METHOD FOR OPERATING AN AUTOMATICALLY MOVING FLOOR TREATMENT APPLIANCE

Abstract

A method for operating an automatically moving floor treatment appliance, wherein at least one floor treatment activity to be performed by the floor treatment appliance in a surrounding area is pre-planned for performance in a first time window having a defined start time and a defined time period. In the event that the first time window is not sufficient, at least a second time window is pre-planned, in which the floor treatment appliance continues the floor treatment activity. The floor treatment activity not completed upon the expiration of the first time window is stopped at the end of the defined time period of the first time window and is continued upon reaching a start time predefined for the second time window. The floor treatment plan specifies a cyclically successive floor treatment of several surrounding area subregions of the surrounding area according to a defined sequence of the surrounding area subregions.

Claims

1. A method for operating an automatically moving floor treatment appliance (1), comprising the steps of: pre-planning at least one floor treatment activity to be performed by the floor treatment appliance (1) in a surrounding area for performance in a first time window having a defined start time and a defined time period, pre-planning at least a second time window in which the floor treatment appliance (1) continues the performance of the floor treatment activity, in the event that the first time window is not sufficient for complete performance of the floor treatment activity, wherein the floor treatment activity not completed upon expiration of the first time window is stopped at an end of the defined time period of the first time window and is continued upon reaching a start time predefined for the second time window, wherein several floor treatment activities are defined as part of a treatment plan, which establishes an order of the floor treatment activities to be performed, wherein the floor treatment plan specifies a cyclically successive floor treatment of several surrounding area subregions (2, 3, 4, 5) of the surrounding area according to a defined sequence of the surrounding area subregions (2, 3, 4, 5), wherein, after completion of a floor treatment activity in a surrounding area subregion (2, 3, 4, 5), which is defined as a last surrounding area subregion (2, 3, 4, 5) of the sequence, a new floor treatment of the surrounding area subregions (2, 3, 4, 5) takes place according to an entire defined sequence, starting at a surrounding area subregion (2, 3, 4, 5), which is defined as a first surrounding area subregion (2, 3, 4, 5) of the sequence.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the surrounding area is divided into a plurality of defined surrounding area subregions (2, 3, 4, 5), wherein the floor treatment activity is planned for performance in at least one specific one of the defined surrounding area subregions (2, 3, 4, 5).

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the floor treatment appliance (1) continues a floor treatment activity, which was stopped during the performance in a surrounding area subregion (2, 3, 4, 5), at a predefined later start time in the same surrounding area subregion (2, 3, 4, 5).

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein a surrounding area subregion (2, 3, 4, 5) of the surrounding area, in which a floor treatment activity has already been performed completely, is defined as a no-go region (6), which must not be treated by the floor treatment appliance (1) once again, as long as all surrounding area subregions (2, 3, 4, 5) of the surrounding area have not been treated completely.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the defined no-go region (6) is deleted when the floor treatment appliance has completely treated all surrounding area subregions (2, 3, 4, 5) of the surrounding area.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the no-go region (6) is only deleted when the time period of that time window has expired, into which a time period falls, at which all surrounding area subregions (2, 3, 4, 5) of the surrounding area are completely treated.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein at an end of one of the time windows, the floor treatment appliance (1) is moved to a base station (7) and rests at the base station until the start time of a subsequent time window is reached.

8. An automatically moving floor treatment appliance (1) comprising a control element (8), which is configured to perform a method according to claim 1, wherein the floor treatment appliance (1) is a cleaning appliance, which is configured to clean a floor area.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] Other objects and features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in connection with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed as an illustration only and not as a definition of the limits of the invention.

[0019] In the drawings,

[0020] FIG. 1 shows a floor treatment appliance comprising a base station;

[0021] FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of a method according to the invention according to a first embodiment;

[0022] FIGS. 3A-F show floor treatment states of several surrounding area subregions of a surrounding area at various points in time;

[0023] FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of a method according to the invention according to a further embodiment;

[0024] FIGS. 5A-F show treatment states of several surrounding area subregions of a surrounding area at various points in time with reference to FIG. 4; and

[0025] FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of a method according to the invention according to a further embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0026] In an exemplary manner, FIG. 1 initially shows a floor treatment appliance 1 as well as a base station 7, which is configured to perform a service activity on the floor treatment appliance 1, for example to charge an accumulator (not illustrated) of the floor treatment appliance 1, to transfer tools to the latter, to clean the floor treatment appliance 1, or the like. The base station 7 furthermore represents an initial location for the floor treatment appliance 1, from which the floor treatment appliance 1 starts its movement routes.

