WO2014071696A1 - Brush disc for cleaning robot - Google Patents

Abstract

A brush disc (1) for a cleaning robot is provided. A plurality of curved disc spokes (2) are arranged on the brush disc (1) mounted downwardly at the bottom of the cleaning robot in a ring-shaped and radial manner. Each disc spoke (2) can be continuous or discontinuous. At least one of bristles (3), brush sheets (4) and brush strips (5) are arranged downwardly on the disc spokes (2). At least one of bristles (3), brush sheets (4) and brush strips (5) are arranged outwardly and slantwise on the outside of the brush disc (1). When the brush disc (1) is rotated, the bristles (3), the brush sheets (4) or the brush strips (5) rotate centripetally. A suction port (6) is arranged at the center of the brush disc (1) or in a position close to the center of the brush disc (1) and is ring-shaped or strap-shaped or circular. The bristles (3), the brush sheets (4) or the brush strips (5) are arranged at intervals and can push garbage or dirty water to the suction port (6) through rotation. The rotation speed of the brush disc (1) is set to not more than 300 revolutions.

Description

 Brush disk for cleaning robot  Brush disk for cleaning robot

 [Technical field ]

The invention relates to a brush tray for cleaning the ground, which is mainly used for an automatic (smart) mopping machine, a vacuum cleaner (also called a cleaning robot), and can also be used on an ordinary washing machine.

 [ Background technique ]

 At present, smart vacuum cleaners are being watched by more and more families and are liked by young people. See www.bblqs.com The main components of the general intelligent vacuum cleaner to clean the ground mainly include side brush (side brush, side sweep), turn (roll) brush (middle sweep) and suction port, combined with suction port and rotating brush (see Neato), with suction port and side Brush combination V-BOT), triple combination of suction and brushing, one-sided brush (see Roomba), and combination of suction and brush, double-sided brush (LG's HOM-BOT) ), the side brush and the roller brush are usually entangled in the daily cleaning, such as hair, wool, etc., which not only affects the cleaning effect, but if it cannot be cleaned regularly, the motor will be subjected to a large torque due to the high load, causing the motor to heat up. A lighter entanglement will increase the battery load and affect the battery life. If it is serious, it will directly burn the motor. The intelligent mopping machine is currently only visible in two ways. See Http://www.bblqs.com/article/399.htm There is no cleaning robot that can mop the floor and wash the dust. The cleaning components of the current non-intelligent washing (dragging) machine are mainly composed of a brush plate and a squeegee, and the brush plate cleans the ground. The squeegee sucks the sewage on the ground into the sewage tank under the action of the water absorbing motor and the squeegee collecting water. It is common in large-scale venues such as shopping malls and offices. Due to the split design of the brush tray and the squeegee, the scrubber is difficult to meet the needs of households or crowded places.

 [Summary of the Invention]

The invention designs a novel brush tray, which can replace the side brush and the roller brush with only one one, simplifies the components of the cleaning mechanism as much as possible, and can alleviate the problem that the brush is entangled by the hair, and can be mopped and vacuumed. The cleaning robot used in one can also be used in the washing machine instead of the brush tray and the squeegee, so that the washing machine is more compact and can be used in crowded places.

The brush disc is designed such that the brush head mounted downwardly on the bottom of the cleaning robot is provided with a plurality of curved discs arranged in a ring-shaped radial arrangement, each of which is disposed downwardly in the bristles and the brush strips and the brush strips. At least one of the outside of the brush disc is disposed obliquely downward at least one of the brush and the brush strip and the brush strip. When the brush disc rotates, the brush or the brush strip and the brush strip rotate centripetally, and the suction port is in the center of the brush disc, or Near the center of the brush plate, in a ring or ribbon or round shape. The bristles, brush blades or brush strips are spaced apart and the garbage or dirty water is pushed to the mouthpiece position by rotation. Since the brush plate can be made larger, it can have a larger coverage than the body of the vacuum cleaner (washing machine), and the side brush can be omitted, and the diameter is much larger than the rotating brush (middle sweep), and is set downward. The hair is more difficult to entangle; since the brush disk is rotated to the center, the surrounding garbage (dirty water) can be squeezed into the center and sucked into the mouth; the brush plate has a cover (the center has a hole) or no cover, and can be uncovered. The flank (or upper side) of the fixed bristles (pieces, strips) and the ribs between the spokes are provided with a blade (metal or hard plastic), which can be entangled or ribbed when tightened even if there is hair entanglement The blade is cut. The brush speed setting is slower, generally no more than every minute 300 rpm.

