KR101800274B1

KR101800274B1 - Floor polishing robot

Info

Publication number: KR101800274B1
Application number: KR1020160018422A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 허주표; 이기용
Original assignee: 주식회사 파인로보틱스
Priority date: 2016-02-17
Filing date: 2016-02-17
Publication date: 2017-12-28
Also published as: KR20170096760A

Abstract

The present invention relates to a robot cleaner, and more particularly, to a robot cleaner having a pair of rotatable members to which a mop can be attached so as to effectively remove foreign matter adhered to a surface to be cleaned, .
To this end, the present invention provides a robot cleaner comprising: a main body 10 forming an outer appearance of the robot cleaner; A first motor (31) and a second motor (32) installed in the main body (10) for supplying power for running the robot cleaner; A first rotary member 21 and a second rotary member 21 which are respectively fixed to the cleaner 40 for wet cleaning and rotated about the respective rotary shafts by the first motor 31 and the second motor 32, The first rotary member 21 and the second rotary member 22 have height adjustments for height adjustment, respectively, and the first rotary member 21 and the second rotary member 22 can be adjusted in height, And the rotatable members 22 are arranged at different heights.

Description

{FLOOR POLISHING ROBOT}

The present invention relates to a robot cleaner capable of performing wet cleaning while traveling autonomously. More particularly, the present invention relates to a robot cleaner having a pair of rotatable members to which a mop can be attached to effectively remove foreign matter adhered to a surface to be cleaned, And more particularly, to a robot cleaner capable of improving battery efficiency by using rotational force itself as a motive power source.

The robot cleaner refers to a device that automatically rubs foreign matter such as dust from the surface to be cleaned while rubbing the foreign object on the surface to be cleaned while traveling by itself in the area to be cleaned without user's operation.

Such a robot cleaner is basically known as a vacuum cleaner type inhalation type robot cleaner that uses a power source such as electricity and performs cleaning using a suction force.

However, the above-described suction type robot cleaner has a limitation in that it can not remove foreign matter, stubborn stains, and the like fixed on the surface to be cleaned.

Accordingly, in recent years, a wet type robot cleaner capable of performing wet cleaning with a mop attached to a robot cleaner has been used.

However, the conventional wet type robot cleaner has a disadvantage that it is difficult to clean the wet type efficiently because the effect of removing the foreign matter is low and the mop or the like is simply attached to the bottom of the conventional suction type robot cleaner.

In other words, a general wet robot cleaner travels by using a movement mode of an existing suction type robot cleaner and an avoidance method for obstacles as it is.

Accordingly, even if dust or the like scattered on the surface to be cleaned is removed, foreign substances adhered to the surface to be cleaned can not be easily removed.

In addition, in a conventional wet type robot cleaner, a frictional force with a ground surface is increased by a mop surface, and a separate driving force for moving the wheels is further required, thereby increasing battery consumption.

Meanwhile, as a result of investigation of prior art documents related to the present invention, a large number of patent documents have been searched and some of them will be described as follows.

Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 include a driving operation and control system arranged for automatic movement of a robot on the floor to perform a cleaning operation, and the robot chassis includes a cleaning element arranged to suck free particles from a cleaning surface A second cleaning zone comprising cleaning elements arranged to collect cleaning fluid from the surface after application of the cleaning fluid on the surface and then cleaning the surface, The present invention relates to an automatic floor cleaning robot having a waste container for storing waste materials collected from a cleaning surface.

According to Patent Document 3, there is provided a method of controlling a robot cleaner, comprising: controlling at least one of a first rotating member and a second rotating member so as to travel the robot cleaner in a specific traveling direction according to a traveling mode; Identifying whether an obstacle is detected from a sensor corresponding to a traveling direction of the robot cleaner; And rotating at least one of the first rotating member and the second rotating member according to whether or not the obstacle is detected.

Patent Document 4 discloses a robot cleaner comprising a main body forming an outer appearance of a robot cleaner, first and second motors provided in the main body for supplying power for running the robot cleaner, first and second motors, The first and second rotary shafts being rotatable about a second rotary shaft and capable of respectively fixing a cleaner for wet cleaning, wherein the first and second rotary shafts are rotatable about a central axis corresponding to a vertical axis of the robot cleaner, And is inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the robot cleaner.

KR 10-2007-0104472 A KR 10-2012-0102800 A KR 10-2015-106226 A KR 10-2015-107693 A

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the prior art described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a pneumatic washing machine comprising a pair of rotatable members to which a mop can be attached so as to effectively remove foreign matter, And to improve battery efficiency by using the battery as a power source.

Another object of the present invention is to perform rotational control for effective wet cleaning in response to a traveling path and obstacle detection.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a robot cleaner comprising: a body forming an outer appearance of a robot cleaner; A first motor and a second motor installed in the main body to supply power for driving the robot cleaner; A robot cleaner comprising: a first rotary member and a second rotary member, each of which is fixed with a cleaner for wet cleaning and rotates about respective rotary shafts by the first motor and the second motor; The member and the second rotating member are provided with a height adjusting portion for height adjustment, and the height of the first rotating member and the second rotating member are different from each other.