[0027] The floor treatment appliance 1, which is illustrated in an exemplary manner, has a detection means 11, by means of which surrounding area data in the surrounding area of the floor treatment appliance 1 can be detected. The surrounding area data can be, for example, data of objects, which are located in the surrounding area, for example of walls, pieces or furniture, or the like. The detection means 11 can have, for example, an optical distance measuring means, e.g. a triangulation measuring means, which can measure distances from objects within the surrounding area. The detection means 11 has, for example, a laser diode, the emitted light beam of which is guided out of a housing of the floor treatment appliance 1 via a deflection means and can be rotated around an axis, which is perpendicular in the shown orientation of the floor treatment appliance 1, in particular in an angular range of 360 degrees. An all-around distance measurement around the floor treatment appliance 1 is possible thereby. The surrounding area can be measured in a preferably horizontal plane with the help of the detection means 11, i.e. in a plane, which is parallel to a floor area to be treated. The floor treatment appliance 1 can thus move by avoiding a collision with obstacles in the surrounding area. The surrounding area data recorded by means of the detection means 11 are preferably processed by a control means 8 of the floor treatment appliance 1 to form a surrounding area map, which the control means 8 can use, in turn, to navigate the floor treatment appliance 1 by avoiding obstacles. In addition to the detection means 11, the floor treatment appliance 1 can also have further sensors, for example a non-illustrated odometry sensor, which measures a distance covered by the floor treatment appliance 1. The floor treatment appliance 1 can furthermore also have, for example, a contact sensor, ultrasonic sensor, radar sensor, or the like. The floor treatment appliance 1 furthermore has a local memory 13, which is used, for example, to store the generated surrounding area map. Here, the floor treatment appliance 1 furthermore has a communication interface 14, via which the floor treatment appliance 1 can communicate with external end devices of a user of the floor treatment appliance 1. Such an external end device can be, for example, a mobile device of the user, in particular a mobile telephone, a tablet computer, or the like. An application, via which information relating to the floor treatment appliance 1 can be displayed to the user and inputs can be made for the operation of the floor treatment appliance 1, is preferably installed on the external end device. The installed application can in particular also have a calendar application, into which one or several pre-planned floor treatment activities are entered, which the floor treatment appliance 1 can perform at a defined point in time. The communication interface 14 can be, for example, a WLAN interface. The floor treatment appliance 1 is furthermore able to move automatically within the surrounding area. For this purpose, the floor treatment appliance 1 has motor-driven wheels 9. The floor treatment appliance 1 can additionally have one or several floor treatment elements 12, which are used to perform one or several floor treatment activities in the surrounding area. Here, the floor treatment appliance 1 is formed, for example, as a cleaning robot. The floor treatment element 12 can therefore be, for example, a cleaning element, in particular a rotating cleaning brush, alternatively a wiping cloth, a wiping roller, or the like. The floor treatment elements 12 are used to act on a floor area to be treated. The floor treatment appliance 1, which is formed as robot vacuum cleaner here, can furthermore have, e.g., in the usual way, a suction mouth opening, which is not further illustrated and via which suction material can be sucked into a suction material chamber of the floor treatment appliance 1 by means of a blower. A floor treatment appliance 1, which is alternatively formed as robot mop, could have, for example, a liquid application means, a liquid tank, and the like. For the power supply of the individual electric consumers of the floor treatment appliance 1, for example for a drive means 10 for driving the wheels 9 and a drive means 10 for driving the floor treatment element 12, the floor treatment appliance 1 preferably has a non-illustrated, re-chargeable accumulator, which can be charged by means of the base station 7.

[0028] It will be described below in more detail on the basis of FIGS. 2 to 6, how the control means 8 of the floor treatment appliance 1 can control an operation of the floor treatment appliance 1 so that a surrounding area comprising very large floor areas to be treated can also be treated completely and optimally, without the user having to do this himself in a complex programming undertaking. FIGS. 2 and 3A to 3F thereby illustrate a first possible embodiment, FIGS. 4 and 5A to 5F illustrate a second possible embodiment, and FIG. 6 illustrates a further possible embodiment, whereby other embodiments furthermore also lie within the scope of the invention. It is in particular also possible that sub-combinations of the proposed approach can be made.