 [Description of the Drawings ]

 Figure 1 is a preferred embodiment of the invention.

 2 and 3 are other embodiments of the present invention.

 4 is a schematic view showing the shape of a brush edge brush in some embodiments of the present invention.

 Figure 5 is a schematic view showing the shape of a reinforcing rib in some embodiments of the present invention.

 6 to 8 are schematic views showing the connection of the brush disk and the cleaning system of the present invention.

 Figures 9 to 11 are schematic views of the installation of a brush plate for a conventional running mechanism.

 Figures 12 and 13 are schematic views of the installation of the brush plate for the omnidirectional running mechanism.

 [Detailed embodiment ]

 The brush head 1 installed on the bottom of the cleaning robot is provided with a plurality of curved coils arranged in a ring shape. At least one of the bristles 3 and the brush 4 and the brush strip 5 are disposed downwardly on each of the discs, and at least one of the bristles 3 and the brush strips 4 and the brush strips 5 are disposed obliquely downward on the outer side of the brush disc for Instead of side brush, each spoke 2 It can be continuous or intermittent. The suction port 6 is in the center of the brush plate 1, as shown in Figure 1, 2, 3a, or near the center of the brush plate 1, in the ring (Figure 3b) or strip (Figure 3c). Brush plate 1 When rotating (one-way rotation), the bristles 3 or the brush 4 and the brush strip 5 are rotated centripetally. Brush 3 and brush 4, brush strip 5 The interval setting, by rotation, works for both garbage and dirty water. The so-called interval setting may be a spoke 2, one of which is a bristles 3, one section is a brush 4 (brush strip 5) and a section is a bristles 3 ...; or a bristles 3 is provided in one of the spokes 2, and a brush 4 (brush strip 5) is disposed in the adjacent spokes. It is also possible to set only a single bristles 3, a brush 4 or a brush strip 5 For simple automatic vacuum cleaners or automatic tow (wash) machines. A simple automatic dragging (washing) machine can also set the brush 4 and the brush strip 5 at intervals. Brush plate with cover 7 (with hole in the center) or without cover, coverless spoke 2 and spoke 2 can be set between the ribs 8, the spokes 2 and the ribs 8 can be edged.

 Brush plate 1 can be set under the cleaning robot, such as two (Figure 9a), three (Figure 9b), four (Figure 12a) ), the plurality of brush discs 1 can share a rotating system, and a plurality of suction ports 6 lead to a garbage suction passage 10 . The individual brush discs 1 can be driven simultaneously by a common method such as turning or gears, or a brush disc can be driven 1 Each of the brush cover 7 has a gear on the outer edge thereof, and the gears on the outer edge of each of the brush cover 7 are in mesh with each other (three brush disks can be dragged one by one), and the rotation direction of the brush disk 1 in which the outer edges of the brush cover 7 are engaged with each other is Conversely, the spoke 2 The direction of the bend is also reversed.

 The direction of rotation of the brush 1 is related to whether the robot is moving left or right (clockwise or counterclockwise around the object boundary), and the robot brush is generally left. It is best to rotate counterclockwise. The robot brush 1 that is to the right should rotate clockwise to reduce the friction of the brush on the side (wall or obstacle). The direction of the rotation of the spoke 2 is the same as the brush 1 The direction of rotation is uniform to achieve the effect of centripetal rotation.

