Camera-Guided Pool Cleaner Control for Complete Surface Coverage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Automated robotic pool cleaners face challenges in effectively controlling and monitoring to ensure thorough cleaning of all pool surfaces, making the process inefficient and time-consuming.
Innovation Solution
A pool cleaning system equipped with a self-propelled cleaner, rotatably-mounted supports, a filter, an electric motor, cameras for surface imaging, and a controller that generates control signals to direct the cleaner based on cleanliness characteristics, along with a portable device for graphical representation of cleaned and unclean areas, ensuring comprehensive and efficient cleaning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If automated robotic pool cleaners are used, then cleaning efficiency is improved, but control and monitoring difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs cameras to capture images of the pool surface and uses image processing to analyze cleanliness characteristics. This visual feedback is transmitted to a controller that processes the data and generates control signals to adjust the cleaner's path and operations in real-time, resolving the control and monitoring difficulty while maintaining high cleaning efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical control with automated electronic control systems. The controller uses image processing algorithms to automatically determine cleanliness characteristics and generate control signals, substituting the need for manual monitoring and adjustment mechanisms
2Ease of operation
If manual cleaning is performed, then control and monitoring is easier, but time consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic pool cleaner operates autonomously to clean the pool surface without requiring continuous manual intervention. The system self-navigates, self-monitors through onboard cameras, and self-adjusts its cleaning path based on real-time image analysis, eliminating the time-consuming nature of manual cleaning while maintaining ease of operation through automated control
Solution Approach 2:
The real-time image capture and processing system provides continuous feedback on cleaning progress and surface cleanliness, enabling automated adjustment of the cleaning path. This feedback mechanism allows the system to operate independently without manual monitoring, significantly reducing time consumption compared to manual cleaning
Data Source
AI summary
A pool cleaning system for cleaning debris from a submerged surface of a swimming pool includes a self-propelled pool cleaner having rotatably-mounted supports for supporting and guiding the cleaner on the pool surface; an electric motor for enabling the rotation of the rotatably-mounted supports on the pool surface; at least one camera to capture imagery of the pool surface; a controller, in electronic communication with the at least one camera, to determine a cleanliness characteristic of the pool surface on which the cleaner has passed based on the camera imagery and generate a control signal to direct movement of the cleaner based on the cleanliness characteristic of the pool surface, and a portable electronic device configured to present a graphic on a display, the graphic depicting the submerged surface of the pool and those portions of the surface that remain uncleaned as the cleaner traverses the pool surface.