This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202310173492.3, filed on Feb. 20, 2023, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present application relates to the technical field of swimming pool cleaning devices, in particular to a robot swimming pool cleaner capable of adjusting a water flow jetting direction and a control method thereof.
A swimming pool is a place where people engage in swimming activities. During use, some garbage or bacterial floating debris may be accumulated at a swimming pool bottom and at a water line on a wall, especially at the water line on the wall in a contact position between a water surface and a wall of the swimming pool. Due to long-time contact with dirt floating on the water surface, a large amount of dirt on the water surface adheres to the water line on the wall. Therefore, it is necessary to regularly clean a swimming pool bottom and the water line on the wall.
Existing robot swimming pool cleaners only rely on driving wheels to travel and turn, and may not attach to the swimming pool wall and move laterally along the water line on the wall.
Therefore, it may only clean the swimming pool bottom and may not achieve cleaning at the water line on the wall, so the cleaning at this place may requires a lot of manpower.
At the same time, while the swimming pool bottom is cleaned by the existing robot swimming pool cleaners, due to the buoyancy generated by water and the effect of a water flow, it is easy for the robot swimming pool cleaner to have the insufficient downward pressure, resulting in weak grip of the driving wheel, or even loss of the grip (the driving wheel is off the ground). In the operation process, unstable phenomena of “floating in the water”, such as difficult steering, moving, and slipping, may occur, and it is not beneficial to the movement trajectory control of the robot swimming pool cleaner.
A purpose of the present application is to provide a robot swimming pool cleaner that is operated smoothly and flexibly, and may achieve cleaning at a water line on a swimming pool wall and a control method thereof.
In order to achieve the above purpose of the present application, the present application adopts the following technical schemes.
A robot swimming pool cleaner capable of adjusting a water flow jetting direction includes a housing, a bottom part of the housing is provided with a driving wheel, the housing is provided with a water inlet and a vector nozzle, a drainage power mechanism is arranged inside the housing to drive a water flow to be sucked in by the water inlet and jetted out by a drainage port of the vector nozzle, a garbage filtering and collecting mechanism is further arranged inside the housing, and the garbage filtering and collecting mechanism is arranged between the water inlet and the vector nozzle to filter and collect dirt in water.
A top part of the vector nozzle is a bending portion, so that a counter-acting force of the water flow jetted has a component force towards the bottom part of the housing.
A bottom part of the vector nozzle is a vertical portion, the vertical portion is in transmission connection with a rotation power mechanism to drive the vector nozzle to rotate by the rotation power mechanism, the rotation of the vector nozzle takes the axis of the vertical portion as a rotation axis, and the jetting direction of the water flow is adjusted in the rotation process, so that the size of the component force of the counter-acting force of the water flow jetted in front, back and side directions of the housing may be adjusted.
A control mechanism is further arranged inside the housing, the control mechanism is in electric signal connection with the rotation power mechanism, and by controlling the rotation angle of the vector nozzle, the operating posture and trajectory of the robot swimming pool cleaner may be adjusted by cooperating with a driving wheel.
As a further improved technical scheme of the present application, the housing is respectively provided with a first sensor and a second sensor on both ends adjacent to the front end and rear end, the first sensor and the second sensor are both in electric signal connection with the control mechanism to identify a position of a water surface and feed it back to control mechanism, so that the control mechanism judges the cleaning range at a water line on a swimming pool wall.
As a further improved technical scheme of the present application, the angle formed by the axial direction of the drainage port of the vector nozzle and the positive axial direction of the housing is fixed, and the formed angle is between 20 and 70 degrees.
As a further improved technical scheme of the present application, the drainage port of the vector nozzle is connected with a straight pipe, the straight pipe is coaxially arranged with the drainage port, and the length of the straight pipe is at least twice greater than the diameter of the drainage port.
As a further improved technical scheme of the present application, there are at least two vector nozzles, each vector nozzle is correspondingly provided with a drainage power mechanism and a rotation power mechanism, and the control mechanism is in electric signal connection with both the drainage power mechanism and the rotation power mechanism to synergistically adjust the operating posture and trajectory of the robot swimming pool cleaner under the control of the control mechanism.
As a further improved technical scheme of the present application, it further includes a cleaning mechanism, the cleaning mechanism includes a rolling brush, the rolling brush is arranged at a bottom part of the housing and located in front of the water inlet, the garbage filtering and collecting mechanism includes a filtering chamber, and the filtering chamber is arranged inside the housing and communicated with the water inlet.
As a further improved technical scheme of the present application, the periphery of a top part of the vector nozzle is provided with a flow deflector, the flow deflector is spherical-crown-shaped/cylindrical/conical, and the flow deflector is coaxially arranged with the vertical portion of the vector nozzle.