According to the robot cleaner of the present invention, the shape and the complexity of the space are calculated according to the number of obstacle detection times by the obstacle detection sensor provided in the main body, and a specific control mode is performed according to the calculation result .

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a robot cleaner, wherein a battery accommodating portion in which a battery pack is detachably coupled to one side of the main body is provided, so that a user can directly replace the battery pack charged by a separate charging cradle do.

According to the robot cleaner of the present invention, there is provided a pair of load sensing portions for sensing loads of the first motor and the second motor, respectively. When the motor load momentarily rises, it is determined that the robot is an obstacle, And stops the motor when the motor load becomes significantly low.

According to the robot cleaner of the present invention, the upper surface sensor of the illuminance sensor, the distance sensor, and the image sensor is installed on the upper side of the main body to determine the position of the robot cleaner, And an escape mode for escaping to the outside of the furniture when the temperature is below the reference value.

According to the robot cleaner of the present invention, the rotational force of the rotary member can be used as a power for movement by selectively rotating or stopping the pair of rotary members disposed on the right and left sides of the body and adjusting the rotational direction.

Accordingly, it is possible to move while effectively removing foreign substances and the like fixed on the surface to be cleaned, and the battery efficiency is improved.

Further, according to the robot cleaner of the present invention, by making the height of the first rotating member and the second rotating member different, the main body and the rotating member are tilted with respect to the bottom, and force is naturally transmitted to one side, The movement of the robot cleaner is smoothly progressed.

According to the robot cleaner of the present invention, the robot is controlled in a specific control mode according to the number of obstacles detected. If the robot is difficult to move, the robotic robot quickly escapes through the obstacle escape mode to prevent unnecessary battery consumption. So that the cleaning can be performed quickly.

According to the robot cleaner of the present invention, since the user can directly replace the battery pack, the robot cleaner can be used even in an area where electricity is not supplied.

In addition, according to the robot cleaner of the present invention, the obstacle avoiding function is performed through the load detection of the motor or the motor is stopped, thereby increasing the battery use time.

In addition, according to the robot cleaner of the present invention, the position of the robot cleaner can be grasped through the upper surface sensor installed on the upper side of the main body, and when the battery level is not sufficient, .

Accordingly, it is possible to prevent the robot cleaner from falling out from the bottom of the low-height furniture due to insufficient battery capacity.

1 is an exploded perspective view of a robot cleaner according to the present invention.
2 is a plan view of the robot cleaner of the present invention.
3 is a front view of the robot cleaner of the present invention.
4 is a block diagram showing a robot cleaner according to the present invention.
5 is a reference view showing a part of a movement pattern of the robot cleaner of the present invention.

Hereinafter, a robot cleaner according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the robot cleaner according to the present invention includes a main body 10 forming an outer appearance of the robot cleaner; (30) including a first motor (31) and a second motor (32) installed in the main body (10) for supplying power to the robot cleaner to travel; A first rotary member 21 and a second rotary member 21 which are respectively fixed to the cleaner 40 for wet cleaning and rotated about the respective rotary shafts by the first motor 31 and the second motor 32, 22).

The first rotary member 21 and the second rotary member 22 are connected to the transmission member 21a and 22a for power transmission of the motors 31 and 32 and the fixing member (21b) and (22b), and has a height adjusting portion (not shown) for adjusting the height of each of them.

Particularly, the first rotating member 21 and the second rotating member 22 are arranged at different heights, and the height difference is preferably 1.0 to 5.0 mm.

When the difference in height between the first rotating member 21 and the second rotating member 22 is 1.0 mm or less, the force is not transmitted to one side so that the moving speed is lowered and the forward / backward / The control becomes difficult to be performed smoothly.

When the height difference is 5.0 mm or more, the frictional force with the bottom surface is excessively shifted to one side, and the total area of the cleaning surface by the first rotating member 21 and the cleaning surface by the second rotating member 22 is utilized The cleaning is not performed and the cleaning efficiency is lowered.

The height adjuster may adopt any structure as long as it can adjust the height of the first rotary member 21 and the second rotary member 22 connected to the axes of the first motor 31 or the second motor 32 It is possible.

That is, the first rotating member 21 and the second rotating member 22 may be divided and screw-coupled to adjust the height. Alternatively, the first rotating member 21 and the second rotating member 22 may be adjusted in height by using a rack and a pinion structure, The height of the first rotary member 21 and the second rotary member 22 can be electronically adjusted and the height of the first rotary member 21 and the second rotary member 22 can be mechanically adjusted.

An input unit 11 and a communication unit 12 for user input are provided on the upper surface of the main body 10.

The communication unit 12 is for wireless communication between the robot cleaner and another wireless terminal or a network in which the robot cleaner and another wireless terminal are located, and may include one or more modules.

For example, the communication unit 12 may communicate with a wireless terminal as a remote control device, and may include a short-range communication module or a wireless Internet module.

Accordingly, the robot cleaner can be controlled in its operation state, operation mode, and the like by a control signal received by the communication unit 12. [ The terminal for controlling the robot cleaner may be a smart phone, a tablet, a personal computer, a remote control (remote control device), etc., which can communicate with the robot cleaner.

