Detachable-Battery Pool Cleaning Robots for Cooperative Cleaning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Large swimming pools often require a single commercial pool cleaner, which can lead to downtime and inefficiency if the cleaner needs servicing or repair, and there is a need to reduce human intervention and improve efficiency in pool cleaning processes.
Innovation Solution
A set of pool cleaning robots that can work together, with different configurations and capabilities, such as varying propulsion units, cleaning units, and sensors, to clean different regions of the pool simultaneously or in a cooperative manner, including collision and cable entanglement avoidance mechanisms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a single commercial pool cleaner is used to clean large pools, then the cleaning equipment is simple to operate and maintain, but the pool cleaning efficiency is low and downtime increases when servicing or repair is needed
Solution Approach 1:
The cleaning system is divided into multiple independent pool cleaning robots that can operate separately and cooperatively. Each robot is a self-contained unit with its own propulsion, cleaning mechanisms, and control systems, allowing the overall system to maintain high productivity while keeping individual units simple to operate and maintain.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple pool cleaning robots are combined to work together on the same pool, creating a cooperative cleaning system. The robots can operate simultaneously in different zones or coordinate their paths, thereby increasing overall cleaning efficiency without requiring each individual robot to be overly complex.
2Reliability
If a single commercial pool cleaner is used, then the equipment cost is lower, but the downtime increases when servicing or repair is needed
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses multiple independent pool cleaning robots instead of a single unit. If one robot requires servicing or repair, the others can continue operating, thereby maintaining pool cleaning availability and reducing downtime while keeping each individual robot simple and easy to maintain.
Solution Approach 2:
The system allows for replacement of individual pool cleaning robots as needed. When one robot becomes unavailable due to servicing or repair, it can be temporarily removed from service while others continue operating, and the replaced unit can be recovered and returned to service once maintained, ensuring continuous operational reliability.
3Productivity
If multiple pool cleaning robots are used to work together, then the pool cleaning efficiency and availability improve, but the device complexity and coordination requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
Each pool cleaning robot is equipped with autonomous navigation and collision avoidance capabilities, allowing them to operate independently without requiring complex external coordination. The robots self-manage their cleaning paths and avoid collisions with each other and pool features, maintaining ease of operation while improving cleaning efficiency through multiple simultaneous units.
Solution Approach 2:
The pool cleaning robots incorporate sensors and communication systems that provide real-time feedback about their positions, cleaning progress, and environmental conditions. This feedback enables automatic coordination between multiple robots, allowing them to work together efficiently without requiring complex manual intervention or centralized control systems.
4Reliability
If multiple pool cleaning robots are deployed, then the reliability improves by having backup units, but the loss of time for coordination and communication between robots increases
Solution Approach 1:
The pool cleaning robots perform preliminary mapping and path planning before beginning their cleaning operations. By pre-establishing their routes and coordination protocols, they minimize the time needed for real-time communication and coordination during actual cleaning, thereby maintaining high reliability through multiple units while reducing coordination time overhead.
Data Source
AI summary
A pool cleaning robot that may include a housing, a propulsion mechanism configured to propel the pool cleaning robot along an interior surface of a pool; brushes to clean surfaces of the pool during a cleaning cycle, a filtering system, a suction mechanism to draw liquid from the pool through an inlet into the housing and to discharge it from an outlet; and a detachable module that is detachably coupled to the housing, wherein at least one of the following is true—(a) the detachable module is a battery, (b) the detachable module comprises inductive electrical transfer connections, and (c) the detachable module comprises inductive data transfer connections.