CN107811581B

CN107811581B - Automatic floor cleaning device

Info

Publication number: CN107811581B
Application number: CN201710818138.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吕西安·查尔梅坦; 埃里克·普弗罗; 迈克尔·布瓦莱特
Original assignee: SEB SA
Current assignee: SEB SA
Priority date: 2016-09-13
Filing date: 2017-09-12
Publication date: 2024-07-23
Anticipated expiration: 2037-09-12
Also published as: CN107811581A; CN209421838U; FR3055787A1; EP3512398B1; FR3055787B1; ES2930775T3; WO2018051008A1; EP3512398A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a cleaning robot for floors, comprising: a base (20); a bumper (10) movable relative to the base (20); -detection means for detecting the movement of the bumper (10) with respect to the base (20), characterized in that the cleaning robot comprises guiding means of the bumper (10) arranged for forcing the bumper (10) to move with respect to the base (20), wherein a component of the movement is comprised in a base plane.

Description

Automatic floor cleaning device

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to a cleaning robot for floors and, more particularly, to a cleaning robot for floors having a waste recovery and/or suction mechanism.

Background

Automatic floor cleaning devices, in particular automatic cleaning devices which automatically detect obstacles so that the obstacles can be subsequently bypassed, are known from the prior art. For example, document US2004143930A1 describes a cleaning robot comprising a hinged bumper pivotable about an axis to activate a sensor when in contact with an obstacle. However, if the contact is made at the height of the pivot axis, the bumper must be non-pivotable, because the pivoting moment is zero (especially when the contact force passes through the pivot axis, the lever arm is zero, and thus the pivoting moment is also zero). This results in no obstacle being detected and the cleaning robot getting stuck against the obstacle.

Disclosure of Invention

The object of the present invention is to overcome the drawbacks of the above-mentioned prior art documents and in particular to first provide a cleaning robot with a simple bumper which allows to detect all obstacles, regardless of the position of the contact point of the bumper with the obstacle.

To this end, a first aspect of the invention relates to a cleaning robot for floors, comprising:

-a base;

-a bumper movable relative to the base;

a detection mechanism detecting movement of the bumper relative to the base,

Characterized in that the cleaning robot comprises a guiding mechanism of the bumper, which guiding mechanism is arranged for forcing the bumper to move relative to the base, wherein a component of the movement is contained in a base plane. In other words, the movement of the bumper relative to the base is a planar movement: the bumper is movable only parallel to the base plane (parallel to the floor to be cleaned). Thus, contact on the bumper necessarily causes movement of the bumper, regardless of the contact point and in particular regardless of the height of the contact point. This results in a better detection of obstacles and the possibility of providing a bumper at the entire height of the cleaning robot, while at the same time an obstacle can be detected effectively.

Of course, the constructional gaps which necessarily allow some movement in a direction perpendicular to the base plane can be neglected, but it is conceivable that these disturbing movements have a travel which is much smaller than the maximum travel in the base plane, and for a travel in the base plane of, for example, about 5mm, a gap of, for example, 0.4mm to 0.6mm perpendicular to the base plane can be provided.

Advantageously, the guiding mechanism comprises at least three support points between the base and the bumper, which are not aligned and each lock at least one translation of the bumper along the same direction orthogonal to the base plane. The three support points are, for example, planar supports and in particular lock the degrees of freedom of translation perpendicular to the base plane.

Advantageously, the base plane is parallel to the floor to be cleaned.

Advantageously, the guide means comprise at least three pairs of support points between the base and the bumper, the at least three pairs of support points not being aligned, each pair of support points comprising two opposite support points, the at least three pairs of support points each locking at least one translation of the bumper along the same direction orthogonal to the base plane. This embodiment allows to prevent any movement of the bumper along the vertical plane (the base plane being horizontal) in as simple a manner as possible while conforming to equilibrium stability.

