Cleaning Pad Mounting Card Design for Autonomous Robot Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous floor cleaning robots face difficulties in maintaining mechanical stability and effective cleaning due to increased surface forces between the cleaning pad and the floor, particularly with larger pads, which can lead to bending or deformation, and existing solutions either compromise on stability or increase costs.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a pad holder with protrusions and a mounting card affixed to the cleaning pad, allowing for a specific orientation and engagement that provides mechanical stability while maintaining an economical design, with the pad sensor identifying the pad type to select appropriate cleaning modes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If the cleaning pad size is increased to improve cleaning coverage, then the cleaning effectiveness is improved, but the mechanical stability deteriorates due to increased surface forces causing bending or deformation
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting card is divided into a rigid central region and flexible side regions, allowing the central part to maintain structural stability while the sides can flex to accommodate the larger pad size and surface forces
Solution Approach 2:
The mounting card uses composite construction with rigid and flexible portions, combining materials or structures that provide both stiffness for stability and flexibility for deformation accommodation, resolving the contradiction between pad size and mechanical stability
2Stability of the object's composition
If the mounting card extends across the entire length of the cleaning pad to provide improved mechanical stability, then the stability is improved, but the manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting card has different structural properties in different regions: the central region is rigid for stability while the side regions are flexible or reduced in size, providing stability only where needed rather than uniformly across the entire pad length, thus reducing material costs
Solution Approach 2:
The mounting card extends partially across the cleaning pad length rather than fully, providing sufficient mechanical stability for the critical central region while avoiding the cost of material and manufacturing for the entire pad length
3Ease of manufacture
If the mounting card is made smaller to reduce manufacturing cost, then the manufacturing cost is reduced, but the mechanical stability becomes inadequate
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting card concentrates its rigid, stability-providing structure in the central region where it is most needed, while using flexible or reduced material at the sides, achieving adequate stability with less overall material and lower cost
Data Source
AI summary
An autonomous floor cleaning robot includes a robot body, a drive supporting the robot body to maneuver the robot across a floor surface, a pad holder attached to an underside of the robot body and configured to receive a removable cleaning pad, and a pad sensor configured to sense a pad type identifier on a central region of the cleaning pad. The pad type identifier includes a marker on the central region of the cleaning pad. The cleaning pad has a mounting card affixed thereto, and the pad type identifier includes an array of apertures that expose selected portions of the marker.