The present invention relates to a system and method for compacting debris within a debris container of a robotic vacuum.
Many innovations in home-cleaning devices have reduced the amount of work involved in maintaining clean floors. Hand-operated vacuums eventually gave rise to robotic vacuums that perform the task of vacuuming debris from a workspace automatically. Most robotic vacuums contain a storage area for collected debris that must be periodically emptied by a user. Emptying the debris container is usually the most labor-intensive and unpleasant task necessary to maintain a robotic vacuum. Debris within a debris container is often comprised of a lot of dust, hair, and other materials that have a large volume but not a lot of mass. Thus, debris can take up a lot of space in a debris container if it is voluminous. A need exists for a method to compact such debris within a debris container so that the robotic vacuum may operate for longer periods of time between debris container emptyings. A need exists for a method to reduce the amount of work required to maintain a robotic vacuum.
It is a goal of the present invention to provide a method for compacting debris inside of a robotic vacuum debris container.
It is a goal of the present invention to provide a method to reduce the frequency with which a robotic vacuum debris container must be emptied.
It is a goal of the present invention to decrease the amount of human labor required to maintain a robotic vacuum.
It is a goal of the present invention to increase the autonomy of a robotic vacuum.
The present invention achieves the aforementioned goals through a debris compacting system that periodically compresses debris collected inside of a robotic vacuum debris container. An electric motor propels a plate that moves from one side of the debris container to the other, compacting collected debris against the debris container wall. The process results in more available space for incoming debris in the debris container.
The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to a few embodiments thereof as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present invention may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well known process steps and/or structures have not been described in detail in order to not unnecessarily obscure the present invention.
Various embodiments are described below, including methods and techniques. The disclosure described herein is directed generally to a system for compacting debris within a debris container of a robotic vacuum.
As understood herein, the term “robotic vacuum” may be defined generally to include one or more autonomous devices having communication, mobility, vacuuming and/or processing elements. For example, a robotic vacuum may comprise a casing or shell, a chassis including a set of wheels, a motor to drive wheels, a receiver that acquires signals transmitted from, for example, a transmitting beacon, a processor, and/or controller that processes and/or controls motor and other robotic autonomous or cleaning operations, network or wireless communications, power management, etc., one or more clock or synchronizing devices, a vacuum motor to provide suction, a debris dustbin to store debris, a brush to facilitate collection of debris, and a means to spin the brush.
Generally, one or more plates are provided within a debris container of a robotic vacuum and are moved within the debris container against collected debris to decrease the volume of and thereby compress collected debris.
In the preferred embodiment, a plate is periodically propelled by an electric motor and set of gears along guiding tracks inside the debris container of a robotic vacuum.
In some embodiments, a debris container will include a filter frame, an impeller disposed under the filter frame to draw air from outside of said debris container into said debris container and an air filter.
Referring to
In some embodiments, plate movement may occur at regular intervals and be actuated by a timer.
In some embodiments, plate movement may be manually actuated by a user.
In some embodiments, plate movement may be actuated automatically by a debris sensor when the amount of debris detected within the debris container reaches a predetermined threshold.
In the preferred embodiment, the system further comprises a resistance sensor, which halts debris compression when resistance against the plate or plates reaches a predetermined threshold.
Referring to
In some embodiments, two or more plates may be provided to compress debris. The number of plates and the movement pattern of the plate or plates may vary and are not limited except by the practical limitations of the particular robotic vacuum debris container for which they are designed.
Plate movement is not limited to a direction perpendicular to the plane of the work surface; a plate could be devised to move vertically, compressing debris upward or downward, or in any other direction relative to the plane of the work surface.
In some embodiments, a method for compacting debris inside of a wrapper are utilized. As the debris is compacted, the debris is forced into a wrapper for easy disposal by the user. In some embodiments the wrapper is a foil wrapper. In other embodiments a paper wrapper is utilized. In yet other embodiments a plastic material may be utilized. Other variations are possible.
In embodiments when the dustbin is empty, the wrapper is placed inside of the dustbin to coat the edges. The wrapper is placed so as to cover all edges of the dustbin in order to capture all dust inside of the wrapper. As the dust is compacted, the wrapper is pushed inwards, until the wrapper is closed into a small compact shape with the dust contained inside. Thereafter the compacted dust is easily disposed of. In embodiments, the shape of the compacted dust can be in a variety of forms inside of the wrapper. The shape can be that of a ball or circular shape, it can be an elongated shape, it can take the shape of a square or rectangle. What is important is not necessarily the shape but rather that the dust is compacted within the wrapper. In some embodiments the wrapper is placed ahead of cleaning time by the user. In other embodiments, the wrapper is placed inside by the docking station when the mobile robotic device docks at the docking station.
This application is a continuation in part of U.S. non-provisional patent application Ser. No. 14/887,542, filed Oct. 20, 2015 and claims the benefit of provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/066,881, filed Oct. 21, 2014 by the first named inventor.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 14887542 | Oct 2015 | US |
Child | 16053171 | US |