Advantageously, the guiding mechanism comprises:

-at least one flat portion parallel to the base plane;

-at least three pairs of holding elements, each pair of holding elements gripping the at least one flat portion so as to force the bumper to move in the base plane. The holding element is advantageously a shim, which allows positioning the shim on both sides of the flat portion. The holding element thus forms a support point.

The at least one flat portion is integral with or formed on one of the base and the bumper, and the retaining element is integral with or formed on the other of the base and the bumper.

Advantageously, the cleaning robot comprises at least three elongated supports each arranged for supporting a pair of holding elements, and the at least one flat portion comprises at least three openings each arranged for passing a support and/or at least one holding element supported by the support through the at least one flat portion.

The at least one flat portion is integral with or formed on one of the base and the bumper, and the at least three elongated supports are integral with or formed on the other of the base and the bumper.

Advantageously, the cleaning robot comprises a blocking mechanism arranged for limiting the relative movement of the bumper with respect to the base in a movement region having an arcuate shape.

Advantageously, the blocking mechanism comprises the at least three openings and the at least three supports. This embodiment allows defining the movement area directly through an opening that allows the support to pass through both sides of the flat portion.

Advantageously, the at least three openings have an arcuate shape formed by a circle cut by a chord orthogonal to the direction of advance of the cleaning robot.

Advantageously, the cleaning robot comprises a resilient mechanism arranged to bring the bumper into an idle position in which the bumper is when no obstacle contacts the bumper.

Advantageously, the cleaning robot comprises a plurality of pairs of centring portions, each comprising:

Base centering and connecting base as one body

An embedded centering part connected with the bumper into a whole,

And the elastic mechanism includes a plurality of springs each having one end portion engaged with the base centering portion of the pair of centering portions and the other end portion engaged with the fitted centering portion of the pair of centering portions.

Advantageously, at least one of the pair of centering portions has a projection in the base plane that is offset from a projection of the corresponding seat centering portion in the base plane when the bumper is in the rest position. This staggering stresses the springs so that the rest position is more stable if no springs are prestressed. It is particularly advantageous if the springs are prestressed pairwise in opposite directions. In other words, the pair of centering portions are staggered in a symmetrical or opposed manner.

Advantageously, the projection of at least one of the pair of centering portions into the base plane is offset from the projection of the corresponding pedestal centering portion into the base plane by at least 1.5mm. This offset value allows the springs to have the correct prestress (deflection) to ensure a stable rest position of the bumper and an effective return to the rest position.

Advantageously, the centering portion is a pin. Such protruding pins are therefore easy to pass through the ends of the springs. A force fit of the spring on the pin may be provided. The springs may be placed under stress (either in tension or compression) even when the bumper is in the rest position to limit interfering shock and noise.

Advantageously, the detection means comprise at least:

a first sensor arranged for detecting a movement of the bumper in a transverse direction of the cleaning robot,

A second sensor arranged for detecting a movement of the bumper in a transverse direction of the cleaning robot opposite to the direction detected by the first sensor,

-A third sensor arranged for detecting a movement along the advancing direction of the cleaning robot.

Such a sensor allows to distinguish the contact direction on the bumper in order to improve the subsequent bypassing of the cleaning robot. The lateral direction refers to a direction perpendicular to the advancing direction of the cleaning robot, which is obtained when all the motorized wheels (having the same diameter) are rotated at the same speed.

Advantageously, the detection means comprise a fourth sensor arranged for detecting a movement along the advancing direction of the cleaning robot, and the third sensor and the fourth sensor are arranged on both sides of a longitudinal mid-plane of the cleaning robot. This arrangement allows the collision position with the obstacle to be deduced from the activated sensor.

Advantageously, the sensor is a switch. Such a switch has a direction of depression and thus a collision with an obstacle will selectively activate the switch, so that the direction of the collision and the position of the obstacle can be deduced while analyzing the activated or deactivated switch.

