Side brush and robotic cleaner
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Solution Overview
Problem
Robotic vacuum cleaners often experience entanglement issues with side brushes when encountering obstacles like carpet edges or cables, leading to poor cleaning performance and potential furniture damage, as existing solutions with fewer or longer bristles or bundled bristles do not effectively prevent entanglement while maintaining cleaning efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A side brush design with linear bristles angled rearward and downward, preventing entanglement by biasing upward over obstacles, allowing for denser bristle arrangement without compromising cleaning effectiveness, and a recessed configuration in the robotic cleaner to prevent obstacles from reaching the bristle base.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the side brush is provided with long bristles to reduce entanglement with obstacles, then the entanglement problem is improved, but the cleaning result deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by modifying the bristle angle configuration. The bristles are arranged to extend rearwardly at a first angle (e.g., 30-60 degrees) from the radial direction and downwardly at a second angle (e.g., 10-30 degrees) from the horizontal plane. This dual-angle configuration allows bristles to effectively prevent entanglement while maintaining cleaning performance, resolving the contradiction between reliability and productivity.
2Reliability
If the side brush is provided with fewer bristles to reduce entanglement, then the entanglement problem is improved, but the cleaning result deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the spatial arrangement parameters of bristles by introducing rearward and downward angles. This configuration allows the use of fewer bristles while maintaining cleaning effectiveness, as each bristle is optimally positioned to both clean surfaces and prevent entanglement, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and productivity.
3Reliability
If the bristles are bundled in distinct bunches to reduce entanglement, then the entanglement problem is improved, but the cleaning result deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by configuring bristles to extend rearwardly and downwardly from the brush body. This angular arrangement prevents the need for bundling bristles into bunches, as the individual bristle orientation itself provides entanglement prevention while maintaining continuous cleaning coverage, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and productivity.
4Productivity
If the side brush is provided with dense bristle arrangement to improve cleaning, then the cleaning result is improved, but the entanglement problem worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent resolves this contradiction by changing the spatial parameters of bristle arrangement. The bristles extend rearwardly at a first angle and downwardly at a second angle, creating a configuration where dense arrangement is achieved without increasing entanglement risk. The rearward and downward orientation ensures that even densely packed bristles are biased upward over obstacles, maintaining both cleaning effectiveness and entanglement prevention.
Data Source
AI summary
A side brush for a robotic cleaner. The side brush is rotatable about a rotation axis in a rotational direction and has a brush body and numerous linear bristles including a first bristle having a base end at the brush body and an opposite distal end. An imaginary line extends perpendicularly to the rotation axis. The first bristle extends in a bristle direction outwardly from the brush body. Seen in a top view, the bristle direction extends at a first angle to the imaginary line with the distal end pointing rearwardly in relation to the rotational direction. Seen in a side view, the bristle direction extends at a second acute angle to the rotation axis pointing away from the brush body. A robotic cleaner having such a side brush is also disclosed herein.