Robotic Floor Cleaner Fall Sensor Redundancy for Malfunction Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Automatically moving floor treatment appliances face the risk of falling due to malfunctioning fall sensors, which can lead to damage or safety hazards, as existing systems lack reliable detection and redundancy for sensor failures.
Innovation Solution
The appliance is equipped with multiple fall sensors arranged circumferentially, with a computing system that verifies detection results by comparing them to reference values or adjacent sensor data, allowing for redundant functionality and detection of sensor malfunctions, ensuring continued operation and safety by switching to backup sensors if necessary.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple fall sensors are arranged circumferentially to detect slopes from all directions, then the reliability of slope detection is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The fall detection system is segmented into multiple independent fall sensors arranged circumferentially around the appliance housing. Each sensor independently monitors a specific directional sector, allowing the system to achieve 360-degree coverage through modular sensor units rather than a single complex sensor system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from single-point detection to multi-dimensional circumferential detection by arranging sensors around the perimeter of the appliance housing. This spatial distribution across multiple dimensions enables comprehensive slope detection from all directions simultaneously.
2Reliability
If fall sensor detection results are verified by comparison with reference values or adjacent sensors, then the reliability of malfunction detection is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The computing means continuously monitors fall sensor outputs and compares them against reference values and adjacent sensor readings. This feedback mechanism automatically detects inconsistencies indicating sensor malfunction and triggers appropriate responses, creating a self-verifying system that improves reliability without requiring external monitoring equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The fall sensor system performs self-verification through mutual comparison of adjacent sensors and comparison with stored reference values. The system detects its own malfunctions by analyzing inconsistencies in sensor data, eliminating the need for separate diagnostic systems or external monitoring.
3Productivity
If the appliance continues operation with a defective fall sensor by switching to backup sensors, then productivity is maintained, but the reliability of fall protection decreases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple fall sensors are pre-positioned in a circumferential arrangement with redundant coverage capabilities. Before any malfunction occurs, the system is configured so that if one sensor fails, adjacent sensors can immediately compensate by expanding their monitoring coverage, ensuring continuous protection without interruption to appliance operation.
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
This solution provides reliable detection of sensor malfunctions and ensures the appliance's safety by preventing falls, even if one or more fall sensors fail, through redundant sensor arrangements and verification methods, thus enhancing operational reliability and user safety.
Implementation Method 1
at least one fall sensor arranged on an underside of the appliance housing facing a surface, which is configured to detect a distance of the floor treatment appliance from the surface
Data Source
AI summary
An automatically moving floor treatment appliance has an appliance housing, a drive, a computing element and a plurality of fall sensors. The computing element compares a detection result of a fall sensor with a known reference result, and when the detection result does not correspond with the reference result, determines a malfunctioning of the fall sensor. The computing element determines distances detected chronologically successively by the same fall sensor during a movement of the appliance with one another, and when the distances are identical, determines a malfunctioning of the fall sensor, and/or compares a detection result of the leading fall sensor with a detection result of a trailing fall sensor and when the trailing fall sensor detects a slope without the leading fall sensor having detected the slope before, determines a malfunctioning of the leading fall sensor and the trailing fall sensor takes over the from the leading fall sensor.