Drawings

Other features and advantages of the invention will be better understood from reading the following detailed description of an embodiment of the invention, given by way of non-limiting example and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a cleaning robot according to the invention, which is equipped with a movable bumper;

Fig. 2 shows a perspective view of the bumper of fig. 1, and in particular shows the side of the bumper opposite to the main body of the cleaning robot;

fig. 3 shows a top view of the bumper of fig. 1;

fig. 4a and 4b show a detail view of the elastic mechanism arranged for bringing the bumper of fig. 1 into an idle position;

FIG. 5 shows a detail view of the bumper of FIG. 1;

Fig. 6 and 7 show a detail view of the guide mechanism of the bumper of fig. 1;

fig. 8 shows the possibility of detecting the movement of the bumper of fig. 1, according to an obstacle encountered by the cleaning robot of fig. 1.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 shows a cleaning robot equipped with a bumper 10 that is movable relative to a base 20 of the cleaning robot. The cleaning robot is a robot which is provided for automatically cleaning the floor of a living room and for this purpose comprises a motorized wheel 22, a suction slot 27 which is equipped with a rotating brush. The cleaning robot is equipped with a housing 21 on its base 20 and with a bumper 10. Of course, there are an electric energy storage mechanism such as a battery, a control mechanism for the electric wheels and a waste storage tank so as to be automatically operable.

The bumper 10 is movable relative to the base 20 so that the presence of a possible obstacle in the path of the cleaning robot can be detected. Specifically, some detection mechanisms are provided, which are arranged to detect the movement of the bumper 10 caused by the collision with an obstacle so that the path of the cleaning robot can be altered, as will be explained in fig. 8, fig. 8 showing the detection mechanisms formed by sensors, such as switches 41A to 41D.

Fig. 2 shows a perspective view of the bumper 10, and in particular shows the side opposite the cleaning robot. The cleaning robot comprises a guiding mechanism 30 arranged for forcing a specific movement of the bumper 10 relative to the rest of the cleaning robot and in particular relative to the base 20.

In fact, the guide mechanism 30 comprises three pairs of holding elements, each formed by two shims 24 (also visible in fig. 6 and 7), the shims 24 being mounted on an elongated support 23 integral with the base element 20a, the base element 20a being connected with the base. The gasket 24 and the bumper 10 may be provided with plastic, and in particular with polyoxymethylene (or polyoxymethylene resin or polyacetal) abbreviated as POM.

The bumper 10 includes two flat portions 11a and 11b, such as flat ribs or walls, and two shims 24 of each pair of retaining elements sandwich one of the flat portions 11a or 11b (as seen in detail in fig. 5 and 6). In other words, each spacer 24 forms with the flat portion 11a or 11b, respectively, in a direction perpendicular to the flat portions 11a and 11b, or imposes a planar support for the bumper 10 so as to force the bumper to move parallel to or in a base plane parallel to the flat portions 11a and 11b. Since each pair of retaining elements comprises two shims 24 sandwiching the bumper 10, the bumper moves only in the base plane.

For each pair of holding elements, one spacer passes over the elongated support 23 and the other covers the support and is fixed by screws, snaps or adhesive or riveting. As shown in fig. 2,3,8, the cleaning robot can be assembled with at least three pairs of holding elements that are not aligned so as to cause effective guiding and that are close to each other in an even system.

However, it is apparent that there is a gap between the bumper 10 and the guide mechanism, that is, the flat portions 11a and 11b of the bumper 10 are movable in each pair of holding members. This results in the bumper having a disturbing movement in a direction perpendicular to the base plane. However, these movements are limited. Specifically, the clearance may be 0.5mm, and the total travel of the bumper in the base plane may be 4.5mm in each direction of rectangular coordinates. In other words, the maximum possible movement of the bumper in a direction perpendicular to the base plane is less than 15% of the maximum movement of the bumper in the base plane.

