The present application relates to the field of cleaning tool technologies and, more specifically, to a side brush and a smart cleaning device.
Existing smart cleaning devices such as smart cleaning machines are usually provided with side brushes at their bottoms. The side brushes are able to rotate to move debris on a floor surface to the cleaning region under the smart cleaning device.
According to an aspect, this application provides a side brush, including a side brush base for mounting to a smart cleaning device, and a scraper connected to a peripheral side of the side brush base, where the scraper is configured to engage the floor, so as to scrape sundries.
According to another aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide a smart cleaning device, including a device body and the foregoing side brush.
The following accompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present application are used herein as apart of the present application for understanding of this application. The accompanying drawings show embodiments of the present application and descriptions of the embodiments, which are used to explain apparatuses and principles of the present application. In the drawings:
The following describes specific details to provide a more thorough understanding of the present application. However, it is obvious to a person skilled in the art that the present application can be implemented without one or more of these details. In other examples, to avoid confusion with the present application, some technical features well known in the art are not described.
To fully understand the present application, the following description provides a detailed structure to illustrate the present application. Clearly, the implementation of the present application is not limited to the specific details well known to a person skilled in the art. The following describes example embodiments of the present application in detail. However, in addition to these detailed descriptions, the present application can have other embodiments, and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments provided herein.
It should be understood that the terms used herein are merely intended to describe specific embodiments, and are not intended to limit the present application. The singular forms of “a/an” and “one” are also intended to include plural forms, unless the context clearly indicates another manner. The terms “include” and/or“comprise” used in the specification specify the existence of the features, entireties, steps, operations, elements and/or components, but do not exclude the existence or addition of one or more other features, entireties, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or a combination thereof. The terms “upper,” “lower,” “front,” “rear,” “left,” “right” and similar expressions used in the present application are merely intended for illustrative purposes and are not intended to impose a limitation.
The ordinal numbers such as “first” and “second” cited in the present application are merely identifiers and do not have any other meaning, such as a particular order. In addition, for example, the term “first component” does not imply the existence of a “second component” and the term “second component” does not imply the existence of a “first component.”
The following describes in more detail the specific embodiments of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings. These accompanying drawings illustrate representative embodiments of the present application and are not intended to limit the present application.
Generally, a smart cleaning device mainly includes a device body. The device body can be in an approximate circular shape (both the front and the back are circular) or can be in other shapes. It can be understood that the smart cleaning device shown in the present application may be a sweeping robot, a mopping robot, a sweeping and mopping robot, or the like.
The smart cleaning device includes a cleaning system, a perception system, a control system, a driving system, an energy system, a man-machine interaction system, and the like. Various systems cooperate with each other to make the smart cleaning device autonomously move and implement a cleaning task. Functional elements and the like that constitute the above-mentioned systems in the smart cleaning device are integrated into the device body. The device body includes an upper cover, a chassis, and a middle frame disposed between the upper cover and the chassis. The middle frame serves as a basic frame for disposing various functional elements. The upper cover and the chassis cover a surface of the device body to protect internal parts and improve appearance of the smart cleaning device.
Autonomous movement of the smart cleaning system is implemented by the driving system. The driving system mainly includes a traveling wheel, a driving motor, and a control circuit for controlling the driving motor. To enable the smart cleaning device to move more stably on the floor or to have a stronger motion ability, the smart cleaning device may include one or more driven wheels, and a driven wheel includes but is not limited to a caster.
The perception system is used by the smart cleaning device to perceive an external environment such as topography. The perception system includes sensing apparatuses such as a position determining apparatus, a bumper, a cliff sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, an infrared sensor, a magnetometer, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and an odometer. These sensing apparatuses provide various position information and motion state information of the smart cleaning device for the control system. The position determining apparatus includes but is not limited to an infrared emitter and receiver, a camera, and a laser ranging apparatus (laser distance sensor or LDS). The bumper is configured to relieve a collision between the smart cleaning device and an object during movement. A layer of flexible material is provided on a surface of the bumper, the bumper is mounted to the device body, and the predetermined distance between the bumper and the device body can ensure sufficient time for the device body to decelerate in case of a collision.
The control system is provided on the main circuit board in the device body and includes a nontransient memory, a computing processor, and the like. The computing processor may be a central processing unit, an application processor, or the like. The computing processor generates, based on obstacle information provided by the laser ranging apparatus and a positioning algorithm, an instant map of an environment in which the smart cleaning device is located. Based on the distance information and speed information provided by the bumper and the sensing apparatuses, the control system may determine a current working status of the smart cleaning device, such as crossing a threshold, crossing an edge of a carpet, reaching a cliff, getting stuck, having a full dust box, or being picked up. In addition, the control system provides next actions, based on different situations, to make the performance of the smart cleaning device meet a certain requirement and improve user experience.