 Each spoke set on the brush 1 Generally curve: including straight lines, broken lines, line segments, arc lines, parabola, spiral lines, involute lines, etc., can be set continuously or intermittently as shown in Figure 1~3 (not required for each spoke 2 The length of the discontinuity setting is that the resistance of the brush is relatively continuous when the brush is rotated. The whole (bar) brush has greater resistance and is more susceptible to damage when it encounters the surface protrusion; the continuously arranged coils 2 The upper brush can also be discontinuous (interval setting). The bristles 3 can be pressed into the holes of the spokes 2 by means of flocking, or directly on the brush cover 7, and the curve of the hole in which the hair is planted can be regarded as an invisible spoke 2 The disadvantage of this method is that the brush cover 7 is required to be relatively thick; the bristles 3 or the brush 4 and the brush strip 5 can also be mounted in an embedded manner or suspended by a pin on the spoke 2 It can also be fixed by glue or Velcro (hook and loop fastener), can be fixed like a wiper or mop on the car, and can also be slotted on the brush cover 7 (as a stealth spoke 2), embedded in the bristles 3 Or brush 4 Brush strip 5, the disadvantage is that the brush cover 7 is relatively thick. Planted (embedded) bristles 3 are commonly used for cleaning garbage or brown or chemical fiber, silk, etc., such as the commonly used PPL BRUSH polypropylene brush, NYLON BRUSH velvet brush, TYNEX BRUSH polyamide fiber brush, STEEL BRUSH steel brush, NATURAL FIBRE BRUSH Natural fiber brush, BRISTLE THICKNESS BRUSH 鬃 brush, PAD HOLDER BRUSH Needle brush, etc., different ground and sanitary conditions need to use different brushes, such as soft brush, wool brush, marble floor should use medium hardness brush, cement floor generally use hard brush, if the workshop has a lot of oil Tightly tied to the ground, this time you need to use a wire brush The brush sheet 4 may be provided with leather, plastic, silicone or rubber for scraping or squeezing the dirt or liquid attached to the surface in a vertical or oblique direction (for example, a thermoplastic elastic rubber commonly known as 'beef tendon'), the brush strip 5 It can be a strip or roll material made of silica gel, rubber, sponge, foam (plastic), chemical fiber, felt, paper towel, towel, cloth strip, leather, etc. It can be used for water absorption or scraping or cleaning, bristles 3, brush 4, brush strip 5 It can also be made of other materials (which can be used for sweeping or mopping) but the damage to the ground is as small as possible, and the wear and friction are small. The bristles 3, the brush 4 and the brush strip 5 should be easily replaced. Brush cover 7 It can be a whole disk (such as the brush of the scrubber), as shown in Figures 4a, 6, and 7, or open (as in Figures 5b, 5c) or semi-open (as in Figure 5a) or edge-open (eg Figure 4b, 4c, 8), the brush disposed obliquely downward on the outside of the brush plate may extend out of the spoke or be disposed on the disc cover 7 The outside of the body is exposed to the bottom of the vacuum cleaner (cleaner) to ensure contact with the wall or obstacles, and a slight flaw in the wall or obstacle. Such exposed brushes should be made of wear-resistant, bend-resistant materials (such as chemical fiber, nylon, fabric, felt, bristles, rubber, silicone, etc.). 2 The bristles 3 are set diagonally. If the scrubber is used, the exposed ones are also spaced from the brush 4. Of course, one or two side brushes (turning brushes) can also be provided on the left front or right front of the brush 1 28 As shown in Fig. 11, if it is a scrubber, the side brush can also be the interval between the bristles and the brush to better clean the concave corners of the wall or the obstacle. The side brush can be driven separately or linked or with the brush 1 Share a drive mechanism. For the cleaning robot, because it has a collision sensor baffle close to the ground, the brush cover 7 can be used without the integral disc type, and the cover 1 with the cover 7 is open (Fig. 4b, 4c, 8) The advantage of the simple addition is that the hair cannot be wrapped around the spokes. The benefits of the semi-open and open brush discs 1 are lighter and more material-saving, on the side (or above) of the uncovered spokes 2 and Rib between the spokes 8 Set the blade (metal or hard plastic) so that even if there is hair entanglement, it can be cut by the blade 2 or the rib on the rib 8 when tightened. The number of spokes 2 on the small cleaning robot brush 1 can be less, each spoke 2 As short as possible to reduce friction, if the power of the robot is sufficient, the number of spokes 2 can be increased, or each spoke 2 can be bent more. Disc spoke 2 How much is set is related to the speed of the brush and the walking speed of the robot. The speed of the moving fast or the slower rotation speed of the brush disk should be set more. The speed is slower or the rotating speed of the brush disk can be set less, such as Figure 1 ~ 2 The setting is to take into account that the line speed around the brush disk is slow and the line speed of the inner ring is fast. The brush plate 1 can also be used in the way of high internal and external low (to facilitate the space of the external garbage to the middle of the brush tray 1 , as shown in Figure 6 In this case, the lower edge of the spoke 2 should be horizontal, so that it is easy to set the equal height of the bristles 3, the brush 4 and the brush strip 5 downward.

