Disclosed is a cleaner station including a first station with which a hand vacuum cleaner can be combined and a second station with which a robotic vacuum cleaner can be combined. The first station may include a first suction portion which sucks dust from a dust bin of the hand vacuum cleaner. The second station may include a second suction portion which sucks dust from a dust bin of the robotic vacuum cleaner. The cleaner station may include a dust inlet where the dust sucked by the first suction portion and the second suction portion is discharged. The cleaner station may include a dust storage box which communicates with the dust inlet and receives the dust sucked by the first suction portion and the second suction portion.

A method of cleaning a floor comprises providing an autonomous surface cleaning apparatus, positioning a plurality of docking stations at different locations on the floor wherein a first docking station has an absence of an evacuation mechanism and actuating the autonomous surface cleaning apparatus whereby the autonomous surface cleaning apparatus travels across the floor to clean at least a portion of the floor and recharges at the first docking station.

A hand-held surface cleaning device includes circuitry to communicate with a robotic surface cleaning device to cause the same to target an area/region of interest for cleaning. Thus, a user may utilize the hand-held surface cleaning device to perform targeted cleaning and conveniently direct a robotic surface cleaning device to focus on a region of interest. Moreover, the hand-held surface cleaning device may include sensory such as a camera device for extracting three-dimensional information from a field of view. This information may be utilized to map locations of walls, stairs, obstacles, changes in surface types, and other features in a given location. Thus, a robotic surface cleaning device may utilize the mapping information from the hand-held surface cleaning device as an input in a real-time control loop, e.g., as an input to a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) routine.

A network of modular, multitier pool mobile units, that wander around and under water of a swimming pool. The pool mobile units monitor for safety, emergency and accident related events and undertakes appropriate actions, scrub and clean the swimming pool, emit chemical agents to sanitize the swimming pool water, and may play music. The pool mobile units may simply operate on the pool surface, be fully submersible, or semisubmersible. A central server manages a plurality of multitier pool mobile units in a plurality of swimming pools, supports music download, and provides experience based resources for the multitier pool mobile units. The central server provides experience based resources in the form of safety, emergency and accident supports. The user can configure the parameters of both pool mobile unit and the central server.

A robotic device comprising: an energy storage device; and a controller configured to determine whether a quantity of energy stored in the energy storage device is below a predetermined energy level, wherein: the robotic device is configured to perform a cleaning task if the determined quantity of energy is not below the predetermined energy level; if the determined quantity of energy is below the predetermined energy level: the controller is configured to estimate a likelihood of the robotic device being capable of locating a recharging base station; and in dependence on the estimated likelihood, the robotic device is configured to seek the recharging base station or perform the cleaning task.

A docking station for an autonomous floor cleaner performs maintenance on the autonomous floor cleaner, including removing a mopping implement from the autonomous floor cleaner and/or installing a mopping implement on the autonomous floor cleaner. The docking station can further perform other maintenance services on the autonomous floor cleaner. An autonomous floor cleaning system including an autonomous floor cleaner and a docking station is also disclosed. Methods for servicing or performing maintenance on an autonomous floor cleaner by a docking station are also disclosed.

An autonomous mobile robot includes a body, a drive supporting the body above a floor surface, a light-propagating plate positioned on the body and having a periphery defining a continuous loop, light sources each being positioned to direct light through a portion of the plate to a portion of the continuous loop, and a controller to selectively operate the light sources to provide a visual indicator of a status or service condition of the autonomous mobile robot. The drive is configured to maneuver the mobile robot about the floor surface.

The present disclosure discloses a cleaning base station. The cleaning base station includes a base and a vibration device. The vibration device includes a driving mechanism and a cleaning element. The driving mechanism is fixed to the base. The cleaning element is connected to the driving mechanism. The cleaning element is configured to contact a part-to-be-cleaned of a cleaning robot. The driving mechanism drives the cleaning element to vibrate so as to clean the part-to-be-cleaned of the cleaning robot. The present disclosure also discloses a cleaning robot system using the cleaning base station described above. The present disclosure has the advantages of reducing a user's burden of manual cleaning and avoiding contamination of a floor surface by the part-to-be-cleaned of the cleaning robot.

A charging station is adapted to charge a robot. The robot has been in communication pairing with the charging station in advance. The charging station includes a body, a charging device, a control device and an alignment device. The charging device is arranged on the body and is adapted to connect to the robot. The control device is in communication connection with the robot and is in electric connection with the charging device and is provided with a sensing unit. The control device is adapted to enable the charging device to charge the robot after the sensing unit senses the robot. The alignment device is connected to the body and is adapted to align the robot with the charging station. Whereby, the robot is charged and position deviation of the robot during charging is prevented or electric shock accidents are prevented.

In general, the present disclosure is directed to a hand-held surface cleaning device that includes a relatively compact form-factor to allow users to store the same in a nearby location (e.g., in a drawer, in an associated charging dock, on a table top) for easy access to perform relatively small cleaning tasks that would otherwise require retrieving a full-size vacuum from storage. A hand-held surface cleaning device consistent with aspects of the present disclosure includes a body (or body portion) with a motor, power source and dust cup disposed therein. The body portion also functions as a handgrip to allow the hand-held surface cleaning device to be operated by one hand, for example.