This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202211051013.2, filed Aug. 30, 2022, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present application relates to the field of cleaning technology, and more specifically, to a cleaning robot and a cleaning system.
Robotic vacuum cleaners can free people's hands and replace users to clean the ground environment. Moreover, the robotic vacuum cleaners can automatically collect dust, achieving dust extraction uniformly. After the robotic vacuum cleaners complete a cleaning operation, dust collected therein needs to be collected and extracted, and dust in dust boxes needs to be cleared to leave storage space for the next cleaning operation. However, there are dust-extraction blind areas in dust boxes of the robotic vacuum cleaners, making it impossible to extract all the dust from the dust boxes, so the dust accumulates in the dust boxes. Dust accumulation over time will lead to a difficulty in dust cleaning and reduce the storage space of the dust boxes.
There are provided a cleaning robot and a cleaning system. The technical solution is as below:
According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a cleaning robot, comprising a housing, a dust box and a dust extraction duct. The housing is enclosed to form a mounting chamber and is provided with a dust outlet. The dust box is arranged in the mounting chamber and is configured to collect dust. The dust box is provided with a dust collection port and a dust extraction port, the dust collection port and the dust extraction port are respectively disposed on two sides of a centerline of the dust box. One end of the dust extraction duct communicates with the dust extraction port and the other end of the dust extraction duct communicates with the dust outlet of the housing.
According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a cleaning system, including the cleaning robot above and a base station. The base station is provided with a management compartment, the management compartment is configured to store the cleaning robot. The base station further comprises a dust collection bag and a dust collection pump, the dust collection pump is connected to the dust collection bag, a dust suction inlet is further disposed in the management compartment, the dust suction inlet is connected to the dust collection bag. When the cleaning robot is placed in the management compartment, the dust outlet of the cleaning robot is docked to the dust suction inlet of the base station.
It should be understood that the general description above and the detailed description below are only exemplary and explanatory, and cannot limit the present disclosure.
The above and other features of the present application will become more apparent by detailed descriptions of exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Although the present application may be readily represented in different forms of embodiments, only some of the specific embodiments are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and will be described in detail in this specification. It is to be understood that this specification is to be regarded as an exemplary illustration of the principle of the present application and is not intended to limit the present application to what is illustrated herein.
Thus, a feature indicated in this specification will be used to illustrate one of features of an embodiment of the present application, rather than implying that each embodiment of the present application must have the illustrated feature. In addition, it should be noted that this specification describes a number of features. While some features may be combined to illustrate a possible system design, these features may also be used in other, unspecified combinations. Thus, unless otherwise stated, the illustrated combinations are not intended to be limiting.
In the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings, indications of orientation (such as up, down, left, right, front, and back) are used to explain that the structures and movements of various elements of the present application are not absolute but relative. These descriptions are appropriate when these elements are in the positions shown in the accompanying drawings. If the descriptions of the positions of these elements change, these indications of orientation change accordingly.
Exemplary embodiments will now be described more comprehensively with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the exemplary embodiments can be implemented in various forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein; rather, these exemplary embodiments are provided so that the description of the present application will be more thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the exemplary embodiments to those skilled in the art. In addition, the accompanying drawings are only schematic illustrations and are not necessarily drawn to scale. The same reference signs in the drawings indicate the same or similar parts, and thus the repetition of their description will be omitted.
The preferred embodiments of the present application are further described in detail below in combination with the accompanying drawings of this specification.
Referring to
Specifically, the housing 10 is enclosed to form a mounting chamber 100, and the housing 10 is provided with a dust outlet 101. The housing 10 refers to an external support structure of the cleaning robot, and the mounting chamber 100 is used for installation of various devices. The housing 10 is mainly configured to support to avoid damage to internal devices by collision. The housing 10 may be made of metal or plastic. The dust outlet 101 is a via hole for communicating the dust extraction duct 30 with an external structure to facilitate extraction of dust stored inside the dust box 20.
