Robot cleaner
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional robot cleaners face challenges in preventing their auxiliary cleaning tools from striking obstacles, particularly when cleaning areas adjacent to walls, due to the lack of accurate control over the tools' extension and retraction, which hinders efficient cleaning performance.
Innovation Solution
A robot cleaner equipped with an obstacle sensing unit and a control unit that adjusts the extension or retraction of the auxiliary cleaning unit based on sensed obstacles, travel direction, and cleaning mode, ensuring the unit remains within specific distance and angle parameters to avoid collisions and optimize cleaning efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the auxiliary cleaning tool is outwardly protruded from the robot cleaner body, then cleaning performance in regions adjacent to walls is enhanced, but the possibility of striking walls and obstacles increases
Solution Approach 1:
The auxiliary cleaning tool is designed to be dynamically extendable and retractable rather than fixed. The control unit adjusts the extension degree based on real-time obstacle detection, allowing the tool to adapt its position between extended (for cleaning) and retracted (for avoiding collisions) states, thus resolving the contradiction between cleaning effectiveness and collision risk
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the positional parameter of the auxiliary cleaning tool by controlling its extension degree. When obstacles are detected, the control unit reduces the extension degree to prevent collisions; when no obstacles are present, the tool is extended to maximize cleaning performance in wall-adjacent regions
2Reliability
If the auxiliary cleaning tool protrusion is not accurately controlled, then the tool can strike obstacles, but implementing control increases device complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The obstacle sensing unit provides continuous feedback about the environment to the control unit, which adjusts the auxiliary cleaning tool's extension degree accordingly. This feedback loop enables automatic obstacle avoidance without requiring complex manual control mechanisms, achieving reliable collision prevention with moderate system complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The control unit performs multiple functions: it manages the auxiliary cleaning tool's extension, processes obstacle sensing data, and coordinates with the driving unit for navigation. By consolidating these functions in a single control unit, the system achieves comprehensive obstacle avoidance capability without proportionally increasing overall device complexity
3Area of stationary object
If the auxiliary cleaning unit is extended to clean wall-adjacent areas, then cleaning coverage is improved, but interference with travel and charging operations increases
Solution Approach 1:
The auxiliary cleaning unit dynamically adjusts its extension state based on operational context. During cleaning operations in wall-adjacent areas, the unit is extended to maximize coverage. During travel and charging operations, the unit is retracted to prevent interference, thus resolving the contradiction between cleaning coverage and operational ease
Data Source
AI summary
A robot cleaner includes a body to travel on a floor; an obstacle sensing unit to sense an obstacle approaching the body; an auxiliary cleaning unit pivotably mounted to a bottom of the body, to be extendable and retractable; and a control unit to control extension or retraction of the auxiliary cleaning unit based on a pivot angle formed by the auxiliary cleaning unit with respect to a travel direction of the body when the obstacle is sensed.