As a further improved technical scheme of the present application, the drainage port is provided with a rectifying grid.
A control method of the aforementioned robot swimming pool cleaner capable of adjusting the water flow jetting direction includes generating a component force towards the bottom part of the housing by a water flow jetted from the vector nozzle, as to achieve the improvement of grip of the driving wheel while a swimming pool bottom is cleaned by the robot swimming pool cleaner, or achieve the attachment of the robot swimming pool cleaner to the swimming pool wall while the water line on the swimming pool wall is cleaned by the robot swimming pool cleaner.
As a further improved technical scheme of the present application, the control method further includes deflecting the direction of the water flow jetted towards the side direction of the housing by rotating the vector nozzle, as to achieve that the steering of the robot swimming pool cleaner is assisted while a swimming pool bottom is cleaned by the robot swimming pool cleaner, or achieve that the robot swimming pool cleaner is pushed to move towards the side direction of the housing while the water line on a swimming pool wall is cleaned by the robot swimming pool cleaner.
Compared to existing technologies, the technical effects of the present application are as follows.
The robot swimming pool cleaner uses the downward pressure generated by the water flow jetted from the vector nozzle, so that the driving wheel of the robot swimming pool cleaner may obtain the better grip, the movement on the swimming pool bottom is more stable, and the movement trajectory control is more accurate. By controlling the rotation angle of the vector nozzle, actions, such as the assistance of the steering of the robot swimming pool cleaner, may be achieved, and the posture control is more flexible, so the swimming pool bottom may be effectively cleaned.
At the same time, by the downward pressure generated by the water flow jetted from the vector nozzle, the robot swimming pool cleaner may be attached to the swimming pool wall for operation, and by controlling the rotation angle of the vector nozzle, the robot swimming pool cleaner may be pushed to move laterally along the water line on the swimming pool wall, as to achieve the cleaning at the water line on the swimming pool wall.
The present application is described in detail below in combination with the specific implementation modes shown in the drawings. However, these implementation modes do not limit the present application, and any changes in structures, methods or functions made by those of ordinary skill in the art according to these implementation modes are all contained in the scope of protection of the present application.
Please refer to
The control mechanism 14 includes a circuit board provided with a programmable logic control component (such as a single chip), and waterproof protection is provided for the control mechanism 14 by a waterproof sealing electronic chamber in the housing 1.
The driving wheel 2 is arranged at a bottom part of housing 1 and is driven to rotate by a walking motor (unshown), and the driving wheel 2 adopts a four-wheel driving mode and may perform forward action, backward action, and steering action using left and right wheel differential under the control of the control mechanism 14.
The bottom part of housing 1 is provided with a water inlet 3, the cleaning mechanism 16 includes a rolling brush 4, the rolling brush 4 is arranged at the bottom part of the housing 1 and located in front of the water inlet 3, and the rolling brush 4 is rotated under the drive of the cleaning motor (unshown) to perform rolling cleaning on a swimming pool bottom and a swimming pool wall 200.
The garbage filtering and collecting mechanism 15 includes a filtering chamber 5 arranged inside the housing 1, the filtering chamber 5 is provided with a filter screen, and the filtering chamber 5 is communicated with the water inlet 3 and used to filter and collect dirt.
A drainage power mechanism 6 is further arranged inside the housing 1 on one side of the filtering chamber 5, the drainage power mechanism 6 includes a drainage motor 61 and an impeller 62, the housing 1 is further equipped with a vector nozzle 7, and while the drainage motor 61 drives the impeller 62 to rotate, a water flow may be driven to be sucked in by the water inlet 3 and jetted out by a drainage port 71 of the vector nozzle 7 (in a water flow direction as shown by an arrow in
While the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 works, the walking motor provides power to rotate the driving wheel 2, so that the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 moves. At the same time, the cleaning motor drives the rolling brush 4 to rotate and clean the swimming pool bottom and the swimming pool wall 200, the drainage motor 61 drives the impeller 62 to rotate, the dirt cleaned by the rolling brush 4 is sucked into the filtering chamber 5 with the water flow from the water inlet 3, and after being filtered and collected by the filtering chamber 5, the dirt remains in the filtering chamber 5, the water flow is flowed out by pores of the filter screen and is jetted out from the drainage port 71 of the vector nozzle 7.
A top part of the vector nozzle 7 is a bending portion, and the angle formed between the water flow jetted from the drainage port 71 and the Z-axis positive direction (namely the positive axial direction of the housing 1) is a fixed value (in other implementation modes, a scheme of a variable include angle is not excluded, namely the drainage port 71 may swing up and down to adjust the pitch angle of the water flow jetted), so that the counter-acting force of the water flow jetted has a component force (downward component force) towards the bottom part of the housing 1.
