Patent Application
20210321843
The present application is based on, and claims priority from, Taiwanese application number 109113278, filed on Apr. 21, 2020, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The present invention relates to a robot, and more particularly to a cleaning robot and a cleaning device for cleaning a roller of the robot.
With the advancement of technology, robots can now assist households in completing most of the cleaning works. At the same time, benefiting from the reduced manufacturing costs, robots have gradually been popularized in general households, in particular, robots with both sweeping and vacuuming functions are the most popular ones on the market. The robot with both sweeping and vacuuming functions has a roller, a side brush, and a dust suction portion. When the robot cleans the ground, the side brush pushes the garbage and dust scattered on the ground in the direction of the dust suction portion, and then the roller brings the garbage and dust to the dust suction portion, which creates the airflow to guide the garbage and dust into the dust suction portion, thereby achieving the effect of cleaning the floor.
However, when the robot is cleaning the floor, the garbage and dust brought to the suction portion by the roller are often attached to the roller, so that the cleaning ability of the roller is reduced, and the garbage and dust cannot be smoothly guided to the suction portion. In view of the above problem, the prior art robot on the market comprises a soft dust wiper at the bottom to try to remove the garbage and dust attached to the roller, but the soft dust wiper will be deformed when it makes contact with the roller and thus cannot effectively remove the garbage and dust on the roller. Therefore, it is necessary to solve the problem that the garbage and dust on the roller cannot be removed.
According to an object of the present invention, a cleaning device is provided and installed on the bottom side of a robot, and the bottom side of the robot is further disposed with a suction port for sucking the garbage and dust into the robot. The cleaning device includes a movable box, a roller and a cleaning cover. The movable box is installed on the bottom side of the robot and is disposed around the suction port, and the movable box is further disposed with a roller space therein, and the roller space is pivotally disposed with a roller, and the roller comprises a plurality of cleaning portions disposed on the surface thereof, wherein a part of the roller and the plurality of cleaning portions are in the roller space, and the other part protrudes out of the roller space. The cleaning cover is disposed around the opening of the roller space of the movable box, and a guide element made of rigid material is disposed between the roller and the suction port. When the robot sweeps the floor, the robot rotates the roller to push the garbage and dust near the suction port to the suction port, and the rotating roller makes contact with the guide element, since the rigid guide element does not deform, the guide element scrapes off the garbage and dust attached to the roller, and the guide element guides the airflow near the suction port to flow into the suction port, so that the garbage and dust also follow the airflow into the robot.
In the present invention, the two ends of the guide element are disposed at the two ends of the cleaning cover, so that the guide element spans across the two ends of the cleaning cover, and the guide element comprises a first side, a second side, and a guide face between the two ends. The first side is disposed on the side of the guide element facing the roller space, the second side is disposed on the opposite side of the first side, and the guide face is disposed between the first side and the second side, wherein the guide face is curved, the concave surface of the guide face concaves to the roller, and the second side is formed in an arc shape, the concave surface of the second side concaves to the suction port, and the curvature of the two ends of the second side is smaller than that of the middle of the second side.
In the present invention, the concave surface can be referred to a term of a mathematical concave function graph to represent curved surface and curvature directions of the guide face and the second side.
In the present invention, the cleaning cover is disposed with a cleaning opening in the middle to communicate with the roller space, and the guide element divides the cleaning opening into a roller area and a suction port area. The suction port area is smaller than the roller area and is closer to the suction port, and the opening area of the suction port area is also small, so that the suction port area will not be covered by the roller.
In the present invention, the cleaning cover is further disposed with a plurality of brackets near the suction port, and two ends of each bracket are disposed on two opposing sides of the cleaning cover; each bracket is connected to the second side and the guide face, so that each bracket crosses each other at the guide element and supports the guide element.
In the present invention, the cleaning portion is a pastry brush, scrubbing brush, rubber brush, sponge brush, or a combination of any two mentioned above.
