KR20070118578A - Cleaning robot system of satellite type - Google Patents

Abstract

A satellite type cleaning robot system is provided to offer powerful vacuum cleaning and steam cleaning function without necessity of charging by separating a self-propelled cleaning head from a cleaning body and connecting both with a flexible connecting pipe having a steam supply path and a power supply and a control wire in addition to a vacuum suction path. A satellite type cleaning robot system comprises a plate type self-propelled cleaning head(10) having a suction opening at a bottom, a cleaning water or steam injection nozzle near the suction opening, a side connecting hole(19) communicating with the suction opening, traveling wheels installed at both sides, a variable speed motor operating the traveling wheels, and an obstacle detection sensor or a position sensitive detector; a flexible connecting pipe(30) connected to the cleaning head; and a cleaning body(40) having a cleaning water bottle or a steam generator, a vacuum pump, a dust collecting chamber, separating equipment of exhausting air, power supply equipment, control equipment, traveling wheels, and a winder to wind or release the flexible connecting pipe. The flexible connecting pipe has a cleaning water or steam supply path(32) in addition to a vacuum suction path(31).

Description

Cleaning robot system of satellite type

The present invention relates to a satellite robot cleaning system.

Disc cleaner robots with brushing and suction capability are widely used. Combining various sensors has the advantage of identifying the cleaning area and voluntarily cleaning.

In particular, the technology has been developed to enhance the robot function to perform cleaning evenly in a predetermined area, but there is an inherent problem that cannot be reached even by such technology development. In order to clean under furniture such as a bed, a low disk type is generally a low-profile type, because it is a type of rechargeable power consumption has a constraint that must be low. Therefore, it is difficult to expect a satisfactory level of cleaning due to high power, and due to the power capacity and space constraints of the robot cleaner, various cleaning functions except vacuum suction, for example, wet cleaning using steam spray cannot be expected. If you make a mistake, you may have the adverse effect of crushing the dust under the furniture and scattering the fine dust.

The present invention is to provide a cleaning robot system that does not require charging while having a powerful vacuum cleaning function.

In addition, the present invention is to provide a cleaning robot system capable of wet cleaning.

In addition, the present invention is provided with a cleaning robot system that is equipped with an air purification function to perform the air cleaning in combination with the cleaning or independently.

According to the present invention, a half type self-propelled cleaning comprising a suction inlet formed on a bottom surface, a side connector communicating with the suction port, driving wheels disposed on both sides and a variable speed driving motor for driving the driving wheels. head; A flexible pipe passage connected to the cleaning head; And a cleaning body connected to the flexible pipe line and including a vacuum pump, a waste water collecting container and a discharge air separating means, a power supply means, and a control means, and maintaining a vacuum suction pipe by the pipe line. This is provided.

The self-propelled cleaning head may be manually driven by the control signal of the cleaning body control means, but preferably, at least one obstacle detecting sensor is mounted and includes auxiliary control means to assist the cleaning body control means or to be independent from the movable area. You can drive with The self-propelled cleaning head may move randomly by changing the direction by a signal of an obstacle detecting sensor attached to the movable body around the cleaning body. An electric motor may be used for driving a driving wheel, but an electric motor is generally used. Also, when a straight wall is detected, it can travel along the wall. The obstacle detecting sensor may be provided in plurality in various directions according to the nature of the sensing obstacle. The obstacle detecting sensor is, for example, ultrasonic or infrared. The self-propelled cleaning head may be attached with a specific sensor, for example, a dust sensor or a position sensor, depending on the purpose.

The cleaning robot system of the present invention has a simple structure of the cleaning head, so that the output and the vacuum suction input can be sufficiently increased, so that every corner of the house can be sufficiently cleaned. In addition, it is possible to perform wet cleaning by spraying steam, hot water or washing water, which the disk cleaning robot cannot do, and can perform all the cleaning that a general manual cleaner can do. In addition, it is possible to add a function that can be automatically cleaned by the self-cleaning function.