Thus, the movement of the bumper 10 is substantially planar, which allows the bumper 10 to move independent of the height of a possible obstacle in contact with the bumper. In fact, the obstacle is level with or above the ground, which allows a substantially planar movement of the bumper 10, which makes detection of the obstacle more efficient than, for example, a bumper hinged about the axis of rotation.

As shown in fig. 3 and in particular in fig. 5, the flat portions 11a,11b have a round-block-shaped opening 13 through which the elongated support 23 passes. These openings 13 limit the movement of the bumper 10 by forming a blocking mechanism, for example, limiting the bumper to move 4.5mm in the horizontal direction of fig. 3 and limiting the same amount to move in the vertical direction of fig. 3.

The bumper 10 is movable relative to the base 20 and when not in contact with any obstacle, it is important to ensure a nominal or rest position of the bumper 10. For this purpose, the cleaning robot comprises an elastic mechanism, which is arranged to bring the bumper 10 into the rest position, as shown in fig. 3 or 5. These elastic means comprise springs 25 visible in fig. 2 and in particular in fig. 4 a.

The springs 25 are fixed between the base member 20a and the bumper 10, and may have a prestress, if necessary, so as to make the bumper 10 stick to the upper or lower pad 24 in order to avoid impact noise. Any movement of the bumper stretches the springs 25 which exert a return force on the bumper to bring the bumper back to the rest position after the contact between the bumper and the obstacle is completed.

The mounting of the spring 25 between the base element 20a and the bumper 10 can be seen from fig. 4a and 4 b. Each spring 25 is mounted on a base centering portion 26 (integral with the base 20) and on an insert centering portion 12 (integral with the bumper 10). In fig. 4b, the base centering portion 26 and the insert centering portion 12 are opposite and aligned (when the bumper is in the rest position). The base centering portion 26 and the insert centering portion 12 may be arranged offset so as to force the springs 25 to have a deflection in the rest position (the centering portions of the two springs 25 should be offset in an opposite manner so as to compensate for the flexural forces) so that this deflection or prestressing allows to increase the return efficiency of the springs 25 to the bumper 10 at small movements.

Fig. 8 shows the detection possibilities provided by an active bumper according to the invention. In fact, if four detection sensors formed by the switches 41A to 41D arranged as shown in fig. 8 are provided, and if the bumper 10 is subjected to contact with the obstacles of the numerals 1 to 7, the switches 41A to 41D are activated as shown in the following table.

	Switch 41A	Switch 41B	Switch 41C	Switch 41D
					Barrier 1	1	0	0	0
Obstacle 2	1	1	0	0
					Obstacle 3	0	1	0	0
Obstacle 4	0	1	1	0
					Obstacle 5	0	0	1	0
Obstacle 6	0	0	1	1
					Obstacle 7	0	0	0	1

(0: Inactive switch; 1: active switch)

It will be appreciated that the position of the obstacle may be determined by four sensors so that a modification strategy of the trajectory of the cleaning robot is effective. The switches 41B and 41C may be provided to be spaced apart by, for example, about 100mm.

It will be understood that various modifications and/or improvements obvious to a person skilled in the art may be made to the different embodiments of the invention described in the present description without departing from the scope of protection of the invention as defined by the appended claims. In particular, for the helical spring 25, a reed, a flexible rod or any other type of elastic element may also be used.

Claims

1. A cleaning robot for floors, the cleaning robot comprising:

-a base (20);

-a bumper (10) movable with respect to said base (20);

A detection mechanism for detecting the movement of the bumper (10) relative to the base (20),

The cleaning robot comprises a guiding mechanism (30) of the bumper (10), the guiding mechanism being arranged for forcing the bumper (10) to move relative to the base (20), wherein a component of the movement is contained in a base plane,

