Hand-Held Device Coordination for Targeted Robotic Vacuum Cleaning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Robotic vacuums lack the ability to adapt to changing cleaning requirements, such as accidental spills, and require significant time to reach specific areas, while manual vacuums cause physical fatigue due to the need for user guidance and handling.
Innovation Solution
A hand-held surface cleaning device with integrated circuitry and sensory systems, such as cameras, that communicates with robotic surface cleaning devices to target specific areas for cleaning, using wireless communication, light, sound, or control cables to direct the robotic device for focused cleaning operations, incorporating Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) for real-time navigation and obstacle avoidance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a robotic vacuum operates autonomously, then it eliminates physical fatigue associated with manual operation, but it lacks the ability to adapt to changing cleaning requirements and takes significant time to reach specific areas
Solution Approach 1:
A hand-held device acts as an intermediary between the user and the robotic vacuum. The user points the hand-held device at the spill location, and the hand-held device transmits location data to the robotic vacuum's controller, which then navigates to the targeted area. This intermediary system combines autonomous operation with on-demand adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The robotic vacuum performs preliminary autonomous cleaning of general areas, while the hand-held device is kept ready for immediate response to spills. When a spill occurs, the user can quickly point the hand-held device at the location, and the robot will interrupt its current task and navigate to the spill site for targeted cleaning.
2Productivity
If a robotic vacuum cleans the entire surrounding environment, then it provides comprehensive cleaning coverage, but it spends excessive time traveling and cannot focus on specific areas of interest
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning system transitions from uniform cleaning of the entire environment to localized cleaning of specific regions. The hand-held device enables the user to designate particular areas (e.g., spill locations) that require immediate attention, allowing the robotic vacuum to concentrate its cleaning efforts where needed rather than uniformly covering the entire space.
Solution Approach 2:
The cleaning strategy dynamically adjusts based on user input. The robotic vacuum can switch between autonomous full-area cleaning mode and hand-held device directed targeted cleaning mode. The controller receives real-time location data from the hand-held device and dynamically recalculates the cleaning path to prioritize the designated area of interest.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a hand-held device captures location data points to define a region of interest, then it enables targeted cleaning operations, but it requires translation of captured data into localized coordinates for the robotic device to understand
Solution Approach 1:
The controller continuously receives location data from the hand-held device, translates it into localized coordinates, and uses this feedback to adjust the robotic vacuum's navigation and cleaning operations. The system maintains a running translation between the hand-held device's coordinate system and the robotic vacuum's map coordinate system, enabling real-time targeted control.
Data Source
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AI summary
In general, the present disclosure is directed to a hand-held surface cleaning device that includes circuitry to communicate with a robotic surface cleaning device to cause the same to target an area/region of interest for cleaning. Thus, a user may utilize the hand-held surface cleaning device to perform targeted cleaning and conveniently direct a robotic surface cleaning device to focus on a region of interest. Moreover, the hand-held surface cleaning device may include sensory such as a camera device for extracting three-dimensional information from a field of view. This information may be utilized to map locations of walls, stairs, obstacles, changes in surface types, and other features in a given location. Thus, a robotic surface cleaning device may utilize the mapping information from the hand-held surface cleaning device as an input in a real-time control loop, e.g., as an input to a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) routine.