Mapping interface for mobile robots
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing autonomous cleaning robots lack the ability to efficiently generate and customize maps of cleaning areas, limiting user control over specific cleaning missions and on-demand cleaning tasks.
Innovation Solution
A mobile application that allows users to create and edit a master map by positioning and adjusting graphical dividers to define room boundaries, enabling customizable cleaning missions based on user-defined areas.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If autonomous cleaning robots navigate and clean entire areas automatically, then cleaning coverage is improved, but user control over specific cleaning areas is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning area is segmented into multiple selectable rooms or zones on a digital map. Users can divide the overall cleaning space into discrete regions (e.g., bedroom, living room, kitchen) and independently select which regions to clean. This segmentation enables both comprehensive cleaning coverage when all rooms are selected and precise control over specific areas when only certain rooms are chosen, directly resolving the contradiction between cleaning coverage and user control.
2Reliability
If cleaning robots perform comprehensive cleaning of all areas, then cleaning thoroughness is improved, but cleaning time for specific areas increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts or isolates specific rooms or zones from the overall cleaning area through map segmentation and selective designation. Users can extract only the necessary areas (e.g., just the kitchen and bathroom) from the complete floor plan and instruct the robot to clean only those extracted regions. This eliminates unnecessary cleaning of other areas, maintaining thoroughness in selected zones while significantly reducing total cleaning time.
3Productivity
If users want to clean only specific rooms on-demand, then cleaning efficiency is improved, but map customization capability is required
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a digital copy or representation of the physical cleaning environment in the form of an editable map interface. This digital map replicates the floor plan and room structures, allowing users to interact with and customize the virtual representation without affecting the physical space. Users can easily modify room boundaries, names, and selections on the digital copy, enabling on-demand cleaning of specific rooms while keeping the actual system relatively simple.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of operating an autonomous cleaning robot includes presenting, on a display of a handheld computing device, a graphical representation of a map including a plurality of selectable rooms, presenting, on the display, at least one selectable graphical divider representing boundaries of at least one of the plurality of selectable rooms, the at least one selectable graphical divider being adjustable to change at least one of the boundaries of the plurality of selectable rooms, receiving input, at the handheld computing device, representing a selection of an individual selectable graphical divider, receiving input, at the handheld computing device, representing at least one adjustment to the individual selectable graphical divider, the at least one adjustment including at least one of moving, rotating, or deleting the individual selectable graphical divider, and presenting, on the display, a graphical representation of a map wherein the individual selectable graphical divider is adjusted.