A surface treatment apparatus may include a surface cleaning head having an agitator, an agitator motor configured to cause the agitator to rotate, and a controller. The controller can be configured to determine a surface type corresponding to a surface to be cleaned and to transition the surface treatment apparatus between a first operational mode and a second operational mode based, at least in part, on the determined surface type. Determining the surface type may include measuring a plurality values corresponding to a current draw of the agitator motor over a predetermined time window at a predetermined time interval, determining an average corresponding to the measured values, comparing the average to at least a first threshold, and transitioning the surface treatment apparatus between the operational modes based, at least in part, on the comparison.

A robot cleaner comprising: a cleaner body; a suction unit sucking air containing dust to be introduced into the cleaner body; and a dust container detachably coupled to the cleaner body, the dust container collecting dust filtered from the air introduced into the cleaner body, wherein the dust container includes: an external case including at least one cyclone filtering dust in air introduced into the dust container; an upper case coupled to an upper portion of the external case, the upper case including an upper opening corresponding to a space into which air passing through the cyclone is discharged; an upper cover detachably coupled to the upper case to open/close the upper opening; and a filter mounted on a rear surface of the upper cover, the filter covering the discharged space of the air passing through the cyclone when the upper cover is coupled to the upper case, to filter dust in the air passing through the cyclone.

A robot cleaner comprising: a cleaner body including a wheel unit and a controller controlling driving of the wheel unit; a suction unit disposed to protrude from the cleaner body, the suction unit sucking air containing dust; and a sensing unit disposed at the front of the cleaner body in which the suction unit is disposed, wherein at least one portion of the sensing unit is disposed to overlap with the suction unit in the top-bottom direction of the cleaner body.

A autonomous cleaner includes: a cleaner body including a wheel unit for autonomous traveling; a suction unit provided to protrude from one side of the cleaner body, the suction unit sucking air containing dust; a sensing unit provided at the one side of the cleaner body; a dust container accommodated in a dust container accommodation part formed at the other side of the cleaner body, the dust container collecting dust filtered from sucked air; and a dust container cover hinge-coupled to the cleaner body to be rotatable, the dust container cover being provided to cover a top surface of the dust container when the dust container cover is coupled to the dust container.

A vacuum cleaner head with a housing having a front end, a back end, a lower surface extending from the front end to the back end, and a suction opening through the lower surface. An agitator chamber is the suction opening, and a suction passage extends from the agitator chamber towards the back end. An agitator having a spindle and agitating devices is rotatably mounted to the housing. A cleaning member is movably mounted to the housing to move between a first position in which it does not engage the agitator, and a second position in which it engages the agitator to remove debris from the agitator during rotation of the agitator. A pedal extends from the back end of the housing and moves between a first pedal and a second pedal position to place the cleaning member in the second cleaning member position.

A vacuum cleaner capable of ensuring communication between a suction port and a dust collecting unit even in a state that a body portion of a cleaning unit has pivoted along an up/down direction relative to a main casing. The body portion is provided on the main casing to be pivotable along the up/down direction. A sliding-contact surface portion is provided in the body portion and curved along a pivoting direction of the body portion. A curved surface portion is provided in the communicating section body and curved along the pivoting direction of the body portion to be brought into sliding contact with the sliding-contact surface portion by pivoting motion of the body portion. A communicating opening is opened in the curved surface portion to communicate with the dust collecting unit.

The present invention provides a cleaning unit, comprising: a columnar body part having a rotation guide opening formed on the outer circumferential surface thereof; a shaft installed to reciprocate a predetermined distance in the longitudinal direction thereof in a hollow formed in the body part; a drive part that protrudes from the shaft in the radial direction thereof; a brush part that has one side installed on the outer circumferential surface of the body part along the longitudinal direction thereof and rotates on the basis of the one side as a rotation axis; and a driven part that extends from the brush part toward the drive part, passes through the rotation guide opening, and is inserted into a rotation guide groove formed in the drive part. The rotation guide groove extends at a predetermined angle with respect to the longitudinal direction of the shaft, and as the shaft reciprocates, the driven part is guided to rotate by means of the rotation guide groove, and the brush is rotated by means of the rotation of the driven part. The cleaning unit may include a robot cleaner or a cleaner operated by means of a user's operation.

A vacuum cleaner includes a suction nozzle defining a nozzle inlet, a manual nozzle height adjustment assembly for adjusting the height of the nozzle inlet relative to a surface to be cleaned, and a bleed valve fluidly connected to a working air path of the vacuum cleaner to selectively open to reduce suction at the nozzle inlet. The bleed valve is incorporated with the nozzle height adjustment assembly such that movement of the nozzle height adjustment assembly between different height settings will automatically open or close the bleed valve.

An autonomous cleaning robot (e.g., an autonomous vacuum) may clean an environment using a cleaning head that is self-actuated. The cleaning head includes an actuator assembly comprising an actuator configured to control rotation and vertical movement of a cleaning roller, a controller, and a cleaning roller having an elongated cylindrical length connected to the actuator assembly. The cleaning head also includes a computer processor connected to the actuator assembly and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that causes the computer processor to map the environment based on sensor data captured by the autonomous vacuum. The computer processor may determine an optimal height for the cleaning head based on the map and instruct the actuator assembly to adjust the height of the cleaning head.

A floor-cleaning appliance has a housing movable in a working direction, forming a chamber, and having a downwardly directed intake opening extending in the working direction and in a transverse direction crosswise thereto. A front deflector and a rear deflector are provided in the opening with the latter spaced rearward in the working direction from the former. A flexible cleaning element is spanned over the deflectors and engageable with a floor surface below the housing.