On the other hand, an obstacle detection sensor 51 may be installed on both sides of the front and rear sides of the main body 10 and at the center of the front and rear sides.

At this time, the controller 50 includes a controller 50 for counting the number of obstacle detections by the obstacle detecting sensor 51 and calculating the shape and complexity of the space, and the controller may control the driving unit 30) can be controlled to perform a specific control mode such as a wall riding, a rotation mode, a straight forward mode, and an intensive cleaning mode.

For example, if obstacles are continuously detected more than 5 times in 10 seconds, or if obstacles in 20 minutes or more are detected in 1 minute, it is determined that the surrounding space is narrow and movement is difficult, and the obstacle escape mode is selected Make sure to get out of the room quickly.

On the other hand, when no obstacle is detected for one minute, it is judged that the obstacle is in a wide space, and the intensive cleaning mode in which a large space is quickly cleaned is controlled to enable quick cleaning.

Meanwhile, a battery accommodating portion in which a battery pack is detachably coupled to one side of the main body 10 is preferably provided so that a user can directly replace the battery pack charged by the charging cradle.

Accordingly, the robot cleaner can be cleaned even in an area where electricity is not supplied by using a plurality of charged battery packs.

A pair of load sensing portions 52 for sensing loads of the first motor 31 and the second motor 32 are provided so that the motor load detected by the load sensing portion 52 is instantaneously It is preferable to perform the avoidance function by judging that the motor 31 is an obstacle and to stop the motors 31 and 32 when the motor load becomes significantly low.

That is, when the robot cleaner comes into contact with the obstacle and the motor load instantaneously rises, it is judged that there is an obstacle and a function of avoiding the obstacle is performed. When the robot cleaner is lifted or falls into a cliff or the like, The motor 31 and 32 are stopped by detecting that the motor load is significantly lowered.

In addition, the upper surface sensor 53 of the illuminance sensor, the distance sensor, and the image sensor may be installed on the main body 10 to determine the position of the robot cleaner.

That is, when the robot cleaner is located below the low-height furniture, it is difficult to grasp the position of the robot cleaner when the battery level is lowered and stopped. Therefore, the position of the robot cleaner is grasped through the upper surface sensor 53, If it is judged to be under the furniture, check the battery level, and if the battery level is below the reference level, control to the escape mode is to escape quickly to the outside of the furniture.

The robot cleaner of the present invention configured as described above selectively rotates or stops the first rotary member and the second rotary member disposed to the left and right and adjusts the rotation direction so that the robot cleaner removes foreign substances on the floor while moving in various patterns do.

As shown in FIG. 5 (a), when the first rotating member and the second rotating member are rotated in opposite directions, the robot cleaner moves linearly.

When the rotation of the first and second rotary members is alternately repeated, the user may move as shown in Fig. 5 (b), or may move 180 degrees as shown in Fig. 5 (c) It may be made to move while rotating.

5 (d), the robot cleaner may be rotated in place by adjusting the rotational directions of the first rotating member and the second rotating member.

In addition, the manner in which the robot cleaner rotates or moves can be controlled in various ways.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, but, on the contrary, It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous modifications and variations can be made to the present invention without departing from the scope of the present invention. And all such modifications and changes as fall within the scope of the present invention are therefore to be regarded as being within the scope of the present invention.

10 ... body
11 ... input
12 ... communication section
21 ... first rotating member
22 ... second rotating member
30,
31 .... First motor
32 ... second motor
40 ... Cleaner
50 ... control unit
51 ... obstacle detection sensor
52 ... load detecting section
53 ... Top surface sensor

Claims

A main body 10 forming an outer appearance of the robot cleaner;
A first motor (31) and a second motor (32) installed in the main body (10) for supplying power for running the robot cleaner;
A first rotary member 21 and a second rotary member 21 which are respectively fixed to the cleaner 40 for wet cleaning and rotated about the respective rotary shafts by the first motor 31 and the second motor 32, 22. A robot cleaner comprising:
A handle is provided on the upper portion of the main body 10 and an input unit 11, a communication unit 12 and an upper surface sensor 53 for inputting a user are provided on the handle,
The first rotating member 21 and the second rotating member 22 have height adjusting portions for height adjustment,
The first rotating member 21 and the second rotating member 22 are arranged at different heights so that the difference in height is 1.0 to 5.0 mm,
Calculates a shape and a complexity of the space according to the number of obstacle detection times by the obstacle detection sensor (51) provided in the main body (10), executes a specific control mode according to the calculation result,
A battery accommodating portion in which a battery pack is detachably coupled to one side of the main body 10 may be provided so that a user can directly replace the battery pack charged by the charging cradle,
And a pair of load sensing portions for sensing the load of the first motor 31 and the second motor 32 respectively. When the motor load instantaneously rises, it is determined that the motor load is an obstacle and the avoidance function is performed. Stops the first motor 31 and the second motor 32,
The upper surface sensor 53, which is installed on the handle of the main body 10,
And an escape mode for judging the position of the robot cleaner and being escaped to the outside of the furniture when the battery level is below the reference value when the robot is under the low height furniture, robotic vacuum.

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