JPH0560377B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a self-propelled vacuum cleaner.

Conventional technology Conventionally, this type of vacuum cleaner has a built-in microcomputer for travel control and suction control, as well as various sensors for travel, a travel motor, a suction motor, a fan, a suction nozzle,
It had a built-in dust box, and could be cleaned unattended by moving the main body using pre-programmed program modes, reflective tape, markers, etc., or automatically controlling the direction of travel.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In such conventional vacuum cleaners, regardless of the amount of dirt on the surface to be cleaned, it was normal to run the same place only once and suck it up. For this reason, it can be used to clean areas with little trash, but
In some places, there was a problem of insufficient waste and leftover garbage.

In addition, if the suction force is set to be large or the traveling speed is made slow to prevent this, there is a problem that unnecessary suction power is lost in areas with little dust.

An object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum cleaner that solves the above problems.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the vacuum cleaner of the present invention includes a vacuum cleaner main body that includes an electric blower, an automatic traveling mechanism section, and a drive control section for controlling the automatic traveling mechanism section. , a suction port facing the floor surface on which the vacuum cleaner body runs, a dust box provided in front of the fan of an electric blower in the vacuum cleaner main body, an air passage connecting the suction port and the dust box, and this air passage. a central control unit that controls the automatic travel mechanism via the drive control unit according to a pre-programmed travel pattern; and a memory section that stores the control contents of the drive control section during detection according to instructions from the central control section, and when the dust detection section finishes detecting a specified amount of dust or more, the central control section , to read the contents stored in the memory section in reverse and issue a reverse command to the drive control section so that the automatic traveling mechanism section runs in the reverse direction until the dust detection section detects a specified amount of dust or less. This is what I did.

Effect According to the configuration of the present invention described above, the amount of garbage sucked into the dust box is detected by the garbage detection section, and when the amount of garbage is greater than a certain specified value, the traveling pattern of that part is stored in the memory section. Then, you can clean only that part by going back and forth.

Embodiment The embodiment will be described below based on FIGS. 1 to 6.

In the figure, the vacuum cleaner body (hereinafter referred to as the main body) 1
has a built-in electric blower 2 for suction. The electric blower 2 is composed of a motor 2a and a fan section 2b, and a dust box 4 containing a filter 3 is provided in front of the fan section 2b. Traveling wheels 5 are provided on the lower right side of the cleaner body 1 and are driven by a motor 6. A wheel 7 and a motor 8 are also installed on the left side, and a driven wheel 9 is installed at the rear.
and 10 are provided. A suction port 11 is provided in the upper part of the floor in front of the main body 1, and the suction port 11 and the dust box 4 are connected by a pipe 12. A dust detection section 13 is provided at the connection between the pipe 12 and the dust box 4. At the lower center of the main body 1, a battery 14 for power supply and a control circuit 15 containing a microcomputer are provided.

FIG. 3 is a control circuit block diagram showing the flow of control signals. The traveling motor 6 includes a drive control section 16, and the traveling motor 8 includes a drive control section 17.
However, a suction control section 18 is connected to each of the suction motors 2, and a microcomputer (not shown) is built into the central control section 19. 2
0 is a memory section in which the contents of the travel control sections 16 and 17 are stored in accordance with the signal from the dust detection section 13. These control sections constitute a control circuit 15, which is connected to the dust detection section 13. The dust detection section 13 is configured by providing a photodiode 22 facing an infrared light emitting diode 21.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the dust detection section 13.
Infrared light emitting diodes 21 are arranged in a line on the sides of the central air passage 23, and photodiodes 22 are provided on the opposite side of the air passage 23, facing the infrared light emitting diodes 21. The signal of this photodiode 22 is transmitted to the central control section 19.

In the above configuration, when the vacuum cleaner is moved to clean, the battery 14 causes the motors 2, 6, 8 to
The control circuit 15 and the dust detection unit 13 are supplied with power and operate, and the drive control units 16 and 17 control the motors 6 and 8, respectively, under the control of the central control unit 19 with a built-in microcomputer. rotates the wheels 5 and 7, so the main body 1 moves.

