Robotic Vacuum Corner Traversal for Closer Wall Cleaning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Robotic surface treatment apparatuses, such as robotic vacuums, face challenges in efficiently cleaning corners due to their programming to avoid obstacles, resulting in incomplete cleaning of both inside and outside corners, with existing methods leaving sizable swaths of the floor uncleaned.
Innovation Solution
The robotic surface treatment apparatus is programmed to override its obstacle avoidance algorithms to allow contact with walls at inside corners and to detect the absence of walls at outside corners, enabling it to take specific paths that allow for more thorough cleaning by slowing down, backing up, and pivoting to ensure the cleaning brush can reach these areas without damaging the device or the environment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the robotic vacuum is programmed to avoid obstacles, then the device can prevent damage to obstacles and itself, but the cleaning coverage in corner areas becomes incomplete
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic vacuum applies different navigation behaviors to different spatial locations: in open areas it avoids obstacles, but at detected inside corners it transitions to wall-following mode to ensure cleaning coverage. This local adaptation of behavior resolves the contradiction by allowing obstacle avoidance in most areas while ensuring corner coverage where needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses sensors to detect inside corners in advance before the vacuum would normally encounter them. By identifying corners ahead of time, the system can prepare to switch to wall-following mode, ensuring the cleaning brush reaches the corner area while still maintaining overall obstacle avoidance behavior.
2Reliability
If the robotic vacuum follows a curved path around obstacles, then the device can avoid damage, but the cleaning brush cannot reach close to the corner areas
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of curving around inside corners as the vacuum would do around other obstacles, the system inverts the approach by deliberately following the wall along the corner. This wall-following mode allows the cleaning brush to maintain close proximity to the corner wall, achieving better cleaning coverage while using contact with the wall for guidance rather than avoidance.
3Manufacturing precision
If the robotic vacuum uses a flat front chassis design, then the cleaning brush can be positioned closer to the front, but the device has difficulty navigating around obstacles
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic vacuum dynamically adjusts its navigation strategy based on the type of obstacle encountered. For convex obstacles, it uses standard avoidance maneuvers, but for inside corners detected through sensor patterns, it switches to wall-following mode. This dynamic adaptation allows the flat-chassis design to achieve both close brush positioning and effective corner navigation.
Data Source
AI summary
A robotic surface treatment apparatus treats corners of rooms more effectively through intricate guidance of the apparatus through inside and outside corners. In one aspect, contact and/or non-contact sensors provide information to one or more on-board processors on the apparatus to enable selective overriding of obstacle avoidance program code and allow the apparatus to get closer to walls to facilitate treatment. In another aspect, the sensors provide information to the on-board processors to control backup motion of the apparatus to cover previously-missed areas when turning corners. In yet another aspect, the apparatus is shaped to have its treatment mechanism positioned more closely to the front of the apparatus to enable treatment more closely to walls near corners. In one embodiment, the robotic surface treatment apparatus is a robotic vacuum. The vacuum may have its cleaning brush positioned near a flat front portion of the apparatus.