Characterized in that the guiding mechanism comprises at least three support points between the base (20) and the bumper (10), which are not aligned and each lock at least one translation of the bumper (10) in the same direction orthogonal to the base plane, which are plane supported and lock degrees of freedom of translation perpendicular to the base plane, wherein the bumper (10) comprises at least one flat portion (11 a,11 b) parallel to the base plane, the guiding mechanism (30) comprises at least three pairs of holding elements, each pair of holding elements clamping the at least one flat portion (11 a,11 b) so as to force the bumper (10) to move in the base plane, which at least three pairs of holding elements form support points, and the bumper (10) and the guiding mechanism (30) have a gap between them such that the at least one flat portion (11 a,11 b) of the bumper (10) can move in relation to each pair of holding elements in the base plane, which at least one flat portion (11 a,11 b) comprises at least one opening for at least one of the at least one support (23) and at least one extension (23) is arranged for at least one of the at least one support (11 a,11 b) to be held by at least one respective opening (23), 11b) The at least three pairs of holding elements are each formed by two shims (24), the shims (24) being mounted on the elongated support (23), each shim (24) being formed with the at least one flat portion (11 a,11 b) or imposing a planar support for the bumper (10) in a direction perpendicular to the at least one flat portion (11 a,11 b), respectively, so as to force the bumper to move parallel to or in a base plane parallel to the at least one flat portion (11 a,11 b), whereby the movement of the bumper (10) relative to the base (20) is a planar movement: the bumper is only movable parallel to the base plane and allows detection of all obstacles regardless of the position of the contact point of the bumper with the obstacle.

2. The cleaning robot of claim 1, wherein the guide mechanism (30) comprises at least three pairs of support points between the base (20) and the bumper (10), the at least three pairs of support points not being aligned, each pair of support points comprising two opposing support points, each of the at least three pairs of support points locking at least one translation of the bumper (10) in the same direction orthogonal to the base plane.

3. Cleaning robot according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it comprises a blocking mechanism arranged for limiting the relative movement of the bumper (10) with respect to the base (20) in a movement area having an arcuate shape.

4. A cleaning robot according to claim 3, characterized in that the blocking mechanism comprises the at least three openings (13) and the at least three supports.

5. Cleaning robot according to claim 4, characterized in that the at least three openings (13) have an arcuate shape formed by a circle cut by a chord orthogonal to the advancing direction of the cleaning robot.

6. Cleaning robot according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it comprises an elastic mechanism arranged for bringing the bumper (10) into an idle position, in which the bumper (10) is when no obstacle contacts the bumper (10).

7. The cleaning robot of claim 6, comprising a plurality of pairs of centering portions, each comprising:

a base centering portion (26) integrally connected to the base (20)

An embedded centering part (12) connected with the bumper (10) into a whole,

And the elastic mechanism includes a plurality of springs (25) each having one end portion engaged with the base centering portion (26) of the pair of centering portions and the other end portion engaged with the fitting centering portion (12) of the pair of centering portions.

8. The cleaning robot of claim 7, wherein at least one of the pair of centering portions (12) has a projection in the base plane that is offset from a projection of a corresponding base centering portion (26) in the base plane when the bumper (10) is in the rest position.

9. The cleaning robot of claim 8, wherein a projection of at least one of the pair of centering portions (12) into the base plane is offset from a projection of a corresponding base centering portion (26) into the base plane by at least 1.5mm.

10. The cleaning robot of claim 1 or 2, wherein the detection mechanism comprises at least:

A first sensor arranged for detecting a movement of the bumper (10) in a transverse direction of the cleaning robot,

A second sensor arranged for detecting a movement of the bumper (10) in a transverse direction of the cleaning robot opposite to the direction detected by the first sensor,

11. The cleaning robot of claim 10, wherein the detection mechanism comprises a fourth sensor arranged to detect movement along the direction of advance of the cleaning robot, and the third sensor and the fourth sensor are arranged on either side of a longitudinal mid-plane of the cleaning robot.

12. The cleaning robot of claim 10, wherein the sensor is a switch (41 a,41b,41c,41 d).