The present invention preferably centrally controls the cleaning performance including the running of the cleaning head by the control means mounted on the cleaning body. The control means includes a central operation unit and a memory means and calculates the sensor signal received from the sensors mounted on the cleaning head and the cleaning body and the position signal of the cleaning head to perform cleaning in a pattern calculated according to a preset software routine. To control. The driving wheel of the cleaning head is preferably driven by an electric motor controlled by the control means of the cleaning body, and the control signal line and the power supply line are connected to the cleaning body together with the pipe line. The drive of the driving wheel is at least a forward, reverse two-way shift, preferably a multi-stage shift.

The cleaning head or the cleaning body preferably has a position sensing means. The cleaning head or the main body moves along the planned driving route, and calculates its current position by using the absolute coordinate system and the driving distance and rotation angle from the reference point of the cleaning area (for example, the main body). There is a way to drive by calculating your current position based on the relative coordinate system you use. The position detecting means may use an absolute coordinate system and / or a relative coordinate system. An example of a method of driving using an absolute coordinate system is to capture a ceiling using a CCD camera, and to detect a fixture such as a lamp or a fluorescent lamp installed on the ceiling or a position recognition label installed for position recognition separately from the ceiling image. It is traveling while detecting the current position of the cleaning head. Alternatively, the absolute coordinate system can be used as a light source installed in the ceiling and an optical position sensitive detector (PSD) sensor mounted in the window body or the cleaning head. Preferably, the cleaning body uses an absolute coordinate system and the cleaning head uses a relative coordinate system with respect to the cleaning body. The cleaning head traveling by using the relative coordinate system includes a traveling distance detecting sensor capable of detecting a traveling distance and an angle sensor capable of detecting a rotation angle of the robot cleaner. In general, the mileage sensor is an encoder that can detect the number of revolutions of the wheel is used a lot, the gyro (gyro) sensor that can detect the relative angle is used a lot. Using a gyro sensor, the robot cleaner can drive at a desired angle at a point where it needs to go straight and then rotate, so the control is simple, but it is necessary to correct the accumulated error. As another method for detecting the position of the cleaning head, an optical PSD sensor and a light source may be mounted on one of the cleaning head and the cleaning body, respectively, to measure the relative position of the cleaning head, and more accurately than the encoder method.

The cleaning head of the present invention may include a brush disposed nearby in addition to the suction port. The brush may be a single row or a plurality of rows of stationary or lateral or vertically rotating. In addition, the cleaning body of the present invention is preferably self-propelled with a variable speed driving wheel. Preferably, the driving wheels have a pair of reverse rotation controllable driving wheels, and the driving wheels support and move the cleaning body. In addition, the cleaning body of the present invention is preferably equipped with a washing tank and / or steam generating means and supplied to the cleaning head by a separate pipe passage and before and after the inlet of the cleaning head through a nozzle disposed near the inlet of the cleaning head. Water, hot water or steam can be applied to the surface to be cleaned for both wet cleaning. At this time, it is preferable that the steam supply pipe is provided in the pipe line and coalesced into the pipe line. In wet cleaning, detergents may be incorporated into the wash water. In addition, the cleaning head of the present invention can be combined with the mop by a cleaning cloth for porous exchange attached to the steam nozzle. Another preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a belt- or roll-type, self-cleaning mop capable cleaning head having an internal regeneration zone.

In the pipe line of the cleaning robot system of the present invention, the wet pipe line for supplying the water or steam, that is, the hot water pipe or the steam supply pipe line is separately formed from the vacuum suction pipe line and is incorporated in the pipe line, making it easy to manage and manage. At this time, the piping including the steam supply pipe connected to the steam nozzle can be maintained in the water supply line by bending using a flexible hose material. In addition, in some cases, the cleaning body may be provided with a winder at a lower portion thereof to wind or unwind the pipe line. It may be repeated to wind or unwind the pipeline so that the pipeline does not obstruct the movement of the cleaning head. The power source of the power supply means of the cleaning body is a rechargeable battery or by a power line. When the cleaning body has a mount part and needs movement between the rooms, the cleaning body is wound around the cleaning head and mounted on the mount part to move to a new cleaning area such as a room movement.