The dust box 20 is arranged in the mounting chamber 100. The dust box 20 is configured to collect dust. The dust box 20 is provided with a dust collection port 201 and a dust extraction port 202. The dust collection port 201 and the dust extraction port 202 are respectively disposed on two sides of a centerline 203 of the dust box 20; that is, the dust collection port 201 and the dust extraction port 202 are respectively disposed on the left and right sides of the centerline 203 of the dust box 20. For example, the dust collection port 201 is disposed on the right side and the dust extraction port 202 is disposed on the left side. If the dust collection port 201 is disposed on the left side, the dust extraction port 202 is disposed on the right side. With such a left-right arrangement, an airflow from the dust collection port 201 to the dust extraction port 202 runs through the internal space of the dust box 20 during a dust extraction operation, reducing blind angles where the airflow cannot pass through.
One end of the dust extraction duct 30 communicates with the dust extraction port 202, and the other end of the dust extraction duct communicates with the dust outlet 101 of the housing 10. During the dust extraction operation, the dust extraction duct 30 is configured to communicate with the internal space of the dust box 20, and an airflow generated by the dust extraction operation sequentially passes through the dust collection port 201, the dust extraction port 202, and the dust extraction duct 30 to the dust outlet 101, so as to extract the dust stored inside the dust box 20.
In a technical solution of the present application, the dust collection port 201 and the dust extraction port 202 are respectively disposed on two sides of the centerline 203 of the dust box 20. During the dust extraction operation, a dust extraction airflow 40b flows to the dust extraction port 202 through the dust collection port 201, and the dust extraction airflow 40b can run through the internal space of the dust box 20. It is ensured that the dust extraction airflow 40b can reach all corners of the internal space of the dust box 20, thereby reducing the dust-extraction blind areas. In this way, according to the technical solution of the present application, dust in the dust box 20 can be extracted more effectively to avoid dust accumulation.
Specifically, referring back to
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Further, in order to allow the dust extraction airflow 40b to flow through more of the internal space of the dust box 20, the dust collection port 201 is located at an end of the windward plate 210 away from the dust extraction port 202. In this way, the dust collection port 201 and the dust extraction port 202 are located farther away from each other. During the dust extraction operation, the dust extraction airflow 40b can flow through more spatial positions, thereby improving the dust extraction effect and reducing dust residue.
It should be noted that a dust collection cover may be arranged at the position of the dust collection port 201, and the dust collection cover is vertically rotatably arranged at an upper edge of the dust collection port 201. During the dust collection operation or dust extraction operation, the dust collection airflow 40a or dust extraction airflow 40b can impact the dust collection cover, to rotate to open the dust collection cover. When there is no airflow impact, the dust collection cover automatically snaps on the dust collection port 201 under its own gravity, reducing escaping of dust in the dust box 20.
In the above embodiment, sometimes it is also necessary to mount other structural components, such as a water tank, in the mounting chamber 100 formed by the housing 10. In order to increase water storage capacity of the water tank, the center of the fan 90 is located in a centerline 110 of the housing 10, the centerline 203 of the dust box 20 is offset from the centerline 110 of the housing 10, and the center of the dust collection port 201 is arranged corresponding to the centerline 110 of the housing 10. In this way, since the dust box 20 is offset from the centerline 110 of the housing 10, more mounting space is provided for the water tank after the dust box 20 is mounted, and the water tank can store more water. However, to ensure that the dust collection effect is not weakened, the center of the dust collection port 201 is arranged corresponding to the centerline 110 of the housing 10. In this way, the center of the dust collection airflow 40a generated by the fan 90 is also arranged corresponding to the center of the dust collection port 201, ensuring that the center with a maximum flow of the dust collection airflow 40a passes through the dust collection port 201. This simply means that the dust box 20 has the center offset from a centerline 901 of the fan 90, but the dust collection port 201 faces towards the centerline 901 of the fan 90.
The centerline 901 of the fan 90 extends through the center of the housing 10, that is, the centerline 901 of the fan 90 coincides with the centerline 110 of the housing 10.