 The brush plate 1 and the drive shaft 11 can be connected by a common method such as 'tooth' or 'pin' or 'key', and the brush 1 can also be used. It is fixed to the drive shaft by a nut or a pin (screw) or a countersunk screw 12, and in order to facilitate the replacement of the brush plate 1, a thread can also be provided at the lower end of the brush drive shaft 11, and the brush disk 1 The whole body is disassembled and assembled by means of a nut. When the brush plate is installed, the direction of rotation of the nut is the same as the direction of rotation when the brush disk is in operation; the brush disk can be fixed to the drive shaft by a nut that is easy to be screwed (such as a plum nut). In order to prevent the brush disc 1 from slipping on the drive shaft 11, a groove may be provided at a place where the drive is in contact (the protruding tooth on the drive shaft cooperates with the tooth); the brush disc 1 and the drive shaft 11 It can also be fixed by snaps and circlips. The common way between the wheels and the drive shaft is not listed. The connection between the scrubber disc and the drive shaft is now available. Drive shaft 11 and waste suction channel 10 The bearing 13 or the needle bearing can be set between or not, so that the garbage suction passage 10 is also rotated. A spring can be placed between the brush 1 and the drive shaft 11 or the robot chassis 14 Keeping the ground in contact with the brush plate 1, but not too tight, causing the brush plate to be worn and having a large frictional force. The suction port 6 can be at the center of the brush disk, and the drive shaft 11 is tubular at the periphery of the garbage suction passage 10; or the drive shaft 11 In the center of the brush tray 1, the suction port 6 is a ring on the periphery of the drive shaft 11 (with a rib 9 connecting the brush disk and the drive shaft, as shown in Fig. 3b) or a belt shape, or the drive shaft 11 is also tubular, and can be disposed in the garbage suction passage. 10 Inside or outside, the hollow part of the center of the brush disc 1 (Fig. 3c) can be used to mount the robot's drive wheel 16 or support wheel 17 (Fig. 10) or sensor. Drive shaft 11 The side outer or upper edge or the upper upper inclined surface has teeth, and the spur gear or bevel gear meshes with the driving gear, or can be driven by a belt drive, a worm gear or the like.

 The mouthpiece 6 can also be an ellipse or a similar rectangle as in Figures 2a, 12b, and 13 Shape and shape, the advantage of the rectangle is that it can suck the garbage with a long cross section. The suction port 6 can be made into a separate component, inserted or screwed into the garbage suction passage 10, and the inserted pipe is a round pipe, and the brush disk 1 A circular hole can be opened in the center; or the center of the brush plate 1 is such a shape (rotating with the brush disk), the garbage passage 10 is relatively thick, and the diameter is almost the same as that of the suction port 6.

