Cleaning Robot Retractable Pad Design for Obstacle-Adjacent Cleaning
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Cleaning robots face challenges in effectively cleaning spaces adjacent to obstacles due to protruding cleaning pads that increase interference and limit passage through narrow spaces, compromising stability and efficiency.
Innovation Solution
The cleaning robot features a rotatable and laterally movable cleaning pad assembly that can switch between a pop-in and pop-out position, maintaining a circular exterior shape for stable driving and allowing efficient cleaning near obstacles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a cleaning robot navigates and cleans simultaneously, then cleaning efficiency is improved, but the robot cannot detect obstacles in front of the brush roller and may cause secondary contamination
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning function is segmented into two separate operations: a first cleaning operation where the brush roller rotates to clean the surface, and a second cleaning operation where the brush roller is lifted to detect obstacles before resuming cleaning. This segmentation allows the robot to maintain high cleaning efficiency while periodically detecting obstacles to prevent secondary contamination.
Solution Approach 2:
The brush roller alternates between rotating and lifting states in periodic cycles. During each cycle, the brush roller rotates for cleaning, then lifts periodically to detect obstacles in its path. This periodic action ensures continuous cleaning progress while maintaining obstacle detection capability to avoid contaminating detected obstacles.
2Speed
If the brush roller rotates continuously, then cleaning speed is improved, but the robot cannot detect obstacles and may collide with them
Solution Approach 1:
The brush roller operates in periodic cycles, alternating between rotating at high speed for efficient cleaning and lifting to detect obstacles. This periodic action maintains high average cleaning speed while providing regular obstacle detection opportunities, preventing collisions and secondary contamination.
Solution Approach 2:
The obstacle detection is performed as a preliminary action before the brush roller resumes rotating for cleaning. By lifting the brush roller to detect obstacles first, the system ensures that the subsequent high-speed cleaning operation will not collide with or contaminate detected obstacles.
3Measurement precision
If the brush roller is lifted to detect obstacles, then obstacle detection accuracy is improved, but cleaning continuity is interrupted
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements periodic obstacle detection where the brush roller lifts briefly at regular intervals during cleaning operations. These short, periodic interruptions maintain high obstacle detection accuracy while minimizing disruption to overall cleaning continuity, as the robot quickly resumes cleaning after each detection cycle.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A cleaning robot includes a main body having an exterior portion extending along a perimeter of the main body; wheels that are drivable to move the robot; a rotation shaft; and a holder coupled to the rotation shaft to support a cleaning pad. The rotation shaft and the holder are rotatable along a rotation axis that is perpendicular to the surface to be cleaned, and the rotation shaft is laterally movable in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis to: a pop-in position in which the rotation shaft and the holder are under the main body and not protruding beyond the exterior portion of the main body, and a pop-out position in which the rotation shaft is under the main body and not protruding beyond the exterior portion and the holder is partially under the main body and partially protruding beyond the exterior portion of the main body.