In order to trap the dust better in the dust box 20, the dust box 20 further includes a filter screen 230, and the filter screen 230 is arranged between the windward plate 210 and the fan 90. The dust collection airflow 40a generated by the fan 90 passes through the dust collection port 201 and then passes through the filter screen 230, and the filter screen 230 functions in filtering to trap the collected dust and debris in the dust box 20.
Referring back to
In this way, the dust collection port 201 and the dust extraction port 202 are disposed at two diagonal positions of the dust box 20, so that the dust collection port 201 and the dust extraction port 202 are located farther away from each other in the dust box 20, the dust extraction airflow 40b passes through a longer path in the dust box 20 and passes through more spatial positions in the dust box 20, thus improving the dust collection effect.
In addition, the first included angle θ1 between the first plate surface 221 and the second plate surface 222 is equal to 90°, then the first plate surface 221 and the second plate surface 222 are perpendicular to each other, and the second plate surface 222 and the filter surface 233 of the filter 230 are located on the same plane. If the first included angle θ1 is less than 90°, the dust extraction duct 30 extends towards the position of the fan 90, which may lead to interference between the dust extraction duct 30 and the fan 90, and accordingly, the first included angle θ1 is greater than or equal to 90°.
Alternatively, the first included angle θ1 between the first plate surface 221 and the second plate surface 222 is equal to 180°, then the first plate surface 221 and the second plate surface 222 are parallel to each other, and the first plate surface 221 and the second plate surface 222 are located on the same plane. In this case, the dust extraction duct 30 has the shortest path. The short path of the dust extraction duct 30 is beneficial to reduce pressure loss of the dust extraction airflow 40b.
If the first included angle θ1 is greater than 180°, the dust extraction duct 30 extends towards a front half of the cleaning robot, that is, extends toward a direction away from a base station, then it is difficult for the dust extraction duct 30 to dock to the base station 80. For this reason, the first included angle θ1 is less than or equal to 180°. Specifically, the first included angle θ1 may be one of 90°, 95°, 100°, 105°, 110°, 115°, 120°, 125°, 130°, 135°, 140°, 145°, 150°, 155°, 160°, 165°, 170°, 175°, and 180°. Of course, the range of angle values may also be accurate to 1°.
If the dust extraction port 202 is disposed on the second side plate 280, the second side plate 280 also has a first plate surface 221 and a second plate surface 222. Specifically, reference is made to the arrangement of the first side plate 220 described above, which will not be repeated here.
In particular, it should be noted that by this diagonal flowing manner of the dust extraction airflow 40b, in a corner of the opposite other diagonal, a part of the dust extraction airflow 40b cannot pass through the dust extraction port 202 in time, this part of the airflow impacts the first plate surface 221, and then the airflow swirls back to form a vortex. The vortex rotates in the corner, sufficiently impacting dust at that position and dispersing the dust at that position to avoid dust accumulation in the corner position. Similarly, a vortex is also formed at another position relative to a diagonal line of the first plate surface 221. That is, the dust collection port 201 and the dust extraction port 202 are arranged on one diagonal line of the dust box 20, and a vortex is formed at each of two corners of the other diagonal line of the dust box 20. In this way, the dust extraction airflow 40b can extract the dust sufficiently.
For the front half and the rear half of the cleaning robot, it can be understood in this way that the housing 10 of the cleaning robot is usually disc-shaped, a normal direction of travel of the cleaning robot is defined as the front, and accordingly the front half is the corresponding structure of a semicircular arc in front of the cleaning robot, and the rear half is the corresponding structure of a semicircular arc in rear of the cleaning robot. The position of a cleaning roller brush can also be understood as the front half and the position of the fan 90 as the rear half.
