Floor treatment machine and method for treating floor surfaces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current automatic floor treatment machines face inefficiencies in navigating and cleaning non-coherent surfaces, requiring high processing effort and storage capacity, and struggle with adapting to changing conditions and regional cleaning requirements.
Innovation Solution
A floor treatment machine that determines and treats zones independently, using virtual obstacles to manage navigation and treatment, allowing for flexible zone selection without computing optimized routes for each zone, and employs sensors for real-time obstacle detection and position orientation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the floor surface is mapped as accurately as possible and an advantageous route is determined, then the cleaning efficiency is improved, but the computing effort and storage capacity requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The floor surface is divided into multiple zones instead of mapping the entire surface. The controller determines and stores only the boundaries of these zones, significantly reducing the data quantity that needs to be processed and stored while still enabling efficient cleaning paths within each zone.
2Measurement precision
If a grid system is used to store the map of the room with high resolution, then the position accuracy is improved, but the data quantities to be stored and processed increase correspondingly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential information needed for navigation - the boundaries of zones - rather than storing a complete high-resolution grid map. This selective extraction maintains sufficient position accuracy for cleaning operations while dramatically reducing the data storage requirements.
3Reliability
If the floor treatment machine treats the entire floor surface systematically, then the complete treatment is ensured, but the time required increases when obstacles are present
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning path planning is made dynamic by using zone boundaries as virtual obstacles that can be temporarily deactivated. When a zone has been completely cleaned, its boundary constraints are removed, allowing the machine to dynamically adjust its path and proceed to the next zone without retracing steps, thus reducing total cleaning time while ensuring complete treatment.
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
Enables efficient and flexible treatment of zones with minimal processing effort, avoiding repeated cleaning and adapting to changing conditions, while ensuring complete treatment with reduced storage and computing requirements.
Implementation Method 1
at least one scan sensor (8), which ensures that distance measurements can be carried out in a substantially horizontal plane via a predetermined angular area
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is control of a floor treatment machine and treating floor surfaces, including a planning mode, allowing at least two zones to be defined on a floor surface to be treated, a first node to be defined in each zone and a connection path from at least one zone to a first node of another zone to be defined. At least one region of the zone edge can be input as a virtual obstacle, a direct connection between the first node of the defined zone and the first node of another zone being interrupted by the input region on the basis of real and virtual obstacles. After the complete treatment of a zone, the virtual obstacle on the zone edge is canceled and a switch to another zone is performed. Thus, zones distributed in any way can be treated in succession without the intervention of an operating person.