JPH0584210A - Floor surface cleaning robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enlarge the collection capacity of refuse and to cope with a wide cleaning area by providing a sweeping-up brush driven to be rotated forward/ backward in accordance with a running direction, on the bottom part of a robot main body whose running direction can be switched freely to advancement and a retreating, and also, whose course can be changed, and disposing a hopper for collecting the refuse before and behind the brush. CONSTITUTION:When a robot 1 is advanced and moved by rotating forward a driving motor M1 by a controller 22, the refuse swept up by a sweeping-up brush 8 for rotating counterclockwise is guided and collected into a front hopper 11 by a shroud 16. Subsequently, when the robot 1 reaches a side wall, the controller 22 rotates backward the driving motor M2 of a driving wheel 5 and retreats and moves the robot 1, and simultaneously, rotates clockwise the brush 8 by operating motors M3, M5, and inverts the shroud 16 by protruding the piston rod 20a of a motor-driven cylinder 20. At the time of the retreating movement, the refuse swept up by the brush 8 is guided and collected to a rear hopper 12 by the inverted shroud 16.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a floor cleaning robot for cleaning a floor while automatically traveling.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional floor cleaning robot, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
There is one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-192414, which is provided with driving wheels on the left and right of the robot body, and at the bottom of the main body, a vacuum cleaner connected to a vacuum cleaner and extending to the machine width at a position close to the driving wheels. A suction port is provided, a rotary brush that is rotated when the robot is running is disposed inside the suction port, and a control device that controls the rotation of the left and right drive wheels is provided.

[0003]

In the conventional floor cleaning robot described above, the dust released from the floor by the rotating brush is
The suction force of the vacuum cleaner sucks it from the vacuum suction port and collects it with the hopper installed at the top of the robot body, so the vacuum suction port has a narrow width, that is, the cleaning width is small, and relatively light dust is collected. There is no problem in such light work, but in the case of heavy work such as increasing the cleaning width to collect even heavy dust, it is necessary to increase the suction force of the vacuum cleaner, which has the problem of increasing the required power. It was

Further, in the prior art, when cleaning the cleaning area, when the robot moving forward from the starting point approaches the front wall, the control device controls the rotational speeds of the left and right drive wheels.
After the robot has made a U-turn, it is advanced again in parallel with the previous passage, and thereafter the robot repeats this operation to complete the cleaning. However, the U-turn traveling of such a robot has a problem that when cleaning an elongated passage, it may not be possible to perform cleaning depending on the width of the passage and the radius of rotation of the U-turn traveling.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the present invention, the traveling direction can be switched forward and backward, and the bottom of a robot body whose course can be changed can be turned forward or backward in correspondence with the traveling direction. A sweeping brush that is driven to rotate is provided, and hoppers that collect dust that is swept up by the sweeping brush are disposed before and after the sweeping brush.

[0006]

The dust swept up by the sweeping brush is divided into a pair of hoppers and directly collected according to the forward and backward movement of the robot. In addition, the robot moving forward from the starting point changes its course when it approaches the front wall, and then switches the running direction of the robot body to reverse, and switches the rotation direction of the sweeping brush in response to this switching of the running direction. The robot retreats in parallel with the previous passage and repeats this moving body to complete the cleaning.

[0007]

EXAMPLE An example of the floor cleaning robot 1 will be described with reference to the drawings. The robot main body 2 is provided with casters 3 at the front center and left and right drive wheels 4, 5 at the rear side, and these drive wheels 4, 5 are drive motors M1, M2, respectively.
It is possible to rotate forward and backward by. Therefore, the robot body 2 moves forward when the left and right drive wheels 4 and 5 are normally rotated at the same speed, moves backward when the right and left drive wheels 4 and 5 are rotated, and moves in an arbitrary direction when the rotation speed of the left and right drive wheels 4 and 5 is changed. It is supposed to make changes.

Further, the bottom of the robot body 2 is formed in a suction chamber 7, and at the center of the suction chamber 7, there is provided a cylindrical sweeping brush 8 extending substantially in the machine width direction. Both ends are rotatably supported by the tip of a swing bracket 10 attached to the robot body 2, and one end of this rotary shaft 9 is connected to a drive motor M3 for brush rotation. Further, in the suction chamber 7, hoppers 11 and 12 are disposed on the front and rear sides of the sweeping brush 8 before and after collecting the dust swept up by the sweeping brush 8, and the front hopper 11 is located on the side of the robot main body 2. Therefore, the rear hopper 12 can be freely moved in and out from the rear of the robot body 2. A blower 13 that generates a suction airflow by the drive motor M4 is attached to the upper part of the robot body 2, and the suction port 13a of the blower 13 is attached.
Communicates with the suction chamber 7 via a communication pipe 14 and a filter 15.

