Autonomous floor cleaning with removable pad

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10952585-B2
Application number	US-201816117416-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2018
Priority date	Mar 16, 2015
Publication date	Mar 23, 2021
Grant date	Mar 23, 2021

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. An autonomous floor cleaning robot comprising:
a pad holder configured to hold a removable cleaning pad;
a drive system to maneuver the robot across a floor surface as the cleaning pad held by the pad holder cleans the floor surface;
a pad sensor configured to sense an identification pattern visible on the cleaning pad and generate a signal based on a type of the cleaning pad indicated by the identification pattern; and
a controller configured to select a cleaning mode from among multiple cleaning modes based on the signal and control the robot according to the selected cleaning mode.

2. The robot of claim 1 , wherein configurations of the pad sensor to sense the identification pattern comprise configurations to sense at least a portion of a marking on the cleaning pad.

3. The robot of claim 2 , wherein configurations of the pad sensor to sense the identification pattern comprise configurations to sense the portion of the marking and to sense an unmarked portion of a mounting plate of the cleaning pad.

4. The robot of claim 2 , wherein the marking is on a pad body of the cleaning pad, and the identification pattern is defined at least in part by a cutout on a mounting plate of the cleaning pad.

5. The robot of claim 4 , wherein configurations of the pad sensor to sense the identification pattern comprise configurations to sense only a portion of the marking on the pad body visible through the cutout.

6. The robot of claim 5 , wherein the marking occupies an area on the pad body extending beyond an outer perimeter of identification elements of the identification pattern, wherein configurations of the pad sensor to sense the identification pattern comprise configurations to sense each of the identification elements of the identification pattern.

7. The robot of claim 6 , wherein configurations of the pad sensor to generate the signal comprise configurations to generate the signal based on states of the identification elements of the identification pattern sensed by the pad sensor, the states of the identification elements being defined at least in part by optical characteristics of the identification elements.

8. The robot of claim 1 , wherein the pad sensor is configured to independently sense a reflectivity of a first region of the identification pattern and a reflectivity of a second region of the identification pattern.

9. The robot of claim 8 , wherein the reflectivity of the first region is defined by a reflectivity of a mounting plate of the cleaning pad, and the reflectivity of the second region is defined by a reflectivity of a marking at least partially defining the identification pattern.

10. The robot of claim 1 , wherein the cleaning modes each define a different corresponding spraying schedule or navigational behavior.

11. A cleaning pad mountable to an autonomous floor cleaning robot, the cleaning pad comprising:
a pad body having a cleaning surface configured to clean a floor surface as the robot moves across the floor surface with the cleaning pad mounted to the robot;
an identification pattern visible on the cleaning pad, the identification pattern indicative of a type of the cleaning pad among multiples types of cleaning pads; and
a mounting plate secured on the pad body, the mounting plate enabling a pad sensor of the robot, with the cleaning pad mounted to the robot, to detect the identification pattern.

12. The cleaning pad of claim 11 , wherein the identification pattern is defined at least in part by an unmarked portion of the mounting plate.

13. The cleaning pad of claim 11 , wherein the identification pattern is defined at least in part by a marking visible on the cleaning pad.

14. The cleaning pad of claim 13 , wherein the marking is on the pad body, and the identification pattern is defined at least in part by a cutout on the mounting plate.

15. The cleaning pad of claim 14 , wherein the cutout is substantially rectangular.

16. The cleaning pad of claim 14 , wherein only a portion of the marking on the pad body is visible through the cutout.

17. The cleaning pad of claim 14 , wherein the marking occupies an area on the pad body extending beyond an outer perimeter of identification elements of the identification pattern, each of the identification elements of the identification pattern being detectable by the pad sensor of the robot.

18. The cleaning pad of claim 17 , wherein states of the identification elements of the identification pattern are indicative of the type of the cleaning pad, the states being defined at least in part by optical characteristics of the identification elements.

19. The cleaning pad of claim 17 , wherein the area of the marking is between 0.5 and 4 square centimeters.

20. The cleaning pad of claim 17 , wherein the area of the marking is between 10 and 50% of an area of the mounting plate.

21. The cleaning pad of claim 11 , wherein the identification pattern is a first identification pattern, and the cleaning pad further comprises a second identification pattern indicative of the type of the cleaning pad, the first and second identification patterns being arranged symmetrically about a longitudinal center axis of the mounting plate and a lateral center axis of the mounting plate.

22. An autonomous floor cleaning robot comprising:
a pad holder configured to hold a removable cleaning pad;
a drive system to maneuver the robot across a floor surface as the cleaning pad held by the pad holder cleans the floor surface;
a pad sensor to sense at least a portion of a marking visible on the cleaning pad and to generate a signal in response to sensing at least the portion of the marking, the signal being indicative of a type of the cleaning pad; and
a controller configured to select a cleaning mode from among multiple cleaning modes based on the signal and control the robot according to the selected cleaning mode.

23. The robot of claim 22 , wherein the marking has a width between 5 mm and 50 mm.

24. The robot of claim 22 , wherein the marking is disposed on a pad body of the cleaning pad.

25. The robot of claim 24 , wherein the portion of the marking visible on the cleaning pad is defined at least in part by a cutout on a mounting pad of the cleaning pad, the portion of the marking being visible through the cutout.

26. The robot of claim 25 , wherein an area occupied by the marking on the pad body extends beyond a perimeter of the cutout.

Assignees

• Irobot Corp
• Robot Corp

Inventors

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

Classifications

• B08B1/14

  Wipes; Absorbent members, e.g. swabs or sponges (with integrated means for dispensing fluids B08B1/40) · CPC title

• G05D2105/10

  for cleaning, vacuuming or polishing · CPC title

• B08B1/143

  Wipes · CPC title

• B08B7/04

  by a combination of operations · CPC title

• A47L13/24

  Frames for mops; Mop heads (handles B25G) · CPC title