A robot floor cleaning system features a mobile floor cleaning robot and an evacuation station. The robot includes: a chassis with at least one drive wheel operable to propel the robot across a floor surface; a cleaning bin disposed within the robot and arranged to receive debris ingested by the robot during cleaning; and a robot vacuum configured to pull debris into the cleaning bin from an opening on an underside of the robot. The evacuation station is configured to evacuate debris from the cleaning bin of the robot, and includes: a housing defining a platform arranged to receive the cleaning robot in a position in which the opening on the underside of the robot aligns with a suction opening defined in the platform; and an evacuation vacuum in fluid communication with the suction opening and operable to draw air into the evacuation station housing through the suction opening.

Provided are a cleaning device and a control method thereof. The cleaning device includes: a main body, including a suction unit generating a suction air flow, used for collecting an object to be cleaned up through the suction air flow; an interaction element, arranged on the main body and exposed outside, and used for generating, in response to an interaction event triggered by a user, an indication signal based on an interaction gesture sensed in the interaction event; and a second controller, arranged in the main body and coupled with the interaction element, and used for acquiring the indication signal and sending, according to the indication signal, a corresponding given signal to the suction unit such that the suction unit works according to the given signal.

Disclosed are related to a dust collecting apparatus, a cleaning apparatus, and a method of controlling the cleaning apparatus. The dust collecting apparatus may comprises a dust collecting space configured to collect impurities and a variable body formed to surround the dust collecting space and having one of transparency, shape and color changed by selectively transmitting or reflecting light in response to applied electric power.

A method of controlling an automatic cleaner in which the automatic cleaner is moved with a side brush assembly in a first operation type, a corner is determined during the movement of the automatic cleaner, the first operation type of the side brush assembly is changed to a second operation type to clean the corner when the corner is determined, whether the corner is cleaned is determined, and the second operation type of the side brush assembly is returned to the first operation type when the corner is cleaned.

An autonomous coverage robot includes a chassis, a drive system configured to maneuver the robot, and a cleaning assembly. The cleaning assembly includes a cleaning assembly housing and at least one driven sweeper brush. The robot includes a controller and a removable sweeper bin configured to receive debris agitated by the driven sweeper brush. The sweeper bin includes an emitter disposed on an interior surface of the bin and a receiver disposed remotely from the emitter on the interior surface of the bin and configured to receive an emitter signal. The emitter and the receiver are disposed such that a threshold level of accumulation of debris in the sweeper bin blocks the receiver from receiving emitter emissions. The robot includes a bin controller disposed in the sweeper bin and monitoring a detector signal and initiating a bin full routine upon determining a bin debris accumulation level requiring service.

A robot cleaner is provided that may include a suction motor installed within a main body to generate a suction force, at least two conductive plates spaced apart from each other to form a flow path for external air introduced by the suction force, and a calculator to measure a capacitance value between the at least two conductive plates. Further, provided is a robot cleaner that may include a suction motor installed within a main body to generate a suction force, a porous structure having at least one through hole, through which external air introduced by the suction force may flow, at least one filter disposed on a surface of the porous structure to filter dust contained in the air, and a power supply configured to apply alternating current (AC) power to at least a portion of the surface of the porous structure.

An automated cleaning device includes a chassis, a controller operably connected to a drive assembly and configured to move the chassis within an area to be cleaned in repeated cleaning cycles, a cleaning unit carried by the chassis, a sensor configured to detect material drawn into the cleaning unit and provide a debris signal corresponding to an amount of material drawn into the cleaning unit, the controller being operably connected to the sensor and configured to generate a high-material indicator in response to the debris signal exceeding a predetermined debris threshold, and determining whether the autonomous cleaner is in a high traffic area when the chassis moves within the area to be cleaned based on locations of high-material indicators.

A robotic cleaning appliance includes a housing, surface treatment item, surface type detection sensor, and processor. The sensor emits sonic signals toward a surface being traversed and receives corresponding returned signals from the surface. The returned signals are used for surface type detection and include directly reflected primary returned signals and multi-path reflected secondary returned signals which return at a later time than the primary returned signals. The processor selects a window of time after transmission of a sonic signal such that the returned signals in the window comprise at least a portion of the secondary returned signals, wherein the window is related to round trip time-of-flight of the returned signals; processes the returned signals falling in the window to achieve a reflectivity metric; compares the reflectivity metric to a stored value; and based on the comparison, determines which surface type of a plurality of surface types has been detected.

The present disclosure provides a movable electric device. The movable electric device includes a movable device body and a contact detection electrode. The movable device body has an electric drive means. The contact detection electrode is mounted on the movable device body. When the contact detection electrode _contacts diffusible dirt, a resistance, capacitance or impedance of the contact detection electrode varies.

A movable electronic apparatus includes a mobile apparatus body, a contact-type detection apparatus and a control circuit. The mobile apparatus body is provided with an electrical drive assembly that drives the mobile apparatus body to move; the contact-type detection apparatus is mounted on the mobile apparatus body, and the contact-type detection apparatus is configured and when the contact-type detection apparatus contacts dispersed dirt, an electrical signal outputted by the contact-type detection apparatus changes; the control circuit is mounted on the mobile apparatus body, and the control circuit is configured to determine whether the dispersed dirt is detected according to the magnitude of the amount by which the electrical signal outputted by the contact-type detection apparatus changes, and to control the electrical drive assembly to drive the mobile apparatus body to execute a dirt dispersion prevention action when determined that dirt that may be dispersed is detected.