Next, as will be described later in operation, the position is switched between the position shown by the solid line and the position shown by the phantom line in FIG. The shroud 16 for guiding the dust swept up by the sweeping brush 8 to the hoppers 11 and 12 will be described. The shroud 16 has substantially the same width as the sweeping brush 8, and the front and rear ends thereof are formed to be curved so as to follow the shape of the sweeping brush 8. An attachment piece 17 attached to the upper surface of the shroud 16 is rotatably supported by a support shaft 18 attached to the robot body 2, and a bracket fixed to the robot body 2 is attached to the end of the attachment piece 17. A tip of a piston rod 20a of an electric cylinder 20 swingably supported by 19 is pin-connected. The electric cylinder 20 transmits the rotation of the electric motor M5 to a feed screw shaft rotatably supported in a cylinder tube through an internal gear train, and advances and retreats a piston rod 20a screwed to a screw portion of the feed screw shaft. It has a well-known structure adapted to be moved. Therefore, by the action of the electric cylinder 20, the shroud 16 swings up and down about the support shaft 18.

Next, the drive motors M1, M2, M3,
The control device 22 that controls the M4 and the electric motor M5 will be described. The control device 22 includes drive motors M1, M
The robot 1 is controlled by controlling the forward / reverse of the rotation direction of 2 and the rotation speed.
To move forward and backward and change the course direction. Also,
The controller 22 controls the rotation direction of the drive motor M3 to switch the rotation of the sweeping brush 8 in response to the forward / backward movement of the robot 1, and also controls the rotation direction of the electric motor M5 to control the shroud 16 by the solid line in FIG. Switch to the position shown and the position shown by a virtual line. Further, when cleaning the robot 1, the drive motor M4 is driven to generate a suction airflow in the blower 13.

The guide system of the floor cleaning robot 1 of the present invention is a magnetic guide system in which a magnetic tape attached to the floor guides the robot, or an electromagnetic guide system in which the robot is guided by a guide cable buried in the traveling route. Also, the robot body is equipped with a gyro that detects the moving direction and a distance measuring device that detects the traveled distance, and the controller that has the coordinates for specifying the cleaning area performs coordinate calculation by inertial navigation based on these outputs. In addition, the control method is not limited, such that the robot repeatedly travels back and forth in parallel according to a predetermined travel pattern and travels through the designated area. Further, reference numeral 26 shown in FIG. 2 is a battery for operating the drive motors M1, M2, M3, M4, the electric motor M5 and the control device 22.

Next, the operation of the floor cleaning robot 1 configured as described above when cleaning a cleaning area surrounded by walls on all sides will be described. First, at the start of cleaning the cleaning area, the control device 22 controls the electric motor M5 and the drive motor M3.
2, the piston rod 20a of the electric cylinder 20 is retracted, the shroud 16 is located at the position shown by the solid line, the sweeping brush 8 rotates counterclockwise, and the blower 13 sucks it. A suction airflow is generated in the chamber 7. The controller 22 then drives the drive motors M1, M2.
Is rotated forward at the same speed, and the robot 1 moves forward from one end of the cleaning area toward the side wall at the other end to clean the floor surface. At this time, the dust swept up by the sweeping brush 8 which rotates counterclockwise is guided and collected by the shroud 16 to the front hopper 11, and the dust relatively light and floating in the suction chamber 7 is blower 13. Is attached to the filter 15 by the suction action of.