For the convenience of description, Z-axis in the drawings is used to refer to the direction from the top to the bottom of housing 1 hereinafter, the Z-axis positive direction is upward, and the Z-axis negative direction is downward.
A bottom part of the vector nozzle 7 is a vertical portion, the vertical portion is in transmission connection with a rotation power mechanism 17 to drive the vector nozzle 7 to rotate by the rotation power mechanism 17, the vector nozzle 7 is driven to rotate by using the axis of the vertical portion (the axis of the vertical portion is in the same direction as the Z-axis) as the rotation axis, and the direction of the water flow jetted is adjusted, so that the size of the component force of the counter-acting force of the water flow jetted in front, back and side directions of the housing 1 may be adjusted.
For the convenience of description, X-axis in the drawings is used to refer to forward and backward directions of the housing 1 from the front end to the rear end hereinafter, the X-axis positive direction is backward, and the X-axis negative direction is forward; and Y-axis refers to the side direction from the left to the right of the housing 1, the Y-axis positive direction is rightward, and the Y-axis negative direction is leftward.
The counter-acting force of the water flow jetted from the vector nozzle 7 may be decomposed into component forces in three directions: the downward pressure in the Z-axis negative direction, the auxiliary thrust in the X-axis negative direction, and the lateral thrust in the Y-axis positive and negative directions.
In this implementation mode, due to the fixed angle formed between the water flow jetted from the drainage port 71 and the Z-axis positive direction, the downward pressure generated by the water flow is fixed and unchanged, this downward pressure may make the driving wheel 2 obtain the better grip while the swimming pool bottom is cleaned by the robot swimming pool cleaner 100, the movement on the swimming pool bottom is more stable, the movement trajectory control is more accurate, and the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 may also be pressed on the swimming pool wall 200, so that the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 is attached to the swimming pool wall 200 for operation, and the dirt at the water line on the wall is cleaned.
Please refer to
The control mechanism 14 drives the vector nozzle 7 to rotate by the rotation power mechanism 17, and by controlling the rotation angle of the vector nozzle 7, the size of the component force of the water flow counter-acting force in the X-axis negative direction and the Y-axis positive/negative direction may be adjusted, as to adjust the operating posture and trajectory of the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 by cooperating with the driving wheel 2, and achieve the actions such as assistant steering and lateral moving.
Please refer to
The dirt at the water line on the swimming pool wall is concentrated and distributed within a certain height range above and below the water surface (usually 30-40 centimeters above and below the water surface), the housing 1 is respectively provided with a first sensor 10 and a second sensor 11 on both ends adjacent to the front end and rear end, the first sensor 10 and the second sensor 11 are both in electric signal connection with the control mechanism 14 to identify a water surface position and feed it back to the control mechanism 14, so that the control mechanism 14 judges the cleaning range at the water line on the swimming pool wall.
Preferably, the distance between the first sensor 10 and the second sensor 11 is set to 30-40 centimeters. While both the first sensor 10 and the second sensor 11 are located below the water surface, the rotation direction of the driving wheel 2 is controlled so that the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 moves upwards until both the first sensor 10 and the second sensor 11 are located above the water surface. At this time, the driving wheel 2 is controlled to rotate reversely so that the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 moves downwards until both the first sensor 10 and the second sensor 11 are located below the water surface. It is cycled like this, so that the upward and downward cleaning range of the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 is coincided with the height range of the dirt concentrated and distributed at the water line on the wall.
Preferably, the angle formed between the axial direction of the drainage port 71 of the vector nozzle 7 and the Z-axis positive direction is fixed, and the fixed angle is between 20-70 degrees. The distribution of the downward pressure and the lateral thrust generated by the counter-acting force of the water flow spayed within this angle range is reasonable. While the sufficient downward pressure is provided, the sufficient lateral thrust may also be provided. The specific angle may be selected after being tested on different models.
Preferably, the drainage port 71 of the vector nozzle 7 is connected with a straight pipe (unshown), the straight pipe is coaxially arranged with the drainage port 71, and the length is at least twice greater than the diameter of the drainage port 71. By this design, the water flow jetting direction of the vector nozzle 7 may be more concentrated.
Preferably, the periphery of the top part of the vector nozzle 7 is provided with a flow deflector 12, the flow deflector 12 is spherical-crown-shaped/cylindrical/conical, and the flow deflector 12 is coaxially arranged with the vertical portion of the vector nozzle 7 to guarantee that the resistance of the flow deflector 12 at any angle positions in the water is consistent.
Preferably, the drainage port 71 is provided with a rectifying grid 13. While the vector nozzle 7 is steered, it does not cause excessive turbulence by the rectifying grid 13.