The steam generating means generally includes a steam discharge valve, steam barrel and heater. The steam generating means is generally mounted on the cleaning body to supply steam to the steam nozzle of the cleaner head along the steam supply pipe. The steam generating means may further include a pressure sensor or a water level sensor to measure the pressure or the water level.

One or more baffles may be installed in the waste container to form a water channel. In addition, the contaminated air can be first purified by steam showering. The exhaust air separating means is made by various filters. For example, it may include a solid separation filter and a gas-liquid separation filter. Solid separation filters are available in a variety of pore size filters depending on the design purpose. The gas-liquid separation filter can separate air and water using, for example, hydrophobicity. Alternatively, gas and liquid can be separated by selective membranes. Finally, the HEPA filter or the ultrafine filter is arranged to dissolve and remove water-soluble contaminants or gases through steam and water through the suction channel and the water channel of the waste collection container, and to remove other unremoved harmful substances through the filter. It emits much better air than a regular vacuum cleaner. It is easy to manage that the discharge air separating means is cartridgeized and coupled to the outlet side of the waste container. The waste container may preferably have a discharge port at the bottom in a removable form. Such a cleaning body can be cleaned in parallel or separately with the cleaning operation using its own air purification function. The air purification can be performed simultaneously by the wet by the steam injection and the dry by the filter. When the cleaning head is mounted on the mount of the cleaning body or is set to the air purifying mode by the winder force winding, the main body inlet connected to the pipe line is closed and a separate direct inlet can be opened to perform the air cleaning function.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1A and 1B are perspective views schematically illustrating a cleaning robot system as one embodiment of the present invention. The cleaning robot system includes a self-propelled cleaning head (10); A pipeline 30; And a cleaning body 40, and the pipe passage 30 includes a vacuum suction passage 31, a water or steam supply line 32, a power line 33, and a control circuit 34. The pipe is connected to the cleaning head 10 through a connector 19 pivotable in the lateral direction of the cleaning head, and the cleaning body 40 is provided with a winder installed in the outer peripheral portion adjacent to the bottom of the cleaning body through the pipe passageway 52. 53). In the case of remote or room movement, the cleaning head 10 may be mounted on the mount unit 56 by homing by the control means of the cleaning body or by winding the winder 53 by force. At this time, the air intake function is performed by closing the main body inlet and opening a separate direct inlet.

2A and 2B are rear and schematic exploded perspective views showing the structure of a cleaning head of a cleaning robot system as one embodiment of the present invention. The pair of driving wheels 11 on both sides are capable of shifting, including reverse rotation, by means of a driving motor (within driving wheels) together with the driven wheel 12, thereby allowing rotation and direction change in place. The suction port 13, the steam nozzle 15, and the suction port 13 are disposed after the rotatable brush or brush 4. The order of placement, including the type of brush, the number of inlets and the type of nozzle, can be varied.

3A and 3B are rear and schematic exploded perspective views showing another structure of the cleaning head as one embodiment of the present invention. A pair of driving wheels 11 on both sides are capable of shifting, including reverse rotation, by means of a drive motor with driven wheels 12, so that rotation and direction can be changed in place. The rotary brush or brush 14 ′ is disposed in front, followed by the inlet 13, the steam nozzle 15, and the inlet 13 as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. However, the cleaning cloth belt 16 disposed at the rear part is wound around the driving roll 21 and the driven roll 22, and the cleaning cloth can be washed by the pressing roll 25 and the washing water or the steam injection port 24. The cleaning cloth may be a nonwoven fabric, a woven fabric or a foam having continuous pores. Preferably it is an elastic foam. The cleaning of the cleaning cloth by the pressing roll 25 and the washing water or the steam injection port 24 may be periodically or in a separate setting. The contaminated cleaning cloth is first detached by pressing in a loose state of contaminants by steam spraying and cleaned by vacuum suction. Various arrangements are possible, including the type of brush, the number of inlets and the type of nozzle.