The driven wheels 9 and 10 simply rotate by themselves due to the movement of the main body 1, and the direction of movement is determined by the difference in the rotational speed of the wheels 5 and 7 driven by the motors 6 and 8, such as turning to the right or turning to the left. I feel tired. The microcomputer has a running pattern programmed in advance, and the motors 6 and 8 operate according to the instructions.
is controlled. (Alternatively, you can paste reflective tape on the floor and trace the tape while detecting it with a sensor.Alternatively, you can use an ultrasonic radar or the like to create a travel map while moving and cleaning. ) Also, the suction motor 2 allows the fan section 2b to
rotates, and dirt is sucked in through the suction port 11, passes through the pipe 12, passes through the dirt detection section 13, and is sucked into the dust box 4.

When dust passes through the air passage 23, the dust detection section 13 prevents infrared rays from the infrared light emitting diode 21 from reaching the photodiode 22, and the output signal of the photodiode 22 decreases. When this signal decreases below a certain predetermined value, the central control section 19 receives this signal and stores the contents of the drive control sections 16 and 17 in the memory section 20. When the amount of dust decreases and the output signal of the photodiode 22 exceeds a certain specified value, the central control unit 19 that receives this signal reads out the contents stored in the memory unit 20 and controls the drive control unit 16, I will issue the opposite order to 17. In other words, you will be backtracking from where you just traveled and heading back in the opposite direction. When it returns to the place where the output of the photodiode 22 first decreased, that is, the place where all the contents of the memory section 20 have been read, it returns to the original running pattern and moves forward. In other words, if there is a lot of trash, you will have to come back and clean it twice. Figure 5 shows an example of running. If there is still more dust after the second cleaning, the signal from the photodiode 22 will still drop, and the cleaning will be repeated a third and fourth time until the dust is clean.

In this embodiment, the memory section 20 is provided separately from the microcomputer of the central control section 19, but if the memory of the microcomputer is large, the memory section 20 may use the memory of the microcomputer as it is. Moreover, the dust detection section 13 may use ultrasonic waves instead of infrared rays, as shown in FIG. That is, even if the ultrasonic oscillation element 24 and the ultrasonic microphone 25 are provided facing the air passage 23 and the signal from the ultrasonic microphone 25 is input to the central control unit 19, the same effect as described above can be obtained. .

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, there is a detection part for dirt passing through the passage in the suction passage, and when the dirt exceeds a certain specified value, it is stored in a travel pattern according to the signal from the dust detection part, and the reciprocation is carried out. By doing so, it is possible to repeat the cleaning, prevent power loss during automatic cleaning, prevent dirt from being left behind, and perform efficient cleaning.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an external perspective view of a vacuum cleaner according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the same side, Fig. 3 is a block diagram of the same, Fig. 4 is an enlarged view of the same dust detection part, and Fig. 5 is a An explanatory diagram showing an example of a running pattern, and FIG. 6 is a partially enlarged view of another embodiment of the same dust detection section. 1...Vacuum cleaner body, 2...Electric blower, 4...
Dust box, 5, 7, 6, 8... Automatic traveling mechanism part (wheels, running motor), 11... Suction port, 13...
...dust detection section, 16, 17... drive control section, 19
... Central control section, 20 ... Memory section, 23 ...
air passage.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A vacuum cleaner body with a built-in electric blower, an automatic traveling mechanism section, and a drive control section for controlling the automatic traveling mechanism section, a suction port facing the floor surface on which the vacuum cleaner body runs, and a vacuum cleaner body inside the vacuum cleaner body. The dust box installed in front of the fan of the electric blower, the air passage connecting the above-mentioned suction port and the dust box, the dust detection section installed in this air passage, and the control of the automatic traveling mechanism section via the above-mentioned drive control section are performed in advance. A central control unit moves the vehicle according to a programmed running pattern, and the control contents of the drive control unit are stored in accordance with commands from the central control unit while the dust detection unit detects an amount of dust exceeding a specified value. When the dust detection unit has detected more than the specified amount of dust,
The central control unit reversely reads out the contents stored in the memory unit and issues a reverse command to the drive control unit so that the automatic traveling mechanism unit runs in reverse until the dust detection unit detects a specified amount of dust or less. A vacuum cleaner characterized by being designed to emit.