Referring to
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That is, the joint between the first duct section 310 and the second duct section 320 is bent at an angle, avoiding the position of the fan 90. When the dust extraction airflow 40b passes through the dust extraction duct 30, the dust extraction airflow 40b may have a contact with an inner wall surface of the dust extraction duct 30. If the angle between the first duct section 310 and the second duct section 320 is 90°, an inner wall surface of the first duct section 310 is perpendicular to an inner wall surface of the second duct section 320, the dust extraction airflow 40b passes through the first duct section 310 to directly impact the inner wall surface of the second duct section 320, which will consume part of an air pressure impact of the dust extraction airflow 40b, causing a slowdown of an extraction force. In addition, if the second included angle θ2 is less than 90°, it will not only cause a slowdown of the extraction force of the dust extraction airflow 40b, but also cause dust accumulation at the corner position, which is not easy to clean.
To this end, the angle between the first duct section 310 and the second duct section 320 is greater than 90°, preventing the airflow impacting the corner position and reducing a friction between the dust extraction airflow 40b and the inner wall surface of the dust extraction duct 30. Alternatively, the angle between the first duct section 310 and the second duct section 320 may be equal to 180°, so that the position of the dust extraction port 202 is closest to the position of the dust outlet 101, and a straight duct is formed between the first duct section 310 and the second duct section 320. Therefore, 90°<θ2<180°. Specifically, the included angle θ2 may be one of 95°, 100°, 105°, 110°, 115°, 120°, 125°, 130°, 135°, 140°, 145°, 150°, 155°, 160°, 165°, 170°, 175°, and 180°. Of course, the range of angle values may also be accurate to 1°.
Further, in order to reduce dust accumulation in the dust extraction duct 30, a connected position between the first duct section 310 and the second duct section 320 is in arc-shaped arrangement. In this way, there are no blind angles inside the dust extraction duct 30, and the inner wall of the whole dust extraction duct 30 is arranged smoothly so that the dust extraction airflow 40b can impact the entire duct wall surface inside the dust extraction duct 30, reducing dust accumulation inside the dust extraction duct 30.
In addition, the smooth interior of the dust extraction duct 30 can also help to reduce wind resistance and ensure that the dust extraction airflow 40b has an enough impact force to act on the whole dust extraction duct 30.
Referring to
It should be noted that during the dust extraction operation, the pivot-cover 50 rotates to be opened under the drive of the dust extraction airflow 40b, so that the dust extraction port 202 is opened, and the dust extraction airflow 40b drives dust in the dust box 20 to enter the dust extraction duct 30.
In order to reduce escaping of dust inside the dust box 20 when the cleaning robot performs the cleaning operation, the pivot-cover 50 includes a cover body 510 and a pivot 520, the pivot shaft 520 is rotatably connected to the sealing frame 270, and the cover body 510 is connected to the pivot 520; and the pivot cover 50 further includes a torsion spring 530, the torsion spring 530 is sleeved onto the pivot 520, and the torsion spring 530 is configured to provide a closing torque when the cover body 510 is rotated to be opened.
Typically, the cover body 510 snaps on the sealing frame 270, that is, the pivot-cover 50 is in a closed state normally. In this way, when the cleaning robot performs floor cleaning, dust is prevented from escaping through the dust extraction port 202 due to closing of the pivot-cover 50. During the dust extraction operation, the dust extraction airflow 40b impacts the cover body 510 of the pivot-cover 50, and the cover body 510 is rotated to be opened under an impact of the airflow, so that dust extraction is completed. When the cover body 510 is rotated to be opened, the torsion spring 530 is deformed to form a closing torque, which acts on the cover body 510 to drive the cover body 510 to rotate reversely. After the dust extraction operation is completed, the cover body 510, which has lost the air pressure impact, drives the cover body 510 to snap on the dust extraction port 202 under the action of the closing torque.
It should be emphasized that the cover body 510 is rotated in a horizontal direction, and is rotated to be opened towards the rear half of the cleaning robot, so that after the cover body 510 is opened, the dust extraction airflow 40b flows rapidly to the dust outlet 101, reducing the blockage of the dust extraction airflow 40b by the cover body 510.
