that satisfies the stored event notification criteria.

20. The robotic floor care appliance of claim 19, wherein the event notification criteria is input by the user of the robotic floor care appliance during its configuration.