Autonomous surface cleaning robot for wet and dry cleaning

Abstract

An autonomous floor cleaning robot includes a transport drive and control system arranged for autonomous movement of the robot over a floor for performing cleaning operations. The robot chassis carries a first cleaning zone comprising cleaning elements arranged to suction loose particulates up from the cleaning surface and a second cleaning zone comprising cleaning elements arraigned to apply a cleaning fluid onto the surface and to thereafter collect the cleaning fluid up from the surface after it has been used to clean the surface. The robot chassis carries a supply of cleaning fluid and a waste container for storing waste materials collected up from the cleaning surface.

Description

[0001] This invention claims priority from Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 654,839 filed Feb. 18, 2005. CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0002] This application relates to co-pending and co-assigned patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled AUTONOMOUS SURFACE CLEANING ROBOT FOR DRY CLEANING, and patent application Ser. No. ______ entitled, AUTONOMOUS SURFACE CLEANING ROBOT FOR WET CLEANING both of which are filed even dated herewith and incorporated herein by this reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] 1. Field of the Invention [0004] The present invention relates to cleaning devices, and more particularly, to an autonomous surface cleaning robot. In particular, the surface cleaning robot includes two separate cleaning zones with a first cleaning zone configured to collect loose particulates from the surface and with a second cleaning zone configured to apply a cleaning fluid onto the surface, scrub the surface and thereafter collect a waste liquid from the surfa...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

While each of the above examples provide affordable autonomous floor clearing robots for collecting loose particulates, there is heretofore no teaching of an affordable autonomous floor cleaning robot for applying a cleaning fluid onto the floor to wet clean floors in the home.

The cleaning fluid interacts with contaminates on the surface and may dissolve or otherwise emulsify contaminates into the cleaning fluid.

One problem with the manual floor cleaning methods of the prior art is that after cleaning an area of the floor surface, the waste liquid must be rinsed from the mop or sponge, and this usually done by dipping the mop or sponge back into the container filled with cleaning fluid.

The rinsing step contaminates the cleaning fluid with waste liquid and the cleaning fluid becomes more contaminated each time the mop or sponge is rinsed.

As a result, the effectiveness of the cleaning fluid deteriorates as more of the floor surface area is cleaned.

While the traditional manual method is effective for floor cleaning, it is labor intensive and time consuming.

Moreover, its cleaning effectiveness decreases as the cleaning fluid becomes contaminated.

While the device disclosed by Betker et al. is usable to autonomously wet clean large floor areas, it is not suitable for the home market.

In particular, the industrial autonomous cleaning device disclosed by Betker et al. is too large, costly and complex for use in the home and consumes too much electrical power to provide a practical solution for the home wet floor cleaning market.

While Wright et al. teach a self contained wet cleaning device as well as an improved wet cleaning method that separates waste liquid from cleaning fluid the device is manually operated and lacks robotic functionality.

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