Mobile Cleaning Robot Bin with Bottom Evacuation and Removable Filter
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing mobile cleaning robots face challenges in efficiently evacuating debris from their bins without losing suction, ensuring proper bin alignment, and allowing easy filter maintenance and debris removal.
Innovation Solution
A mobile cleaning robot design featuring a bin with a rigid structure, internal barrier, and filter unit, along with a handle and latch system for easy bin removal and filter access, ensures precise bin positioning, minimizes suction loss, and allows for autonomous evacuation and filter maintenance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the bin is designed with a rigid structure and internal barrier to maintain structural integrity, then the bin can properly align and maintain suction, but the filter maintenance and debris removal become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The bin is divided into multiple compartments by internal barriers, with each compartment accessible through separate openings in the bin wall. This allows selective access to different sections for filter maintenance or debris removal without compromising the overall rigid structure or requiring complete bin disassembly.
Solution Approach 2:
The filter is extracted as a separate removable component from the bin structure. The filter can be removed through an opening in the bin wall without removing the entire bin or compromising its rigid structure, enabling easy maintenance while maintaining structural integrity.
2Productivity
If the bin includes multiple compartments separated by internal barriers, then debris can be organized and evacuation efficiency improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The bin interior is segmented into multiple compartments by internal barriers that are integrated into the bin structure. Each compartment can be independently accessed through openings in the bin wall, allowing organized debris storage and efficient evacuation without requiring complex external mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The internal barriers serve multiple functions: they create compartment boundaries, provide structural support within the bin, and work with the bin wall openings to enable selective access. This merging of functions reduces overall device complexity while maintaining productivity benefits.
3Reliability
If the filter unit is permanently installed in the airflow path, then suction efficiency is maintained, but filter maintenance becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The filter unit is designed as a removable component that can be extracted from the airflow path through an opening in the bin wall. This allows the filter to be maintained or replaced without compromising the permanent installation of the bin structure or requiring disassembly of the entire robot, thus maintaining suction efficiency while enabling easy maintenance.
Solution Approach 2:
The bin wall opening serves as an intermediary access point that allows filter maintenance without requiring complete disassembly of the airflow path or bin structure. This intermediate access maintains the integrity of the suction system while facilitating easy filter replacement.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enhances debris evacuation efficiency, reduces suction loss, and facilitates easy filter maintenance and bin emptying, extending the robot's operating time before bin evacuation is needed.
Implementation Method 1
a blower affixed to the chassis, a bin supported by the chassis and configured to receive airflow from the blower
Implementation Method 2
The bin includes a filter unit supported by the internal barrier and removably disposed in an airflow path between the first volume that includes an intake port in the bin and the second volume that includes an exhaust port in the bin
Implementation Method 3
The bottom of the bin includes a movable barrier for evacuation of contents of the bin, the movable barrier being configured to open when a suction force is applied to the movable barrier from outside of the bin
Data Source
AI summary
This document describes a mobile cleaning robot including a chassis having a forward portion and an aft portion; a blower affixed to the chassis; a bin supported by the chassis and configured to receive airflow from the blower, the chassis enabling evacuation of the bin through a bottom of the robot. The bin includes a top, a bottom, a sidewall, and an internal barrier. The bin includes a first volume and a second volume separated by the internal barrier and a filter unit supported by the internal barrier and removably disposed in an airflow path between the first volume that includes an intake port in the bin and the second volume that includes an exhaust port in the bin.