A vacuum cleaner that includes a suction source configured to generate a suction airflow, a dirt collector in fluid communication with the suction source and configured to separate debris from the suction airflow and the dirt collector is configured to store the debris separated from the suction airflow. The vacuum further includes an infrared sensor operable to output a signal corresponding to a distance to an amount of debris stored in the dirt collector, a controller that receives the signal, and the controller is operable to determine a fill level stored in the dirt collector based on the signal. A visual display displays the fill level stored in the dirt collector.

A dirt collector that includes a housing and an air-permeable filter media extending from the housing such that the filter media and housing at least partially define a collection volume. The housing has an inlet opening in fluid communication with the volume and at least a portion of the housing is transmissive of infrared radiation

A robotic dust collector includes a body, a wheel, a wheel motor, and a suspension device. The body accommodates a storage unit to store therein dust and dirt sucked in from a suction inlet. The wheel supports the body. The wheel motor generates motive power to rotate the wheel. The suspension device includes a support member, a motive-force generating mechanism, and an adjustment mechanism. The wheel is supported rotatably about a center axis by the support member. The motive-force generating mechanism gives a motive force to the support member to generate a biasing force to cause the wheel to protrude from a bottom face of the body. The adjustment mechanism adjusts the biasing force based on a protrusion amount of the wheel from the bottom face. The suspension device gives the biasing force adjusted by the adjustment mechanism to the wheel.

Provided is a cleaner including a dust separation unit separating dust in the air, a suction flow path supplying outside air to the dust separation unit, a fan module moving the air in the suction flow path, and a dust sensor measuring concentration of dust in the suction flow path. The suction flow path includes a first suction flow path extending in a first direction and a second suction flow path connecting the first suction flow path to the dust separation unit and extending in a second direction that forms an obtuse angle with the first direction, and the dust sensor is disposed in the second suction flow path.

A method of cleaning a dispenser including a faceplate, comprises emitting light over the surface of the faceplate across the width of the faceplate, measuring an intensity of the light at a plurality of points on the surface of the faceplate after the light has passed over the width, determining, based on the measured light intensity, whether an amount of accumulated formable material on the faceplate is greater than a predetermined value, and in a case that the amount of accumulated formable material is greater than a predetermined value, imparting a suction force on the surface of the faceplate using the vacuum at a distance from the faceplate to remove at least a portion of the accumulated formable material from the surface of the faceplate.

Disclosed herein are a cleaning robot and a method of controlling the same. The cleaning robot according to one embodiment includes a modular in which one or more modules configured to support different functions are integrated, and a controller configured to control the overall operation of the cleaning robot.

A bag-based filtering device for collecting debris from a cleaning robot via a debris evacuation station includes a filter bag configured to separate at least the portion of the evacuated debris from a flow of air generated by the evacuation station. The filtering device includes a conduit extending inward from an opening of the filter bag into the receptacle. The conduit is configured to pneumatically connect a receptacle of the filtering device with an inlet of the filtering device to direct the flow of air generated by the evacuation station through the filter bag to separate at least the portion of the evacuated debris from the flow of air.

Provided is a highly reliable technology for optimizing an action for controlling an environment in a target space. An action optimization device for optimizing an action for controlling an environment: acquires environmental data related to a state of the environment; performs time/space interpolation on the acquired environmental data; trains an environment reproduction model, based on the time/space-interpolated environmental data, such that, when a state of an environment and an action for controlling the environment are input, a correct answer value for an environmental state after the action is output; trains an exploration model such that an action to be taken next is output when an environmental state output from the environment reproduction model is input; predicts a second environmental state corresponding to a first environmental state and a first action by using the trained environment reproduction model; explores for a second action to be taken for the second environmental state; and outputs a result of the exploration.

A robot cleaner includes an intake port, a shock detection sensor, a camera, a memory, and a processor. The memory may include an artificial intelligence model trained to identify an object, and the processor may, based on the object being ingested by the intake port, identify an image obtained within a preset time before the object is ingested, among a plurality of images obtained through the camera and identify the object according to the artificial intelligence model. Thereby, a user may be informed that the robot cleaner has ingested the object.

An autonomous floor cleaning robot includes a body, a controller supported by the body, a drive supporting the body to maneuver the robot across a floor surface in response to commands from the controller, and a pad holder attached to an underside of the body to hold a removable cleaning pad during operation of the robot. The pad includes a mounting plate and a mounting surface. The mounting plate is attached to the mounting surface. The robot includes a pad sensor to sense a feature on the pad and to generate a signal based on the feature, which is defined in part by a cutout on the card backing. The mounting plate enables the pad sensor to detect the feature. The controller is responsive to the signal to perform operations including selecting a cleaning mode based on the signal, and controlling the robot according to a selected cleaning mode.