Autonomous floor cleaning with a removable pad

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016270618-A1
Application number	US-201514658820-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 16, 2015
Priority date	Mar 16, 2015
Publication date	Sep 22, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An autonomous floor cleaning robot includes a robot body defining a forward drive direction, a controller supported by the robot body, a drive supporting the robot body and configured to maneuver the robot across a surface in response to commands from the controller, a pad holder disposed on an underside of the robot body and configured to retain a removable cleaning pad during operation of the cleaning robot; and a pad sensor arranged to sense a feature of a cleaning pad held by the pad holder and generate a corresponding signal. The controller is responsive to the signal generated by the pad sensor, and configured to control the robot according to a cleaning mode selected from a set of multiple robot cleaning modes as a function of the signal generated by the pad sensor.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An autonomous floor cleaning robot, comprising:
a robot body defining a forward drive direction; a controller supported by the robot body; a drive supporting the robot body and configured to maneuver the robot across a surface in response to commands from the controller; a pad holder disposed on an underside of the robot body and configured to retain a removable cleaning pad during operation of the cleaning robot; and a pad sensor arranged to sense a feature of a cleaning pad held by the pad holder and generate a corresponding signal; wherein the controller is responsive to the signal generated by the pad sensor, and configured to control the robot according to a cleaning mode selected from a set of multiple robot cleaning modes as a function of the signal generated by the pad sensor.

2 . The robot of claim 1 , wherein the pad sensor comprises at least one of a radiation emitter and a radiation detector.

3 . The robot of claim 2 , wherein the radiation detector exhibits a peak spectral response in a visible light range.

4 . The robot of claim 1 , wherein the feature is a colored ink disposed on a surface of the cleaning pad, the pad sensor senses a spectral response of the feature, and the signal corresponds to the sensed spectral response.

5 . The robot of claim 4 , wherein the signal comprises the sensed spectral response, and the controller compares the sensed spectral response to a stored spectral response in an index of colored inks stored on a memory storage element operable with the controller.

6 . The robot of claim 4 , wherein the pad sensor comprises a radiation detector having first and second channels responsive to radiation, the first channel and the second channel each sensing a portion of the spectral response of the feature.

7 . The robot of claim 6 , wherein the first channel exhibits a peak spectral response in a visible light range.

8 . The robot of claim 6 , wherein the pad sensor comprises a third channel that senses another portion of the spectral response of the feature.

9 . The robot of claim 6 , wherein the first channel exhibits a peak spectral response in an infrared range.

10 . The robot of claim 4 , wherein the pad sensor comprises a radiation emitter configured to emit a first radiation and a second radiation, and the pad sensor senses a reflection of the first and the second radiations off of the feature to sense the spectral response of the feature.

11 . The robot of claim 10 , wherein the radiation emitter is configured to emit a third radiation, and the pad sensor senses the reflection of the third radiation off of the feature to sense the spectral response of the feature.

12 . The robot of claim 1 , wherein the feature comprises a plurality of identification elements, each identification element having a first region and a second region, and wherein the pad sensor is arranged to independently sense a first reflectivity of the first region and a second reflectivity of the second region.

13 . The robot of claim 12 , wherein the pad sensor comprises a first radiation emitter arranged to illuminate the first region, a second radiation emitter arranged to illuminate the second region, and a photodetector arranged to receive reflected radiation from both the first region and the second region.

14 . The robot of claim 13 , wherein the first reflectivity is substantially greater than the second reflectivity.

15 . The robot of claim 1 , wherein the multiple robot cleaning modes each define a spraying schedule and navigational behavior.

16 . A set of autonomous robot cleaning pads of different types, each of the cleaning pads comprising:
a pad body having opposite broad surfaces, including a cleaning surface and a mounting surface; and a mounting plate secured across the mounting surface of the pad body and defining pad mounting locator features; wherein the mounting plate of each cleaning pad has a pad type identification feature unique to the type of the cleaning pad and that is positioned to be sensed by a robot to which the pad is mounted.

17 . The set of claim 16 , wherein the feature is a first feature, and the mounting plate has a second feature rotationally symmetric to the first feature.

18 . The set of claim 16 , wherein the feature has a spectral response attribute unique to the type of the cleaning pad.

19 . The set of claim 16 , wherein the feature has a reflectivity unique to the type of the cleaning pad.

20 . A method of cleaning a floor, the method comprising:
attaching a cleaning pad to an underside surface of an autonomous floor cleaning robot; placing the robot on a floor to be cleaned; initiating a floor cleaning operation in which the robot senses the attached cleaning pad and identifies a type of the pad from among a set of multiple pad types, and then autonomously cleans the floor in a cleaning mode selected according to the identified pad type.

Assignees

• Irobot Corp

Inventors

• Lu Ping-Hong
• Foran Dan
• Williams Marcus
• Johnson Joe
• Graziani Andrew

Classifications

• A47L2201/00

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

• A47L9/2805

  Parameters or conditions being sensed · CPC title

• A47L11/4044 Primary

  Vacuuming or pick-up tools; Squeegees · CPC title

• A47L9/0673 Primary

  with removable brushes, combs, lips or pads · CPC title

• A47L2201/04

  Automatic control of the travelling movement; Automatic obstacle detection · CPC title