The cleaning robot includes a cover 60, and the cover 60 rotatably covers the dust outlet 101, and covering area of the cover 60 is larger than the opening area of the dust outlet 101. The cover 60 is made of a silicone material, and the cover 60 is configured to seal the dust extraction duct 30 in general. The cover 60 and the pivot-cover 50 are sealed at both ends of the dust extraction duct 30, reducing external dust entering the dust extraction duct 30 while the cleaning robot performs the cleaning operation.
It should be emphasized that the cover 60 is rotated in a vertical direction, and the dust extraction airflow 40b drives the cover 60 to be opened during the dust extraction operation, and when the dust extraction operation is completed, the cover 60 automatically rotates down under its own gravity, and the cover 60 snaps on the dust outlet 101.
The horizontal direction can be understood as a direction parallel to a cleaning surface when the cleaning robot performs the cleaning operation. The vertical direction can be understood as a direction perpendicular to the cleaning surface. Generally, the vertical direction is the direction of gravity.
To further ensure stable air pressure of the dust collection extraction airflow 40b, the cleaning robot further includes a sealing ring 70, the sealing ring 70 is arranged at a joint between the dust extraction duct 30 and the dust extraction port 202. The sealing ring 70 is configured to seal a gap between the dust extraction duct 30 and the dust extraction port 202. For example, the dust extraction duct 30 has an outer diameter smaller than the dust extraction port 202, the dust extraction duct 30 is inserted at the dust extraction port 202, and the sealing ring 70 is sleeved onto an outer wall surface of the dust extraction duct 30 to block the gap between the dust extraction duct 30 and the dust extraction port 202.
Referring to
In order to illustrate cleaning procedures of the cleaning robot in the present application, a working process of the cleaning robot in the present application is further described. The working process of the cleaning robot may be divided into two phases: a dust collection phase and a dust extraction phase.
In the dust collection phase, the cleaning robot moves on the floor which need to be cleaned, the fan 90 runs and works, the fan 90 generates the dust collection airflow 40a, the dust collection airflow 40a enters the dust box 20 via the dust collection port 201, and the dust collection airflow 40a passes through the filter screen 230. The dust entering the dust box 20 is trapped by the filter screen 230 and stored in the dust box 20. After dust collection is completed, the fan 90 stops working.
In the dust extraction phase, the cleaning robot moves autonomously to the base station 80 and enters the management compartment 810. The rear half of the cleaning robot is accommodated in the management compartment 810, and the dust outlet 101 is docked to the dust suction inlet 820 in the management compartment 810. The dust collection pump 840 runs and works to generate the dust extraction airflow 40b. Under the impact of the dust extraction airflow 40b, both the pivot-cover 50 and the cover 60 are opened, and the dust extraction airflow 40b enters the dust suction inlet 820 via the dust collection port 201, the dust box 20, the dust extraction port 202, the dust extraction duct 30 and the dust outlet 101 sequentially, and then enters the dust collection bag 830 via the dust suction inlet 820, so that dust collection is completed. Herein, the dust collection port 201 and the dust extraction port 202 are respectively disposed on two sides of the centerline 203 of the dust box 20, and the path of the dust extraction airflow 40b in the dust box 20 passes through the internal space of the entire dust box 20, thus reducing the dust residue. It should be noted here that during the dust extraction operation, a part of the dust extraction airflow 40b comes from the dust collection port 201 and the other part enters the dust box 20 via the filter screen 230, so that a turbulent flow effect is formed by mixing the two parts of airflow, which further increases the position reached by the airflow and thus improves the cleaning effect.
While the present application has been described with reference to several typical embodiments, it should be understood that the terms used are illustrative and exemplary, not restrictive. Since the present application can be implemented in many forms without departing from the spirit or substance of the invention, it should be understood that the foregoing embodiments are not limited to any of the foregoing details, but should be construed broadly within the spirit and scope of the appended claims, and therefore all variations and modifications falling within the scope of the claims or their equivalents should be covered by the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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202211051013.2 | Aug 2022 | CN | national |