 In addition to the common vacuuming components inside the cleaning robot, you can also set the washing liquid bottle (box, box or can) filled with clean water (or adding disinfectant or cleaning solution). 18, through a water pump 19 (common gear pump) spray water (or drop) to the outer edge of the brush plate 1 or near the outer edge, the water outlet 20 on the brush plate 1 is set one or more; if the brush plate 1 There is a relatively closed ring 30 on the periphery (such as the brush of the current scrubber), the ring 30 can be raised above the brush cover 7, and the connection between the cover 7 and the ring 30 can be provided with a water hole, and the water outlet leads to the outer edge of the brush disk 1 or Leading to the brush ring 30 inner edge. The brush 4 or the brush strip 5 on the brush disc 1 can scrape or drag (squeeze) the dirty water of the mixed garbage to the center suction port 6 by the centripetal rotation, and is sucked into the suction port 6 Since the dirty water droplets have a certain quality, when the airflow is rolled into the garbage chamber 21, the airflow turns to turn, and the dirty water droplets rush toward the original direction by inertia, but are blocked by the obliquely disposed liquid baffle 22, which can only follow the liquid Baffle 22 Drop into the garbage chamber 21 and flow through the liquid filter 23 to the lower sewage tank (box) 24 . The air flow is introduced into the gas filter 25 (usually a vacuum cleaner filter, preferably Hepa) Material production), impeller driven by the vacuum motor 26 27 Extruding the cleaning robot. If the pump 19 does not work, the cleaning robot mainly passes the bristles 3 on the brush 1 (brush 4, brush strip 5 Assisting) Sweeping the garbage toward the suction port 6 and sucking it into the machine, mainly as a vacuuming robot (or replacing the brushing plate with only the bristles 3). Garbage intake channel in Figure 6 10 It is vertical upwards, and some low robots require the garbage suction channel 10 to enter the garbage chamber 21 horizontally (or obliquely). The garbage suction passages in Figures 7 and 8 10 It needs to be bent. Dry and wet fans (including vacuum motor 26 and impeller 27) are commonly used inside the vacuum cleaner. At present, wet and dry vacuum cleaner technology or scrubber technology has matured and will not be described in detail, but for smart phones that can be used in homes, the machine is required to be as small as possible and consumes as little power as possible (because it is powered by battery) ), in order to improve the efficiency of the vacuum motor, the baffle can be set as a manual or electric (automatic) moving (or lifting) baffle 22, when the water filter 25 screen baffle 22 (as shown in Figure 7b, 8b), remove the baffle 22 when vacuuming (Figure 7a, 8a), a water collection groove can be set at the edge of the baffle 29 (Figure 8). In order to improve the water absorption effect of the washing (towing) machine, it can also be used in the mouthpiece 6 Set a (collective) strong absorbent sponge (substance) underneath, with a straw directly inserted into the sponge, and the sponge and the straw are fixed together. If it is to improve the working efficiency (saving energy) of the cleaning robot for washing and vacuuming, it is also possible to use two sets of airflow systems for vacuuming and absorbing water (the traditional wet and dry vacuum cleaner is artificially set. 22, the resistance of the airflow becomes larger, and the working efficiency of the vacuum motor 26 is lowered.) The center of the brush disc is provided with two suction ports for vacuuming and absorbing water 6 For example, the center is a suction pipe and a sponge, and the periphery is a suction port. The water-absorbing drive can be not a vacuum motor. A pump (such as a gear pump) can be used. When the dust is absorbed, the water-absorbing part does not work, and when it is washed (during the floor), it is vacuumed. Part does not work.

 In order to prevent the large group of garbage from blocking the mouthpiece 6 , it can be in the mouthpiece 6 A blocking frame is arranged around the brush, and a sensor for detecting congestion (such as a photoelectric pair tube) can be disposed under the brush cover, but since the brush disk 1 is rotated, the wire needs to be connected through a slip ring or on the disk cover 7 A ring window is provided, and the sensor is installed under the robot chassis 14 above the window, and a purple light for disinfection can be set on the window. Brushless disk cover 7 brush disk 1 The sensor and violet light can be mounted directly above.

 The existing cleaning robots use a two-degree-of-freedom walking mechanism driven by the left and right wheels. For the cleaning robots that pursue the 'traversal' effect, most of them are adopted. Roomba's sacrifice time hopes to 'traverse' the path planning method (such as spending 40 minutes to clean the 15 square meters of the room), repeating the route a lot, and not necessarily able to traverse, the United States Neato, Evolution and South Korea's Samsung, LG It adopts a path planning method that pursues one-time walking and traverse in a small-scale and simple obstacle. It is difficult to traverse any size and any complex obstacle, and can be followed according to Figure 9-11. In the way of setting up the brush disk, the current walking mechanism is difficult for the cleaning robot that pursues efficient traversal path planning in any size and arbitrarily complex obstacles (requires precise control of walking), because ordinary DC motors have inertia problems and are difficult to Guaranteed in-situ turn 90 The degree is absolutely accurate. When the line is straight, it will also be biased because the two wheels are driven separately. Especially when encountering a suspended step or an inclined wall or an obstacle, it is necessary to make multiple turns (one will turn forward and reverse). ), the walking efficiency is low, so it is best to use a three-degree-of-freedom (all-round) walking mechanism without turning. The existing three-degree-of-freedom walking mechanism has a cooperation between Harbin Institute of Technology and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Mecanum wheel (or four consecutive switching wheels ( Omni-Wheel or trans wheel )) The vacuuming robot of the three-degree-of-freedom walking mechanism (see "Development Status of Mobile Service Robots and Our Research". Electric Drive, 2000, 30(4) : 3-7 ), because expensive stepping motor is required and the control is complicated and the running efficiency is low, there is a problem in promotion. For such a four-wheeled cleaning robot, the brush disk 1 can be set as shown in Fig. 12; Institutions such as ZL03112949.8 (has been patented in the US, Japan, Korea, Germany, UK, France) has an advantage in building a cleaning robot. You can set the brush on the chassis of the robot body as shown in Figure 13. 1 .

