Cleaning device and method of operation of a cleaning device
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional cleaning devices, such as vacuum robots, require excessive time to cover large areas due to surface-optimized path determination, leading to inefficiencies and increased operational costs.
Innovation Solution
A cleaning device equipped with a detection unit, evaluation unit, and path planning unit that classifies dirt objects and determines an optimized path based on their position and type, allowing the device to efficiently navigate and clean large areas by prioritizing dirt classes and reducing the overall cleaning time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If area-optimized path determination is used to cover the entire surface in a single cleaning pass, then complete area coverage is achieved, but the cleaning path becomes very long and cleaning time increases excessively
Solution Approach 1:
The detection unit scans and detects contaminated objects before the cleaning process begins, creating a preliminary map of contamination locations. The evaluation unit then classifies these objects and the path planning unit generates an optimized path based on this advance information, allowing the cleaning device to prioritize high-contamination areas and avoid unnecessary travel through clean zones.
2Productivity
If the cleaning device follows a precisely defined optimized cleaning path, then cleaning efficiency is improved, but the device requires very long time to cover the entire path in large areas
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of applying a uniform cleaning approach across the entire area, the system applies local quality by detecting and classifying contamination at specific locations. The path planning unit then creates a customized path that adapts to local contamination conditions, concentrating cleaning efforts in high-contamination zones while reducing or skipping low-contamination areas.
3Manufacturing precision
If conventional path determination methods are used, then the entire surface is covered, but operational costs increase due to excessive cleaning time
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by using the detection unit to continuously monitor contamination levels and feed this information to the path planning unit. Based on this feedback, the cleaning path is dynamically optimized to focus resources where they are most needed, reducing unnecessary energy consumption in already clean areas while ensuring thorough coverage of contaminated zones.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
The invention relates to a cleaning device (100) having a receiving device (110) for receiving objects to be cleaned (0, 01 - 08), a drive device (120) for moving the cleaning device (100), a control device (130) for controlling the drive device (120) for steering a movement of the cleaning device (100) as a function of sensor signals provided by a sensor system (105), a detection unit (140) for detecting objects to be cleaned (0, 01 - 08) arranged in a predefinable area (A), an evaluation unit (150) for classifying the objects to be cleaned (0, 01 - 08) detected by the detection unit (140) into various contamination classes (K, Kl - K5), and a track planning unit (160) for determining an optimized track (Bopt) for the cleaning device (100) in the predefined area (A) as a function of a particular position (P, P1 - P6) of the objects to be cleaned (0, 01 - 08) detected and the particular contamination class (K, Kl - K5) of the object to be cleaned (0, 01 - 08), wherein the control device (130) is configured to control the drive device (120) to perform a cleaning pass along the optimized track (Bopt) determined.