Supervisory Robot Feedback for Demand-Responsive Floor Cleaning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional floor cleaning robots often require manual spot cleaning due to incomplete cleaning, even after multiple passes, as they lack the ability to assess and respond to specific cleaning demands in an environment.
Innovation Solution
A robotic system comprising a supervisory robot that acquires environmental state information, determines demand by comparing sensor data with reference data, and communicates commands to a service robot to perform targeted cleaning tasks, ensuring that service tasks are matched to the specific cleaning needs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional floor cleaning robots perform multiple predefined tours, then the cleaning coverage increases, but the cleaning quality remains insufficient requiring manual spot cleaning
Solution Approach 1:
The supervisory robot continuously monitors the environment using sensors to detect soiling levels and identifies locations requiring cleaning. This feedback mechanism enables the system to dynamically adjust cleaning operations based on actual conditions rather than following fixed predefined tours, thereby achieving both comprehensive coverage and high cleaning quality
Solution Approach 2:
The supervisory robot performs preliminary environmental assessment and soiling detection before service robots arrive. By pre-identifying locations that need cleaning and communicating this information to service robots, the system ensures that cleaning resources are deployed precisely where needed, eliminating the need for manual spot cleaning
2Ease of operation
If service robots perform cleaning tasks based on predefined schedules, then the system operation is simple, but the system cannot respond to actual cleaning demands
Solution Approach 1:
The supervisory robot provides real-time feedback about environmental conditions and cleaning demands to the control center. This enables the system to transition from static predefined schedules to dynamic demand-responsive operations while maintaining automated control, thus achieving both operational simplicity and adaptability
Solution Approach 2:
The control center acts as an intermediary between the supervisory robot and service robots. It receives environmental data, determines cleaning demands, and translates them into commands for service robots, thereby maintaining system simplicity while enabling sophisticated demand-responsive behavior
3Manufacturing precision
If manual spot cleaning is performed to address incomplete cleaning areas, then the cleaning quality improves, but the need for manual intervention increases
Solution Approach 1:
The supervisory robot autonomously identifies cleaning needs and service robots autonomously execute cleaning tasks at identified locations. This self-service capability eliminates the need for manual spot cleaning by enabling the robotic system to independently detect, decide, and execute cleaning operations, thereby maintaining high cleaning quality while maximizing automation
Data Source
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AI summary
A robotic system comprising: a service robot and a supervisory robot, each configured to communicate with a control center; wherein the service robot is configured to perform a service task in an environment by modifying a surface of the environment; wherein the supervisory robot is configured to acquire information representing a state of the environment at a determined location; and wherein the system is configured to, based on the information, determine a demand; and, for a confirmed demand, the control center communicates a command to the service robot to perform the service task at the determined location. A method for performing a task in an environment, with aforementioned robotic system, comprising: acquiring the information with the supervisory robot; determining and confirming the demand; and communicating the command to the service robot to perform the service task at the determined location.