Vacuum Cleaner Motion Control for Obstacle Avoidance and User Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
Vacuum cleaners face challenges in accurately moving along a user's direction while avoiding obstacles, leading to potential collisions and user safety hazards due to complex structures and inadequate obstacle detection.
Innovation Solution
A vacuum cleaner equipped with a moving unit, suction unit, first and second detecting units, and a control part that determines a target location and moving route to avoid obstacles, allowing the cleaner body to move in sync with the user's direction and prevent collisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the vacuum cleaner uses a complex structure to enable both rotational and translational motion detection, then the moving member can perform both motions, but the device complexity increases and user safety decreases due to rotating wheels
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the wheel rotation function from the driving part and places it in the moving member. This allows the driving part to focus solely on translational motion control while the moving member handles rotation independently, reducing overall system complexity and enabling safer operation when the cleaner is lifted.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic control where the driving part's operation is adjusted based on real-time detection of the moving member's state. When the moving member is in a rotated state (cleaner lifted), the driving part automatically stops, preventing wheel rotation and ensuring user safety while maintaining adaptability.
2Ease of operation
If the vacuum cleaner detects mechanical motion to move the driving part, then the cleaner body can move, but it cannot exactly detect user's actual movement direction
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the detecting unit continuously monitors the moving member's state and provides real-time information to the control unit. This feedback loop enables the system to accurately track user movements and adjust the driving part's operation accordingly, improving both ease of operation and measurement precision.
3Device complexity
If the vacuum cleaner cannot recognize obstacles in advance, then the structure remains simple, but there is a risk of colliding with obstacles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by enabling the detecting unit to continuously scan and identify obstacles before the cleaner body reaches them. This allows the control unit to pre-calculate avoidance routes and adjust movement in advance, ensuring reliable obstacle avoidance without requiring complex real-time reaction systems.
4Adaptability or versatility
If the wheel rotates when the cleaner is lifted, then the moving member can perform rotational motion, but the user may be injured or clothes caught
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces the control unit as an intermediary between the detecting unit and the driving part. When the detecting unit identifies that the cleaner is lifted (moving member rotated), the control unit mediates by automatically stopping the driving part, preventing wheel rotation and eliminating user injury risk while preserving rotational motion capability when needed.
Data Source
AI summary
A vacuum cleaner according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a cleaner body having a moving unit; a suction unit configured to suction dust and air; a detecting unit configured to detect movement of the suction unit; and a control part configured to determine whether movement of the cleaner body is required, based on information detected by the suction unit, and to control the moving unit when the movement of the cleaner body is required, wherein the control part determines a target location to which the cleaner body will be moved, determines a moving route to the target location based on a detected obstacle, controls the moving unit so that the cleaner body is moved along the determined moving route, stops a motor when it is determined that the cleaner body is not in contact with a floor surface, and thus prevents a user's injury.