4 illustrates in detail the cleaning body 40 as an embodiment of the present invention. The main body of the cleaning body is equipped with a contaminant collecting container 48, a power supply means 47, and a vacuum pump 46, and the waste collecting container 48 is connected to the vacuum suction pipe passage 31 through the main body suction port 59 and discharged air. Passes through the filter cartridge 49 and is discharged before being discharged by the vacuum pump 46. The cleaning body 40 is supported by the driving wheel 55 and the driven wheel 57 and is movable by the electric motor 54. In addition, the winder 53 and the pipe passage inlet 52 enable the storage of the pipe passage 30 and are connected to the main body suction port 59. The filter cartridge 49 is combined with the wet filter or the gas-liquid separation filter 49a and the HEPA filter 49b in this order. The steam container 42 is equipped with a heater 43 and injects water through the pump 45, and when the steam pressure exceeds a predetermined pressure by the steam discharge valve, discharges steam to the steam supply port to supply steam to the steam supply pipe 32. Supply. Steam and water can be supplied selectively. At this time, the main body inlet 59 is closed and a separate direct inlet 68 is selected to open the circuit breaker 67 to perform an air purifying function. The control means 61 is composed of a central operation unit and a memory and is set and controlled by the control panel 62. In the vicinity of the control panel 62, the cleaning unit 40 is mounted with a PSD sensor 65 for position detection.

1A is a perspective view schematically illustrating a cleaning robot system as one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 1b is a perspective view showing a state in which the cleaning head is mounted on the cleaning body as an embodiment of the present invention.

2A and 2B are rear and schematic exploded perspective views showing the structure of the cleaning head of the cleaning robot system, respectively, as an embodiment of the present invention.

3A and 3B are rear and schematic exploded perspective views showing another structure of the cleaning head as one embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a cross-sectional view of the cleaning body as one embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of Main Drawing Codes

10: cleaning head 30: pipeline 40: cleaning body 13; Inlet

15; Steam nozzle 19: end connection 14, 14 ': brush 16; Cleaning Pobelt

21: drive roll 22; Driven roll 25; Compression Roll 32: Steam Supply Line

40: cleaning body 61; Control means 62; panel

Claims (5)

Suction inlet formed on the bottom surface, washing water or steam spray nozzles disposed near the inlet, side connectors communicating with the inlet, driving wheels disposed on both sides, variable speed drive motor and obstacle detection for driving the driving wheels A half self-propelled cleaning head comprising a sensor or position sensing means; A flexible pipe passage connected to the cleaning head; And a cleaning body connected to the flexible pipe line and moved by a driving wheel, the cleaning body including a washing water tank or steam generating means, a vacuum pump, a waste water collecting tank, a discharge air separating means, a power supply means and a control means. A satellite cleaning robot system for maintaining a vacuum suction pipe furnace and a separate washing water supply pipe or steam supply pipe by a furnace, wherein the cleaning main body has a satellite cleaning robot having a winder for winding or releasing a pipe passage at a lower portion thereof. system The satellite cleaning robot system of claim 1, wherein the cleaning main body includes a mount part at a lower side of the cleaning main body, and the cleaning head is wound around the cleaning head and mounted on the mount part. 3. The cleaning head of claim 2, wherein the cleaning head further comprises a cleaning cloth belt wound around a driving roll and a driven roll, and a compression roll for pressing the cleaning cloth belt, wherein the cleaning cloth belt is disposed between the driven reel and the pressing roll in an internal vacuum suction area of the cleaning head. Satellite cleaning robot system for self-cleaning contaminated cleaning cloths by placing a spray nozzle in the vicinity of the pressing roll. The cleaning robot system according to claim 3, wherein, when the air purifying mode is set, the main body suction port connected to the vacuum suction pipe path of the pipe line is closed and the separate direct suction port is opened to perform the air cleaning function. The cleaning robot system of claim 4, wherein the power supply unit of the cleaning body comprises a rechargeable battery.

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