In summary, the present invention has one or more of the following advantages:
1. The rigid guide element is used for scraping off the garbage and dust attached to the soft cleaning portion, so as to improve the cleaning effect.
2. The guide element is designed to be located at a predetermined distance from the suction port so as to send the garbage and dust into the robot by the airflow.
Please refer to
In the present invention, the roller 200 further comprises a plurality of cleaning portions 220 disposed on the surface of the roller 200, and each cleaning portions 220 further comprises a rubber brush 221 and a pastry brush 222. One end of each cleaning portion 220 is close to one of the connecting portions 210 and extends to the other connecting portion 210 in a curve until the other end of the cleaning portion 220 is close to the other connecting portion 210, additionally, each cleaning portion 220 exhibits a curved shape of one or a combination of two or more of a V shape, a W shape, a spiral shape, and an arc shape on the surface of the roller 200. In the present invention, each cleaning portion 220 stands upright on the surface of the roller 200, when the roller 200 rolls to make the cleaning portions 220 face the surface to be cleaned, a portion of each cleaning portion 220 protrudes out of the roller space 110 to bring the cleaning portion 220 into contact with the surface to be cleaned, and to sweep the garbage and dust scattered on the cleaning surface toward the airflow port 120.
In the present invention, the cleaning cover 300 is disposed with a cleaning opening 320 on the side facing the surface to be cleaned, and a guide element 310 is disposed on the cleaning opening 320 near the airflow port 120, and the two ends of the guide element 310 are disposed at the two ends of the cleaning cover 300, so that the guide element 310 spans across the cleaning opening 320, furthermore, two brackets 340 are disposed between the two opposing sides of the cleaning cover 300, with the two ends of each bracket 340 being disposed on the two sides of the cleaning cover 300 respectively, so that each bracket 340 and the cleaning opening 320 of the guide element 330 are crossed to provide support force to the guide element 310, therefore, the guide element 310 is less likely to be deformed when continuously making contact with the cleaning portion 220.
Refer to
After the cleaning portion 220 makes contact with the surface to be cleaned, and the garbage and dust are attached to the cleaning portion 220, the rotating cleaning portion 220 will be in contact with the guide element 310 for the guide element 310 to remove the garbage and dust and to guide the airflow to bring the garbage and dust along in its direction.
Please refer to
When the cleaning portion 220 is in contact with the guide element 310, since the concave surface of the guide face 313 concaves to the roller 200, the second side 312 will first make contact with the cleaning portion 220, and the soft cleaning portions 220 are squeezed by the rigid guide element 310 to deform, causing the garbage or dust attached to the contact surface of the cleaning portion 220 to drop to the guide face 313. At the same time, since the concave surface of the second side 312 concaves to the airflow port 120, the airflow will guide the garbage and dust falling on the guide face 313 to move in the direction of the airflow port 120, thereby achieving the object of removing the garbage and dust.
In the present invention, the guide element 310 divides the cleaning opening 320 into a suction port area 321 and a roller area 322, wherein the suction port area 321 is smaller than that of the roller area 322, and the second fastening elements 330 at the two ends of the guide element 310 also occupies a part of the suction port area 321, making the suction port area 321 of the suction port area narrower, which forces the airflow to flow toward the suction port 11, therefore, the effect of the airflow to guide garbage and dust to the airflow port 120 is improved.
Please refer to
In summary, before the roller of the robot brings the garbage and dust to the suction port, the roller will first make contact with the guide element, so that the garbage and dust attached to the soft cleaning portion can be scraped off and dropped by the rigid guide element. At the same time, the falling garbage and dust will be sent into the robot by the airflow and will not fall back to the ground. In addition, with the suction port area design of the guide element, the ability of the airflow to guide garbage and dust into the suction port is increased, thereby improving the effectiveness of the robot cleaning the floor.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 109113278 | Apr 2020 | TW | national |