Next, when the robot 1 approaches the side wall at the other end, the control device 22 controls the rotational speeds of the left and right drive motors M1 and M2 so that the robot 1 changes the course direction. When the robot 1 reaches the side wall, the controller 22 reverses the rotation directions of the drive motors M1 and M2 of the left and right drive wheels 4 and 5 at the same speed, and the robot 1 moves backward from the other end toward one end. At the same time as this backward movement, the control device 22
Drives the drive motor M3 and the electric motor M5 to switch the rotating direction of the sweeping brush 8 and rotate it clockwise, projecting the piston rod 20a of the electric cylinder 20 and moving the shroud 16 to the position shown by the phantom line in FIG. Position it. At the time of this backward movement, the dust swept up by the sweeping brush 8 rotating clockwise is guided and rotated by the shroud 16 to the rear hopper 12, and the relatively light dust among these dusts is moved in the same manner as during the forward movement. Filter 15
Attached to. When the robot 1 continues to move backward and approaches the side wall at one end, the controller 22 controls the drive motors M1 and M2 to change the rotational speeds of the left and right drive wheels 4 and 5, and the robot 1 changes the course direction. When the robot 1 reaches the side wall, the controller 22 drives the drive motor M.
3 and the electric motor M5 are controlled, the robot 1 moves forward from one end to the other end of the cleaning area, the sweeping brush 8 rotates counterclockwise, and the shroud 16 moves as shown in FIG. Change the position to the position indicated by the solid line in 2. After that, the robot repeats the above-mentioned cleaning cycle and after cleaning the entire cleaning area, travels along the four wall surfaces to clean the uncleaned portion (shown in FIG. 3).

As described above, in the floor cleaning robot 1 of this embodiment, the dust swept up by the sweeping brush 8 at the time of cleaning is guided to the shroud 16 and directly fed to the hoppers 11 and 12.
Since it is collected in a wide range, it is possible to deal with heavy work such as widening the cleaning width and collecting heavy dust. In addition, the suction chamber 7 of the robot body 2 is provided with hoppers 11 and 12 in front of and behind the sweeping brush 8, respectively, and the rotation direction of the sweeping brush 8 and the shroud 16 correspond to the forward and backward movement of the robot 1.
Since the position is switched, the dust is separately collected in the front and rear hoppers 11 and 12 at the time of cleaning, and by having two hoppers, the amount of dust collected can be increased and a wide cleaning area can be cleaned. Further, in this embodiment, since the robot body 2 is provided with the blower 13 that generates the suction airflow during cleaning, it is possible to suction and collect even relatively light dust floating in the suction chamber 7.

In the floor cleaning robot 1 of this embodiment, the sweeping brush 8 is rotated counterclockwise when the robot 1 moves forward and rotates clockwise when the robot 1 moves backward by the controller 22. Since it is a slow type, you can fly dust to the back of the hopper,
It is also possible to reverse this and use an under-throw type, in which case the shroud 16 becomes unnecessary. Also, when cleaning, robot 1
Repeats the cleaning cycle of forward movement-path change-backward movement-path change, but is not limited to this.

[0016]

As described above, in the floor cleaning robot of the present invention, the dust swept up by the sweeping brush is directly collected by the hopper at the time of cleaning, so the dust is sucked and collected only by the suction force of the vacuum cleaner. Compared to the ones, large power is not required even in the case of heavy work for collecting heavy dust with a wide cleaning band. In addition, the robot body is equipped with a sweeping brush that can switch the rotation direction between forward and backward according to the forward and backward movement of the robot, and a hopper that collects the dust swept by the sweeping brush before and after this sweeping brush. Since each of them is provided and dust is separately collected in the front and rear hoppers at the time of cleaning, the dust collecting capacity becomes large and cleaning of a large cleaning area can be performed. Further, since the floor surface can be cleaned without the U-turn traveling, the traveling control becomes easier and the slender passage can be cleaned as compared with the U-turn traveling.

Further, in the invention of claim 2, since the movable shroud is arranged above the sweeping brush, the sweeping brush can be rotated in an over-throw type, whereby dust can be blown to the inside of the hopper, Since dust is thrown into the hopper from the upper end of the sweeping brush, the height of the hopper from the ground can be increased and dust is not clogged between the hopper and the floor surface during traveling.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a floor cleaning robot.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an operation explanatory view.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 floor cleaning robot, 2 robot body, 8 sweeping brush, 11 and 12 hoppers

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A sweeping brush that is rotationally driven in the forward and reverse directions corresponding to the traveling direction is provided at the bottom of a robot body that can change the traveling direction between forward and backward and can change the course.
A floor cleaning robot characterized in that hoppers for collecting the dust swept up by the sweeping brush are arranged in front of and behind the sweeping brush. 2. A sweeping brush that is rotationally driven in the forward and reverse directions corresponding to the traveling direction is provided at the bottom of the robot body that can change the traveling direction forward and backward and can change the course.
Before and after this sweeping brush, hoppers for collecting the dust swept up by the sweeping brush are arranged respectively, and a shroud for guiding the dust swept up by the sweeping brush to the hopper is swept above the sweeping brush. A floor cleaning robot characterized by being swingably switchable so as to guide dust only to a hopper that corresponds to the brush rotating direction.