[0029] The initial situation for each of the embodiments illustrated below is that predefined time windows, in which the floor treatment appliance 1 may perform a floor treatment activity, are available for the floor treatment of several surrounding area subregions 2, 3, 4, 5 of the surrounding area. For example, the surrounding area can be an office environment, in which persons are present from 6 am until 8 pm, so that only the time period from 8 pm until 6 am is available as time window for the floor treatment on weekdays, as well as all day on Saturdays and Sundays. Due to the fact that the floor treatment of all surrounding area subregions 2, 3, 4, 5 cannot be concluded completely within a single time window from 8 pm until 6 am, it has to be interrupted. The time windows available for a floor treatment are preferably stored in the local memory 13 of the floor treatment appliance 1, so that the control means 8 of the floor treatment appliance 1 has knowledge as to when the floor treatment appliance 1 may be operated in the surrounding area, i.e. can move around in the surrounding area and can perform floor treatment activities there. A treatment plan to be executed can generally include only a single floor treatment activity or different floor treatment activities. The latter can be the case, for example, when the floor treatment appliance 1 is a combined vacuuming and mopping appliance, which successively performs a vacuuming activity first and then a mopping activity. The control means 8 controls the floor treatment appliance 1 on the basis of the treatment plan, wherein the floor treatment appliance 1 starts its movement route based on the location of the base station 7. Time windows, in which a floor treatment can take place within the surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 of the surrounding area, are noted in the treatment plan and/or the memory 13. Here, the calendrical treatment plan, for example for the weekdays Monday to Friday, in each case has successive time windows from 8 pm until 6 am, as well as all-day time windows on the Saturdays and Sundays, i.e. from midnight until midnight, thus in each case resulting in an extended time range at the interfaces to the preceding Fridays or Mondays, respectively. The time windows are characterized by a defined start time, for example 8 pm, and a defined time period, here, for example, ten hours. Time windows for performing a floor treatment activity thus exist at a transition from Monday to Tuesday, a transition from Tuesday to Wednesday, a transition from Wednesday to Thursday, etc.

[0030] The embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3A-3F now works in such a way that the control means 8 accesses a treatment plan and gathers a start time for a pre-planned floor treatment activity therefrom. As soon as the start time of the next time window, which is available for the floor treatment, is reached, the control means 8 controls the floor treatment appliance 1 to perform a planned floor treatment activity, here, for example, the cleaning of a floor area in a first surrounding area subregion 2 of the surrounding area. As is illustrated in the flowchart according to FIG. 2, it is now permanently checked whether all surrounding area subregions 2, 3, 4, 5 of the surrounding area have already been cleaned. Provided that this is already the case during the first defined time window, the cleaning is ended. Provided that the cleaning of all surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 cannot be concluded within the first available time window, however, the cleaning is paused initially. The control means 8 then preferably controls the floor treatment appliance 1 to the base station 7, where for example the accumulator of the floor treatment appliance 1 can be charged again, and the floor treatment appliance 1 can additionally rest at a location where it does not disturb persons, who are present in the surrounding area subregions 2 to 5. The control means 8 subsequently gathers the start time of the next planned time window from the memory 13 of the floor treatment appliance 1, and starts the continuation of the previously paused cleaning activity as soon as the new time window is available for the activity of the floor treatment appliance 1. The cleaning of the surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 is now continued until all surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 are cleaned. Provided that the next available time window or the time period thereof, respectively, is also not sufficient to completely clean all surrounding area subregions 2 to 5, the cleaning process is paused again, until a next time window is available. As soon as the entire area of all of the surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 to be cleaned is finally completely treated, the cleaning job is ended. The control means 8 subsequently preferably controls the floor treatment appliance 1 to the base station 7 again, where the floor treatment appliance 1 then waits for a next cleaning job.

[0031] FIGS. 3A to 3F illustrate the surrounding area subregions 2 to 5, which are treated in the course of the execution of the cleaning plan. FIG. 3A thereby shows the treatment status of the surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 after ending of the first time window. FIG. 3B shows the treatment status of the surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 after a second time window, FIG. 3C shows the status accordingly after a third time window, etc. As can be seen, a first surrounding area subregion 2 is cleaned after conclusion of the first time window, a second surrounding area subregion 3 is additionally cleaned after conclusion of the second time window, a third surrounding area subregion 4 is additionally cleaned after conclusion of the third time window, and a fourth surrounding area subregion 5, plus a portion of the first surrounding area subregion 2, which has already been cleaned previously, is additionally cleaned after conclusion of a fourth tie window (FIG. 3D). The cyclical cleaning of the surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 can thus be seen, in the case of which the entire cleaning process starts all over again after successful treatment of all surrounding area subregions 2 to 5.