The man-machine interaction system includes buttons on a panel of the robot, which are employed for a user to select functions. The man-machine interaction system may further include a display screen, an indicator, and/or a speaker, which provide the current status of the machine or function options for the user. The man-machine interaction system may further include a mobile phone application. For a route-navigated smart cleaning device, the mobile phone application can show a map of the environment in which the device is located, as well as the location of the smart cleaning device, to the user, thereby providing the user with abundant and user-friendly function options.
The energy system is configured to supply power to the elements of various systems, and mainly includes a rechargeable battery and a power supply circuit. The rechargeable battery can be an NiMH battery or a lithium battery. When power of the rechargeable battery is less than a predetermined threshold, the rechargeable battery may be charged by contacting a charging device and a charging electrode disposed on a side or the bottom of the device body.
The cleaning system is an important system of the smart cleaning device and is configured to implement a cleaning function. The cleaning system includes a dry-cleaning assembly and a wet-cleaning assembly. The dry-cleaning assembly mainly removes loose particulates from a to-be-cleaned surface by using a cleaning brush and the like. The wet-cleaning assembly mainly mops the to-be-cleaned surface (such as a floor surface) by using a cleaning cloth saturated with cleaning liquid.
The dry-cleaning unit may mainly include a rolling brush, a waste container, and a vacuum. The vacuum is connected to the waste container through an air duct and configured to generate suction force. Specifically, as the smart-cleaning device moves, the rolling brush comes in contact with the floor surface, the debris on the floor surface is agitated and taken to a suction door between the rolling brush and the waste container, and then sucked into the waste container by the suction force generated by the vacuum.
The wet-cleaning assembly may mainly include a liquid reservoir and a cleaning cloth. The liquid reservoir may be configured to contain cleaning liquid, and the detachable cleaning cloth is disposed on the liquid reservoir. After the dry-cleaning unit completes cleaning, the liquid in the liquid reservoir flows to the cleaning cloth, and the cleaning cloth mops the floor surface cleaned by the rolling brush and the like.
The dry-cleaning unit may further include a side brush. The side brush is disposed on the device body with a rotation shaft. Specifically, the side brush may be mounted at the edge of the bottom of the device body. The side brush may rotate about the rotation shaft, so as to move the debris into a cleaning region of the rolling brush.
To resolve the problem of a bristle brush being easily entangled with debris, the embodiments of the present application provide a side brush. The side brush is provided with a scraper 123, which is configured to rotate to remove debris. The movement of the scraper 123 mainly includes two types: traveling movement, which enables the smart cleaning device and the scraper 123 to reach a specified location; and rotation movement about a rotation shaft. The following provides descriptions with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in
It should be noted that the direction terms such as “downward,” “faces upward,” and “upward” that are used to describe the side brush 100 in this specification are relative to a horizontal mounting status of the side brush 100. It can be understood that “radial direction D1” is a radial direction D1 relative to a rotation shaft of the side brush 100, “circumferential direction D2” is a circumferential direction D2 relative to the rotation shaft of the side brush 100, and “axial direction D3” is a direction extending along the rotation shaft. “Outward from the side brush base 110” refers to a direction that is away from the side brush base 110. Further, for example, “downward” refers to a direction in which the axial direction D3 extends toward a free end of the brush body 120; and “upward” refers to a direction in which the axial direction D3 extends toward the side brush base 110.
The brush body 120 includes a brush body mounting part 121 and a brush body extension part 122. The brush body mounting part 121 is configured to connect to the side brush base 110. The brush body extension part 122 extends outward in the radial direction D1 from the brush body mounting part 121 to clean debris. The brush body mounting part 121 and the brush body extension part 122 may be integrally formed. Or the brush body extension part 122 may be assembled into the brush body mounting part 121 by buckling or clamping. In an embodiment, the side brush 100 may be effectively prevented from being entangled with debris such as hair during cleaning, thereby improving the cleaning effect and ensuring cleaning operation. Optionally, the brush body 120 may be formed through glue material injection molding, so that the brush body extension part 122 may have a property of flexibility, which plays a role in buffering. Therefore, while cleaning, the brush body extension part 122 can efficiently clean debris, thereby implementing high dust pickup efficiency of the smart cleaning device.
In the illustrated embodiments, the brush body extension part 122 is connected to the brush body mounting part 121, and the present application is not limited thereto. In another embodiment, the brush body extension part 122 may be directly connected to a brush body base 130, and, in this case, the brush body mounting part 121 may be omitted.
The side brush 100 further includes the brush body base 130 that couples to the side brush base 110. The brush body mounting part 121 may be connected to the side brush base 110 through the brush body base 130. Referring to
The brush body 120 may have at least one scraper 123. As shown in
In the illustrated embodiments, the scraper 123 includes a scraping part 1203 extending from the connecting part 1202 to the floor surface. During the performance of a cleaning task, the scraping part 1203 comes in contact with the floor surface to remove debris. In another embodiment, the connecting part 1202 can serve as a scraping part, and the connecting part 1202 comes in contact with the floor to remove debris. The scraping part extending to the floor surface may be omitted, which makes the structure simpler.
