Autonomous cleaner

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10856714-B2
Application number	US-201816053009-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 2, 2018
Priority date	May 20, 2016
Publication date	Dec 8, 2020
Grant date	Dec 8, 2020

Abstract

A robot cleaner comprising: a cleaner body including a controller, the cleaner body having a dust container accommodation part formed therein; a wheel unit mounted in the cleaner body, the wheel unit of which driving is controlled by the controller; and a dust container detachably coupled to the dust container accommodation part, wherein a first opening and a second opening are disposed at the same height in an inner wall of the dust container accommodation part, wherein the dust container includes: an entrance and an exit, disposed side by side along the circumference of the dust container, the entrance and the exit, respectively communicating with the first opening and the second opening when the dust container is accommodated in the dust container accommodation part; and a flow separating part extending downwardly inclined along the inner circumference of the dust container, the flow separating part separating the flow of air introduced into the entrance from the flow of air discharged toward the exit to be respectively guided to lower and upper portions thereof.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An autonomous cleaner, comprising:
a cleaner main body having a dust container dock provided toward a rear of the cleaner body;
a dust container configured to be set into the dust container dock and having a multi-cyclone to filter foreign substances;
a suction unit provided toward a front of the cleaner main body;
a battery provided in the cleaner main body and positioned between the suction unit and the dust container; and
a fan motor module configured to generate suction force and positioned between the suction unit and the dust container in the cleaner main body,
wherein the battery and the fan motor module lie on opposite sides of a reference line passing through a center of the suction unit and a center of the dust container.

2. The cleaner of claim 1 , wherein portions of the fan motor module and the battery are located at a central portion of the cleaner main body, and remaining portions of the fan motor module and the battery are disposed outside of the central portion toward the front of the cleaner main body.

3. The cleaner of claim 2 , wherein main wheels are provided at opposite sides of the central portion and are controlled by a controller to be driven.

4. The cleaner of claim 3 , wherein the suction unit is located toward a front of the main wheels, and the center of the dust container is located toward a rear of the main wheels.

5. The cleaner of claim 4 , wherein at least one first sub wheel is provided at a bottom surface of the suction unit and at least one second sub wheel is provided at a bottom surface of the dust container dock.

6. The cleaner of claim 1 , wherein the suction unit has a shape elongated in a direction perpendicular to the reference line.

7. The cleaner of claim 1 , wherein the foreign substances include dust and fine dust, and the multi-cyclone includes:
a first cyclone to filter dust from air introduced into the dust container; and
a second cyclone provided inside the first cyclone to filter the fine dust.

8. The cleaner of claim 1 , wherein the dust container dock has an opened top and rear in the cleaner main body.

9. The cleaner of claim 8 , wherein a rear portion of the dust container protrudes beyond a rear end of the cleaner main body when the dust container is placed into the dust container dock.

10. The cleaner of claim 1 , further comprising a dust container cover rotatably hinged to the cleaner main body and configured to cover a top surface of the dust container in a closed position.

11. The cleaner of claim 1 , wherein the cleaner main body is provided therein with an intake duct connecting the suction unit to an entrance of the dust container, and an exhaust duct configured to direct filtered air from an exit of the dust container toward an exhaust port of the cleaner main body, and
wherein the intake flow path and the exhaust flow path are arranged on the same side in which the fan motor module is located relative to the reference line.

12. The cleaner of claim 11 , wherein the exhaust port is provided at one side of the dust container dock.

13. The cleaner of claim 11 , wherein a part of the intake duct and a part of the exhaust duct overlap each other in a top-bottom direction at the fan motor module.

14. The cleaner of claim 1 , further comprising a sensor module positioned at an upper corner of the cleaner main body and positioned above the suction unit.

15. The cleaner of claim 14 , wherein the sensor module includes:
a first sensor oriented at an inclined angle relative to side and top surfaces at the upper corner of the cleaner body to capture at least one image corresponding to front and/or upper area in front of the cleaner main body.

16. The cleaner of claim 15 , further comprising a second sensor on the side surface between the suction head and the first sensor to detect an obstacle located in front of the cleaner main body.

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Nam Bohyun
• Shim Inbo
• Sung Jihoon
• Park Sojin
• Song Seunghyun
• Lee Sangkyu
• Jun Woochan

Classifications

• A47L9/0477 Primary

  Rolls · CPC title

• A47L9/1608

  Cyclonic chamber constructions · CPC title

• A47L9/1641

  for parallel flow · CPC title

• A47L9/122

  flat · CPC title

• A47L11/33 Primary

  having means for storing dirt · CPC title