 The rotation speed of the brush plate 1 should not be too fast, otherwise the garbage will generate centrifugal force, especially the external garbage will be pushed out of the brush plate 1 , brush plate 1 The speed is too fast, and it will increase the friction and damage the ground or the brush (including the bristles 3, the brush 4, and the brush strip 5). The brush speed should generally not exceed 300 per minute. Turn, there is also a switch to set the speed of the brush plate, the dirty ground speed is appropriate faster, otherwise it will set the working speed of the slower speed; the hard ground speed is faster, the carpet, floor floor speed is slower. For battery-powered low-power cleaning robots, the brush speed does not exceed every minute 100 revolutions.

 Brush 1 can also be used with vacuum impeller 27 The use of a drive mechanism requires only a large reduction ratio of the shifting assembly, the mechanism becomes complicated, the cost becomes high, and the efficiency of the vacuum motor 26 is greatly reduced, and it is not recommended.

Some vacuum cleaners have an exhaust gas recirculating device, that is, the airflow discharged from the impeller driven by the vacuum motor can be passed to the bottom of the vacuum cleaner (the periphery of the suction port), and the simple suction is changed into the blowing and suction, and the periphery of the brush disk of the present invention is also Such an air outlet that blows against the suction port can be provided. Some smart vacuum cleaners also have an automatic garbage collection function that can remove garbage from the mouthpiece. 6 Blowing (or withdrawing), such as the description of the vacuum cleaner above the suction port, there is a ring-shaped electromagnet, which can make the ring above the liftable garbage inlet of the large-capacity garbage bin together with the charging stand (the center can be concave or convex) Iron sheet attracts, such as Zl200310106456.8 Description The brush disk designed by the present invention can also support such a design.

Commonly used cleaning robots include power supply, control components, sensors, running gear, cleaning components, rack housings, charging docks, etc. Some charging docks also have backup large-capacity garbage bins, sensors and other facilities, brush tray 1 A kind of cleaning component, the so-called robot should be a machine that does not need to be operated by a person all the time, and can operate a certain degree of autonomously. The brush disk of the invention can also be used for a common vacuum cleaner, a washing machine, a waxing machine (washing ground) Liquid bottle 18 The equipment in the middle is wax, in addition to cleaning the floor can also be used to clean the wall, glass (sand window), stone refining machine for stone polishing and other machinery.

Claims (6)

1. 
   A brush tray for cleaning robots, characterized in that a brush disc (1) installed downwardly on the bottom of the cleaning robot is provided with a plurality of curved discs (2) arranged in a ring-shaped radial arrangement, each of which is arranged downwards At least one of the bristles (3) and the brush (4) and the brush strips (5), the outer side of the brush disc is also disposed at least one of the bristles (3) and the brush (4) and the brush strips (5) obliquely outward. In the middle of the brush tray, there is a suction port (6). When the brush disk rotates, the bristles (3) or the brush blades (4) and the brush strips (5) are rotated centripetally, and the brush rotation speed is set not more than 300 revolutions per minute.
2. 
   A brush disk according to claim 1, wherein each of the disk segments (2) is continuous.
3. 
   A brush disk according to claim 1, characterized in that the disk (2) is intermittent.
4. 
   A brush disk according to claim 1, wherein said brush disk (1) is provided in plurality under the cleaning robot.
5. 
   A brush disc according to claim 1, characterized in that the disc (2) is provided with one of a bristles (3), a brush (4) and a brush strip (5).
6. 
   A brush disc according to claim 1, wherein the brush rotation speed is set not to exceed 100 revolutions per minute.

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