In an embodiment, the scraper 123 and the brush body extension part 122 are integrally formed, so that the brush body 120 may be formed as an integrally formed member. In another embodiment, the scraper 123 may be coupled to the brush body mounting part 121 by buckling or clamping.
Further, with combined reference to
With combined reference to
In the illustrated embodiments, the brush body 120 includes two scrapers 123, which are defined as the front scraper 123a and the rear scraper 123b in this specification. In the rotational direction of the side brush 100, the front scraper 123a is located in front of the rear scraper 123b. During the operation of the side brush 100, the front scraper 123a is first in contact with debris. The front scraper 123a first removes the sundries, and the sundries that are not removed by the front scraper 123a may be further removed by the rear scraper 123b, thereby improving cleaning efficiency. Specifically, the brush body extension part 122 is a plate-like part extending in the circumferential direction D2. In the illustrated embodiments, the brush body extension part 122 gradually becomes narrower in the radial direction D1. The brush body extension part 122 is provided with the opening 124 between the front scraper 123a and the rear scraper 123b. The opening 124 separates a portion of the brush body extension part 122 near the free end into two smaller portions. The front scraper 123a and the rear scraper 123b are close to the edge of the brush body extension part 122 in the axial direction D1, so that there is a specific distance between the front scraper 123a and the rear scraper 123b.
As shown in
The rear scraper 123b includes a secondary scraping part 1204. In the rotational direction of the side brush 100, the secondary scraping part 1204 is located on a rear side of the scraping part 1203. The opening 124 separates the scraping part 1203 from the secondary scraping part 1204 completely or partially. In the illustrated embodiment, overall widths of the secondary scraping parts 1204 are the same, and the present application is not limited thereto. In another embodiment, the secondary scraping part 1204 gradually becomes smaller in a direction toward the floor, so as to prevent the secondary scraping part 1204 from being lifted away from the floor surface due to upwarping during sundries scraping. In this way, the debris may be removed thoroughly, a friction force with the floor may be reduced, a driving force of the smart cleaning device for driving the side brush 100 to rotate may be reduced, and smooth movement of the smart cleaning device may be effectively ensured while saving power. In another embodiment, one scraper 123 may include a plurality of rear scrapers 123b; that is, one scraper may include a plurality of secondary scraping parts 1204.
With combined reference to
In the illustrated embodiments, the scraping part 1203 is disposed as a whole in an inclined manner relative to the floor surface, so that in the rotational direction of the side brush 100, the front-end face P1 is disposed in an inclined manner relative to the floor, and the present application is not limited thereto. In another embodiment, only the front-end face P1 is disposed in an inclined manner relative to the floor, and a lower end (free end) of the front-end face P1 is further forward than an upper end of the front-end face P1.
As shown in
In an embodiment not shown, if desired and/or expected, the scraping part 1203 may extend in the axial direction D3, and the front-end face P1 is an axial surface in the axial direction D3. The secondary scraping part 1204 may be slightly inclined toward the scraping part 1203, and the second surface P2 is a bevel that is slightly inclined toward the scraping part 1203, so that the secondary scraping part 1204 can scrape the debris more easily.
It can be understood that the directional term “outward in a circumferential direction D2” used herein to describe the front scraper 123a refers to a direction of the front scraper 123a away from the rear scraper 123b in the circumferential direction D2.
As shown in
Further, as shown in
The side brush base body 111 is provided with a side brush base opening 114 that corresponds to the brush body mounting part 121, and the brush body 120 penetrates the side brush base opening 114 and extends outward in the radial direction D1 (refer to
Unless otherwise defined, the technical and scientific terms used in this specification have the same meanings as those commonly understood by a person skilled in the art of this application. The terms used in this specification are merely used for the purpose of describing specific implementations and are not intended to limit this application. Terms such as “member” and “part” that appear in this specification can represent either a single part or a combination of a plurality of parts. Terms such as “mount” and “dispose” that appear in this specification may indicate that one part is attached directly to another part, or may indicate that one part is attached to another part by using an intermediate part. In this specification, a feature described in one embodiment can be applied to another embodiment individually or in combination with other features, unless the feature is not applicable or otherwise stated in another embodiment.
This application has been described by using the foregoing embodiments, but it should be understood that the foregoing embodiments are used only for the purposes of illustration and description, and are not intended to limit this application to the scope of the described embodiments. In addition, a person skilled in the art can understand that this application is not limited to the foregoing embodiments, and further variations and modifications can be made according to the teachings of this application. These variations and modifications fall within the protection scope of this application. The protection scope of this application shall be subject to the appended claims and their equivalent range.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
201821672719.X | Oct 2018 | CN | national |
The present application is a continuation application of International Application No. PCT/CN2019/082691, filed on Apr. 15, 2019, which claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201821672719. X, filed on Oct. 15, 2018, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties for all purposes.
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | PCT/CN2019/082691 | Apr 2019 | US |
Child | 17230034 | US |