Autonomous floor cleaning with removable pad

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10064533-B2
Application number	US-201615383008-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 19, 2016
Priority date	Mar 16, 2015
Publication date	Sep 4, 2018
Grant date	Sep 4, 2018

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.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A set of autonomous robot cleaning pads, each of the cleaning pads including:
a pad body including a cleaning surface and a mounting surface opposing the cleaning surface, the mounting surface facing a robot when a cleaning pad is mounted to a pad holder of the robot; and
a mounting plate secured to the mounting surface of the pad body and enabling the cleaning pad to be received by the pad holder, the mounting plate including
cutouts positioned along edges of the mounting plate and being engageable with the pad holder of the robot when the cleaning pad is received by the pad holder, and
first and second pad type identifiers being oriented such that the first pad type identifier is detectable by a pad sensor of the robot when the cleaning pad in a first orientation is received by the pad holder and the second pad type identifier is detectable by the pad sensor of the robot when the cleaning pad in a second orientation is received by the pad holder of the robot.

2. The set of claim 1 , wherein the cutouts include a first set of cutouts positioned on longitudinal edges of the mounting plate and aligned along a longitudinal center axis of the cleaning pad.

3. The set of claim 2 , wherein the first set of cutouts are symmetric about a lateral center axis of the cleaning pad.

4. The set of claim 2 , wherein the cutouts include a second set of cutouts positioned on lateral edges of the mounting plate and aligned along a lateral center axis of the cleaning pad.

5. The set of claim 4 , wherein the second set of cutouts are symmetric about a longitudinal center axis of the cleaning pad.

6. The set of claim 1 , wherein the first orientation of the cleaning pad is 180 degrees rotated relative to the second orientation of the cleaning pad.

7. The set of claim 1 , wherein the mounting plate defines longitudinal edges protruding beyond the pad body.

8. The set of claim 1 , the cutouts of the cleaning pad are configured to engage protrusions of the pad holder of the robot to inhibit lateral motion of the cleaning pad relative to the pad holder of the robot.

9. The set of claim 1 , wherein a location of the first pad type identifier is symmetric to a location of the second pad type identifier about longitudinal and horizontal axes of the cleaning pad.

10. The set of claim 1 , wherein:
the pad body comprises a wrap layer wrapped around absorptive layers that absorb fluid,
the wrap layer defines the mounting surface, and
the first and second pad type identifiers are further defined by one or more markings on the wrap layer.

11. The set of claim 10 , wherein the first and second pad type identifiers define perimeters, and the one or more markings occupies areas extending beyond the perimeters.

12. The set of claim 1 , wherein the mounting plate comprises one or more transparent portions covering the first pad type identifier and the second pad type identifier.

13. The set of claim 1 , wherein the first and second pad type identifiers are defined at least in part by a plurality of cutouts on the mounting plate.

14. The set of claim 1 , wherein:
the mounting plate is a first mounting plate for a first cleaning pad, and the cleaning pads comprise a second mounting plate for a second cleaning pad;
a shape and a size of an outer perimeter of the first mounting plate are substantially identical to a shape and a size of an outer perimeter of the second mounting plate; and
an absorptivity of absorptive layers of the first cleaning pad is greater than an absorptivity of absorptive layers of the second cleaning pad.

15. The set of claim 1 , wherein a type of the cleaning pad indicated by the first and second pad type identifiers is indicative of a spraying schedule and navigational behavior of the robot.

16. The set of claim 1 , wherein the mounting plate comprises a water resistant coating.

17. The set of claim 1 , wherein:
the pad body comprises a wrap layer wrapped around absorptive layers that absorb fluid, and
the absorptive layers are exposed at a longitudinal end of the pad body.

18. The set of claim 1 , wherein the mounting plate comprises a thickness substantially between 0.5 and 0.8 millimeters.

Assignees

• Irobot Corp

Inventors

• Lu Ping-Hong
• Johnson Joseph M
• Foran Daniel
• Williams Marcus
• Graziani Andrew

Classifications

• A47L11/28

  Floor-scrubbing machines, motor-driven (A47L11/29 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A47L2201/06

  Control of the cleaning action for autonomous devices; Automatic detection of the surface condition before, during or after cleaning · CPC title

• A47L2201/00

  Robotic cleaning machines, i.e. with automatic control of the travelling movement or the cleaning operation · CPC title

• A47L11/4002 Primary

  Installations of electric equipment · CPC title

• A47L13/16

  Cloths; Pads; Sponges (metal scraping sponges A47L13/07) · CPC title