[0032] Due to the fact that, in practice, the time periods of the predefined time windows are not dimensioned so that they are always sufficient for a complete cleaning of a specific room, the surrounding area subregions 2 to 5, which are cleaned in subsequent time windows, change in relation to the surrounding area subregions 2 to 5, which are cleaned during a first pass. On the basis of the transition between the situations according to FIG. 3C and FIG. 3D, it can be seen, for example, that the entire area of all surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 is completely cleaned for the first time at a specific point in time. Immediately afterwards (FIG. 3D), a next cleaning process is then started and the cleaning of the surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 repeats itself. However, due to the changed initial situation, a new definition of the already cleaned surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 results. The starting of the next cleaning process can take place manually by a user or can be predefined for a fixed start time, in particular by means of a calendar app, which the control means 8 of the floor treatment appliance 1 can access.

[0033] FIGS. 4 and 5A to 5F show a further embodiment of a method according to the invention. This embodiment is similar to the process according to FIGS. 2 and 3A-3F, whereby the difference is here that upon the expiration of a time window, a final ending of the floor treatment activity and storage of the just cleaned surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 takes place instead of the pausing of the execution of a cleaning plan. In particular those surrounding area subregions 2 to 5, which have already been cleaned at the end of the time window, are stored as no-go regions 6. At the beginning of a new time window, the control means 8 of the floor treatment appliance 1 can thus check on the basis of the no-go regions 6 stored in the memory 13, which surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 of the surrounding area have already been cleaned and are to thus be excluded from a further cleaning activity. It can be seen in the flowchart according to FIG. 4 that in the event that the cleaning has to be ended due to the expiration of a time period of a time window, a no-go region 6 (no-go zone) is generated, which delimits the already cleaned surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 from the surrounding area subregions 2 to 5, which have not been cleaned yet. In the case of a subsequent new cleaning of the surrounding area after reaching the start time of a subsequent time window, it is initially checked, which surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 are part of such a no-go region 6. A new cleaning process is then started in consideration of the no-go region 6. When all of the surrounding area subregions 2 to 5, which are designated for cleaning, have been cleaned completely, the cleaning process is ended and the previously defined no-go regions 6 are deleted from the memory 13. A new cleaning process can be started subsequently. FIGS. 5A to 5F show the enlargement of the respective defined no-go regions 6 after conclusion of each passed-through time window.

[0034] Finally, FIG. 6 shows a further modification of a process according to the invention, which prevents that a start of a new cleaning cycles takes place immediately after a complete cleaning of all surrounding area subregions 2 to 5. This embodiment is particularly suitable in the case of very large available time windows, which define a time period, which is sufficient to completely clean all surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 of the surrounding area more than once. It is to be prevented thereby that the floor treatment appliance 1 becomes active even though the surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 have been cleaned only recently and it is to thus be assumed that the floor treatment appliance 1 cannot eliminate a relevant amount of dirt. This embodiment thus saves energy and additionally also prevents a shortening of the service life of the floor treatment appliance 1. As illustrated in the flowchart according to FIG. 6, this approach is similar to the embodiment according to FIGS. 4 and 5A to 5F, in the case of which no-go regions 6 were defined. According to the approach as now modified, the corresponding previously defined no-go regions 6 are initially deleted after the end of a complete cleaning of all surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 of the surrounding area, and a new no-go region 6 is defined subsequently, which comprises the last cleaned complete surface area all surrounding area subregions 2 to 5. When a new cleaning process is now started subsequently, either manually by a user or predefined by a cleaning plan, the control means 8 of the floor treatment appliance 1 initially checks whether no-go regions 6 are stored. When the control means then determines that all surrounding area subregions 2 to 5 are part of a no-go region 6, the cleaning job is ended or rejected, respectively. In the case of each new cleaning job, this approach then occurs until the no-go region 6 is released, i.e. was deleted. An end can be specified for the deletion of the no-go region 6, for example that a specific minimum time interval between successive time windows is adhered to, namely between a last time window of a first cleaning cycle and a first time window of a subsequent cleaning cycle.

[0035] Although only a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it is to be understood that many changes and modifications may be made thereunto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

[0036] 1 floor treatment appliance [0037] 2 surrounding area subregion [0038] 3 surrounding area subregion [0039] 4 surrounding area subregion [0040] 5 surrounding area subregion [0041] 6 no-go region [0042] 7 base station [0043] 8 control means [0044] 9 wheel [0045] 10 drive means [0046] 11 detection means [0047] 12 floor treatment element [0048] 13 memory [0049] 14 communication interface