A coverage robot including a chassis, multiple drive wheel assemblies disposed on the chassis, and a cleaning assembly carried by the chassis. Each drive wheel assembly including a drive wheel assembly housing, a wheel rotatably coupled to the housing, and a wheel drive motor carried by the drive wheel assembly housing and operable to drive the wheel. The cleaning assembly including a cleaning assembly housing, a cleaning head rotatably coupled to the cleaning assembly housing, and a cleaning drive motor carried by cleaning assembly housing and operable to drive the cleaning head. The wheel assemblies and the cleaning assembly are each separately and independently removable from respective receptacles of the chassis as complete units.

An assembly includes a sensor arm extensible from a pillar of a vehicle, a sensor and a sensor window each attached to the sensor arm, a blower positioned between the sensor window and the pillar, and a duct extending from the blower to direct airflow from the blower across the sensor window.

The invention relates to a self-propelled floor treatment device (1), in particular to a cleaning robot, with a floor treatment element (2), at least two motorized wheels (3, 4) and a detection device for detecting a floor type of a surface to be treated. In order to easily achieve an optimal detection of the floor type, it is proposed that the detection device have a frictional resistance element (6), which contacts the surface during a movement in such a way that a resultant force outside of a reference axis (7) acts on the floor treatment device (1), wherein the reference axis (7) is oriented parallel to a main direction of movement (8) of the floor treatment device (1) prescribed by the orientation of the wheels (3, 4), and is aligned centrally between the wheels (3, 4) in relation to a direction perpendicular to the reference axis (7). Further proposed is a method for operating a self-propelled floor treatment device (1).

A self-propelled cleaning device has a surface cleaning system for cleaning a surface to be cleaned. In order to also be able to clean an above-floor surface, the cleaning device also has an above-floor cleaning element for mechanically cleaning an above-floor surface offset in terms of height relative to the surface. The above-floor cleaning element can be rotated and/or pivoted around a rotational axis, and at least one partial cleaning area of the above-floor cleaning element has a difference in height of roughly 3 cm or more relative to a lowermost standing surface of the cleaning device by comparison to a usual orientation of the cleaning device for a cleaning operation.

A piezoelectric debris sensor and associated signal processor responsive to debris strikes enable an autonomous or non-autonomous cleaning device to detect the presence of debris and in response, to select a behavioral mode, operational condition or pattern of movement, such as spot coverage or the like. Multiple sensor channels (e.g., left and right) can be used to enable the detection or generation of differential left/right debris signals and thereby enable an autonomous device to steer in the direction of debris.

A cleaning roller is mountable to a cleaning robot. The cleaning roller includes a sheath comprising a shell, an outer diameter of the shell tapering from a first end portion of the sheath and a second end portion of the sheath toward a center of the roller. The cleaning roller further includes a core including a central portion interlocked with the sheath to rotationally couple the core to the sheath and inhibit relative translation of the sheath and the core along an axis of rotation. An inner surface of the sheath and an outer surface of the core define an air gap therebetween, the air gap extending from the central portion of the core longitudinally along the axis of rotation toward the first end portion or the second end portion.

A method for docking an autonomous mobile floor cleaning robot with a charging dock, the robot including a receiver coil and a structured light sensor, the charging dock including a docking bay and a transmitter coil, includes: positioning the robot in a prescribed docked position in the docking bay using the structured light sensor and by sensing a magnetic field emanating from the transmitter coil; and thereafter induction charging the robot using the receiver coil and the transmitter coil with the robot in the docked position.

An autonomous cleaning robot comprises a chassis, at least one motorized drive wheel mounted to the chassis and arranged to propel the robot across a surface, and a pair of cleaning rollers mounted to the chassis and having outer surfaces exposed on an underside of the chassis and to each other. The cleaning rollers are drivable to counter-rotate while the robot is propelled, thereby cooperating to direct raised debris upward into the robot between the rollers. A side brush is further mounted to the chassis to rotate beneath the chassis adjacent a lateral side of the chassis about an upwardly extending side brush axis, and the outer surface of a first of the cleaning rollers of the pair extends laterally beyond the outer surface of a second of the cleaning rollers of the pair and laterally beyond the side brush axis, such that the first cleaning roller defines a cleaning width spanning the side brush axis.

A method of controlling a mobile robot includes a learning initial operation of acquiring images for respective points, generating descriptors that respectively correspond to a plurality of feature points extracted from the images, and generating nodes that correspond to the images acquired at the respective points, a label generation operation of generating a label descriptor based on the plurality of descriptors, a localization initial operation of acquiring a localization image when a jumping case occurs, and generating respective localization descriptors corresponding to a plurality of localization feature points extracted from the localization image, a comparison target selection operation of matching the label descriptor to each of the localization descriptors and selecting one or more comparison target nodes corresponding to the matched label descriptor, and a last node selection operation of selecting a node estimated as the current position among the one or more comparison target node.

A vacuum cleaner includes a foreign-substance suction unit having a drum brush to suck foreign substances by the suction power rotating on a floor to be cleaned. The drum brush includes a rotary body having a cylindrical drum and foreign-substance collecting grooves formed at opposite end portions of the drum along a circumferential direction; a cleaning member disposed on a circumferential surface of the drum; at least one nozzle spirally extended across the cleaning member along a lengthwise direction of the drum to guide foreign substances toward the foreign-substance collecting groove; and a foreign-substance winding portion disposed in a portion of the foreign-substance collecting groove to wind the guided foreign substances. The drum brush may effectively guide, wind, and cut a hair and the like foreign substances on a carpet and the like bottom, thereby effectively preventing the hair and the like foreign substances from being piled up.