In this implementation mode, there is one vector nozzle 7. In other implementation modes, there are at least two vector nozzles 7, and each vector nozzle 7 is correspondingly provided with a drainage power mechanism 6 and a rotation power mechanism 17, and the control mechanism 14 is in electric signal connection with both the drainage power mechanism 6 and the rotation power mechanism 17, as to synergistically adjust the operating posture and trajectory of the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 under the control of the control mechanism 14. By controlling the water flow jetting directions of a plurality of the vector nozzles 7, more complex operating posture and trajectory adjustments may be achieved by cooperation, such as steering in place, and assisting in getting out of trap.
A control method of the aforementioned robot swimming pool cleaner 100 capable of adjusting the water flow jetting direction includes generating a component force towards the Z-axis negative position by a water flow jetted from the vector nozzle 7, as to achieve the improvement of grip of the driving wheel 2 while the swimming pool bottom is cleaned by the robot swimming pool cleaner 100, or achieve the attachment of the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 to the swimming pool wall 200 while the water line on the swimming pool wall is cleaned by the robot swimming pool cleaner 100.
Further, the control method further includes deflecting the direction of the water flow jetted towards the Y-axis positive/negative direction by rotating the vector nozzle 7, as to achieve that the steering of the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 is assisted while the swimming pool bottom is cleaned by the robot swimming pool cleaner 100, or achieve that the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 is pushed to move towards the Y-axis positive/negative direction while the water line on the swimming pool wall is cleaned by the robot swimming pool cleaner 100.
Further, the control mechanism 14 of the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 is further provided with a gyroscope, and the gyroscope is in electric signal connection with a programmable logic control component, as to feed existing posture and motion parameters of the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 back to the programmable logic control component. The programmable logic control component controls the driving wheel 2 and the vector nozzle 7 to work cooperatively according to the existing posture and motion parameters of the robot swimming pool cleaner 100.
While the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 is used to clean the swimming pool bottom, the component force of the counter-acting force of the water flow jetted in the Z-axis negative direction is used to increase the downward pressure, so that the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 is tightly adhered to the swimming pool bottom, and the operation is stable. While the steering is needed, the left and right driving wheels 2 are rotated at a differential speed, and the vector nozzle 7 is rotated towards the Y-axis positive/negative direction, the component force of the counter-acting force of the water flow jetted in the Y-axis positive/negative direction is used to assist in steering. While straight forward movement is needed, the left and right driving wheels 2 are rotated synchronously, and the vector nozzle 7 is rotated towards the X-axis positive direction, the component force of the counter-acting force of the water flow jetted in the X-axis negative direction is used to assist in pushing the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 forwards.
Please refer to
As shown in
According to the strength of the wall climbing ability of different models of the robot swimming pool cleaners 100, the direction of the water flow jetted from the vector nozzle 7 may also be rotated to an included angle of less than 90 degrees with the X-axis positive direction, so that the counter-acting force of the water flow jetted has the component force towards the X-axis negative (upward) direction, as to offset a downward trend of the robot swimming pool cleaner 100. Most models of the robot swimming pool cleaners 100 may select 25-90 degrees of the included angle formed between the water flow jetted and the X-axis positive direction while the swimming pool wall 200 is cleaned, and some robot swimming pool cleaners 100 with weaker wall climbing ability may select 25-75 degrees of the included angle formed between the water flow jetted and the X-axis positive direction.
The robot swimming pool cleaner 100 uses the downward pressure generated by the water flow jetted from the vector nozzle 7, so that the driving wheel 2 of the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 may obtain the better grip, the movement on the swimming pool bottom is more stable, and the movement trajectory control is more accurate. By controlling the rotation angle of the vector nozzle 7, actions, such as the assistance of the steering of the robot swimming pool cleaner 100, may be achieved, and the posture control is more flexible, so the swimming pool bottom may be effectively cleaned.
At the same time, by the downward pressure generated by the water flow jetted from the vector nozzle 7, the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 may be attached to the swimming pool wall 200 for operation, and by controlling the rotation angle of the vector nozzle 7, the robot swimming pool cleaner 100 may be pushed to move laterally along the water line on the swimming pool wall, as to achieve the cleaning at the water line on the swimming pool wall.
Finally, it should be noted that the above implementation modes are only used to describe the technical schemes of the present application, rather than limiting it; although the present application is described in detail with reference to the aforementioned implementation modes, it should be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: it may still modify the technical schemes recited in the aforementioned implementation modes or equivalently replace some of technical features in which; and these modifications or replacements do not separate the essence of the corresponding technical schemes from the spirit and scope of the technical schemes of the various implementation modes of the present application.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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202310173492.3 | Feb 2023 | CN | national |