Set of pool cleaning robots

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10858852-B2
Application number	US-201715702772-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 13, 2017
Priority date	Sep 13, 2016
Publication date	Dec 8, 2020
Grant date	Dec 8, 2020

Abstract

A method and a set of pool cleaning robots for cleaning a pool. The set includes a first pool cleaning robot and a second pool cleaning robot that differ from each other by at least one unit out of a propulsion unit and a cleaning unit. Each one of the first pool cleaning robot and the second pool cleaning robot includes a filtering unit, a housing, and a controller.

First claim

We claim:

1. A set of pool cleaning robots for cleaning a pool, wherein the set comprises a first pool cleaning robot and a second pool cleaning robot that differ from each other by at least one unit out of a propulsion unit and a cleaning unit;
wherein each one of the first pool cleaning robot and the second pool cleaning robot comprises a filtering unit, a housing, and a controller;
wherein the controller of the first cleaning robot is configured to allocate a first region to be cleaned by the first pool cleaning robot based on a progress or a lack of progress of a cleaning task allocated to the second pool cleaning robot, and to transmit information about the first region to the second pool cleaning robot; and
wherein the controller of the second pool cleaning robot is configured to allocate, based on the information about the first region, a second region to be cleaned by the second robot.

2. The set according to claim 1 wherein the first and second pool cleaning robots are configured to clean at least one region of the pool in a cooperative manner.

3. The set according to claim 1 wherein at least one pool cleaning robot of the set is configured to clean a sidewall of the pool.

4. The set according to claim 1 , wherein at least one pool cleaning robot of the set is configured to perform collision avoidance steps for preventing a collision between the first pool cleaning robot and the second pool cleaning robot.

5. The set according to claim 1 wherein at least one of the set is configured to perform cable entanglement avoidance steps for preventing an entanglement of a cable connected to the first pool cleaning robot with a cable connected to the second pool cleaning robot.

6. The set according to claim 1 wherein a cleaning unit of the first pool cleaning robot comprises a PVC brush wheel and does not include a Polyvinyl acetate (PVA) sponge brush wheel; and wherein a cleaning unit of the second pool cleaning robot comprises a PVA sponge brush wheel and does not include a PVC brush wheel.

7. The set according to claim 1 wherein the controller of the second cleaning robot is configured to allocate a cleaning region to be cleaned by the second pool cleaning robot based on a progress or a lack of progress of a cleaning task allocated to the first pool cleaning robot.

8. The set according to claim 1 wherein only one of the first pool cleaning robot and the second pool cleaning robot comprises a brush wheel that comprises a sponge brush wheel portion and a PVC brush wheel portion.

9. The set according to claim 1 wherein the first pool cleaning robot is configured to remove coarser dirt than the second pool cleaning robot.

10. The set according to claim 1 wherein the first pool cleaning robot is configured to hover between a bottom of a pool floor and a waterline.

11. The set according to claim 1 wherein the first pool cleaning robot is configured to skim the water surface and then sink to the bottom floor.

12. The set according to claim 1 , wherein the first pool cleaning robot comprises a detachable module, wherein the first pool cleaning robot and the second pool cleaning robot are configured to interchangeably receive the detachable module.

13. The set according to claim 1 , wherein the first pool cleaning robot comprises a detachable sensor, wherein the first pool cleaning robot and the second pool cleaning robot are configured to interchangeably receive the detachable sensor.

14. The set according to claim 1 wherein the first pool cleaning robot and the second pool cleaning robot are configured to clean a same region of the pool at different manners.

15. The set according to claim 14 , wherein the first pool cleaning robot is configured to perform a preliminary cleaning of the region and the second pool cleaning robot is configured to perform a supplementary cleaning of the region, wherein the preliminary cleaning is slower than the supplementary cleaning.

16. The set according to claim 1 wherein the first pool cleaning robot is configured to clean a slippery flat bottom region of the pool.

17. The set according to claim 1 wherein the controller of the first pool cleaning robot and the controller of the second pool cleaning robot are configured to cooperatively reallocate cleaning tasks according to failures to complete cleaning tasks.

18. The set according to claim 17 wherein the failures to complete the cleaning tasks are failures to traverse slippery pool surfaces.

19. The set according to claim 1 wherein only the first pool cleaning robot is configured to clean a slippery sloped bottom region of the pool.

20. The set according to claim 1 wherein the controller of the first pool cleaning robot is configured to allocate the first region based on a success or a failure of the second pool cleaning robot to match a nominal expected propagation movement of the second pool cleaning robot.

Assignees

• Maytronics Ltd

Inventors

• Goldenberg Sharon
• Hadari Yair
• Regev Ofer
• Witelson Shay

Classifications

• B25J3/00

  Manipulators of leader-follower type, i.e. both controlling unit and controlled unit perform corresponding spatial movements · CPC title

• E04H4/1654 Primary

  Self-propelled cleaners · CPC title

• Y10S901/01

  Mobile robot · CPC title

• B25J11/0085

  Cleaning · CPC title

• G05D1/0219

  ensuring the processing of the whole working surface · CPC title