Control of evacuation stations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11006806-B2
Application number	US-201916555483-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 29, 2019
Priority date	Aug 30, 2018
Publication date	May 18, 2021
Grant date	May 18, 2021

Abstract

An evacuation station for collecting debris from a cleaning robot includes a controller configured to execute instructions to perform one or more operations. The one or more operations includes initiating an evacuation operation such that an air mover draws air containing debris from the cleaning robot, through an intake of the evacuation station, and through a canister of the evacuation station and such that a receptacle received by the evacuation station receives at least a portion of the debris drawn from the cleaning robot. The one or more operations includes ceasing the evacuation operation in response to a pressure value being within a range. The pressure value is determined based at least in part on data indicative of an air pressure, and the range is set based at least in part on a number of evacuation operations initiated before the evacuation operation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An evacuation station for collecting debris from a cleaning robot, the evacuation station comprising:
an intake configured to interface with the cleaning robot;
a canister in pneumatic communication with the intake, the canister configured to receive a receptacle;
an air mover in pneumatic communication with the canister, the air mover configured to, during evacuation operations, draw air from the canister into the air mover;
one or more sensors configured to generate data indicative of an air pressure in the canister during an evacuation operation of the evacuation operations;
a controller configured to execute instructions to perform one or more operations comprising:
initiating the evacuation operation of the evacuation operations such that the air mover draws air containing the debris through the intake and through the canister and such that the receptacle receives at least a portion of the debris drawn from the cleaning robot; and
ceasing the evacuation operation in response to a pressure value being within a range, the pressure value being determined based at least in part on the data indicative of the air pressure, and the range being set based at least in part on a number of the evacuation operations initiated before the evacuation operation.

2. The evacuation station of claim 1 , wherein:
the evacuation operation is a second evacuation operation,
the data indicative of the air pressure are data indicative of a second air pressure in the canister during the second evacuation operation,
the one or more operations further comprise initiating a first evacuation operation of the evacuation operations before initiating the second evacuation operation and during which the one or more sensors generates data indicative of a first air pressure in the canister,
the range is set based at least in part on the data indicative of the first air pressure, and
the first evacuation operation and the second evacuation operation are consecutive evacuation operations.

3. The evacuation station of claim 1 , wherein:
the evacuation operation is a second evacuation operation,
the data indicative of the air pressure are data indicative of a second air pressure in the canister during the second evacuation operation,
the pressure value is a second pressure value, and
the one or more operations further comprise:
initiating a first evacuation operation during which the one or more sensors generates data indicative of a first air pressure in the canister, and
providing a human-perceptible indication indicating an evacuation failure in response to a first pressure value being outside of the range, the first pressure value being determined based at least in part on the first air pressure in the canister.

4. The evacuation station of claim 1 , wherein the receptacle is formed at least in part by a replaceable filter bag.

5. The evacuation station of claim 1 , wherein configurations of the one or more sensors to generate the data indicative of the air pressure comprise configurations of the one or more sensors to generate the data indicative of the air pressure at an end portion of the evacuation operation.

6. The evacuation station of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors is configured to generate data indicative of an ambient air pressure in the canister, and the pressure value corresponds to a difference between the air pressure and the ambient air pressure.

7. The evacuation station of claim 1 , wherein the one or more operations further comprise:
during the evacuation operation, determining a line voltage delivered to the evacuation station; and
reducing the line voltage to below a maximum allowable line voltage.

8. The evacuation station of claim 1 , wherein:
the pressure value is a second pressure value,
the data indicative of the air pressure are data indicative of a second air pressure,
the one or more operations further comprise:
during the evacuation operation, initiating an evacuation behavior during which the controller operates the air mover at an evacuation power level, and
during the evacuation operation and after completion of the evacuation behavior, initiating a clog dislodgement behavior, during which the controller operates the air mover at the evacuation power level, in response to a first pressure value being outside of the range, the first pressure value being determined based at least in part on a first air pressure in the canister during the evacuation behavior,
the one or more sensors is configured to generate data indicative of the first air pressure during the evacuation behavior, and
configurations of the one or more sensors to generate the data indicative of the second air pressure comprise configurations to generate the data indicative of the second air pressure after completion of the clog dislodgement behavior.

9. The evacuation station of claim 8 , wherein the air mover is configured to ramp up a power level of the air mover to the evacuation power level over a first length of time during the evacuation behavior and to ramp up the power level of the air mover to the evacuation power level over a second length of time during the clog dislodgement behavior, the first length of time being greater than the second length of time,
wherein the second length of time is 25% to 75% of the first length of time, and
wherein the first length of time is between 3 and 10 seconds, and the second length of time is between 0.5 and 4 seconds, and
wherein the one or more operations further comprise deactivating the air mover before initiating the clog dislodgement behavior and after initiating the evacuation behavior.

10. The evacuation station of claim 1 , wherein he range is set based at least in part on a predicted value for the pressure value.

11. The evacuation station of claim 10 , wherein:
the range is set based at least in part on data indicative of an uncertainty associated with the predicted value,
ceasing the evacuation operation in response to the pressure value being within the range comprises ceasing the evacuation operation in response to the pressure value being no more than an upper threshold of the range, and
the upper threshold is greater than the predicted value for the pressure value by an amount proportional to the uncertainty associated with the predicted value.

12. The evacuation station of claim 10 , wherein:
the range is set based at least in part on data indicative of an uncertainty associated with the predicted value,
ceasing the evacuation operation in response to the pressure value being outside of the range comprises ceasing the evacuation operation in response to the pressure value being no less than a lower threshold of the range, and
the lower threshold is less than the predicted value for the pressure value by an amount proportional to the uncertainty associated with the predicted value.

13. The evacuation station of claim 10 , wherein:
the data indicative of the predicted value are data indicative of a first predicted value,
the one or more operations further comprise, after ceasing the evacuation operation, providing a human-perceptible indication of a full state of the receptacle in response to a second predicted value being above a receptacle-full threshold value, the second predicted value being determined based at least in part on the first predicted value and the pressure value.

14. A method comprising:
initiating an evacuation operation during which an air mover directs air containing debris from a cleaning robot into an evacuation station, the evacuation operation being one of a plurality of evacuation operations; and
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Assignees

• Irobot Corp

Inventors

• Cargill Ellen B
• Dell'Accio Douglas
• Pheil Benjamin
• Pastore Flavia
• Schmitt Paul
• O'Brien John P

Classifications

• G05D7/0676

  by action on flow sources (G05D7/0688, G05D7/0694 take precedence) · CPC title

• B01D2279/55

  for cleaning appliances, e.g. suction cleaners · CPC title

• B01D46/446

  by pressure measuring · CPC title

• B01D46/0086

  Filter condition indicators · CPC title

• A47L2201/024

  Emptying dust or waste liquid containers · CPC title