Brushing – scrubbing – and general cleaning – Machines – With air blast or suction
Reexamination Certificate
1997-08-20
2001-05-08
McKane, Elizabeth (Department: 1744)
Brushing, scrubbing, and general cleaning
Machines
With air blast or suction
C015S325000, C015S327200, C015S340200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06226830
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an apparatus comprising an electric motor with a variable motor power, a control circuit for controlling the movement of the apparatus, and a vacuum chamber for generating a partial vacuum by means of the electric motor.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Such an apparatus may be constructed, for example, as a vacuum cleaner comprising a vacuum cleaner body with a hose provided with a nozzle coupled to the air inlet of the vacuum cleaner body, which body comprises a dust chamber in communication with the air inlet and a housing for a fan driven by an electric motor, which housing is in communication with the dust chamber and the air outlet. Such vacuum cleaners may be of the type commonly referred to as upright or canister. The usual canister-type vacuum cleaners have bodies with front portions having blunt, rounded shapes which are normally pulled along by a hose during cleaning. This blunt body shape often gets blocked or snagged or rendered immobile behind furniture parts such as chair and table legs, for example, forcing the user to interrupt vacuum cleaning to free the vacuum cleaner before cleaning can be resumed.
Such an apparatus is known from EP 0 420 265 and its related patent EP 0 558 101 A2, which relate to such vacuum cleaners adapted to avoid obstacles on a cleaning surface to be cleaned even if the outer contour of the cleaner body is generally flat. The disclosed vacuum cleaners comprise an angularly movable traveling member angularly mounted on the cleaner body to be angularly movable around an outer wall of the dust collector chamber, or a swinging plate which constitutes part of the traveling member, has casters and is mounted by a shaft on a lower front surface so as to be angularly movable about the shaft. The angular member has a bumper that is first caused to collide with the obstacle. When the suction hose is pulled further, the bumper is angularly moved together with the angularly movable member to turn the cleaner body in a direction away from the obstacle and to move it to a position whereby the obstacle can be avoided. In a second embodiment, a swinging plate is movable right and left about a shaft portion and a spring member mounted on the swinging plate produces a spring force for angularly returning the swinging plate to its initial position when the swinging member is angularly moved. The swinging plate is held in a neutral position when the obstacle does not collide with the swinging plate. In addition to requiring numerous and intricate parts and the accompanying expense of manufacture, these vacuum cleaners do not utilize an actively controlled driving or direction control. The castor wheels, for example, are not actively controlled to achieve, at the point in time of obstacle touch or obstacle sensing, a resultant velocity away from the obstacle, and are not adapted to achieve this result when subjected to arbitrary forward velocities such as those that a user imposes by pulling the vacuum by the hose. Moreover, there is no detection of obstacles for avoidance and thus reduced wear and tear on the vacuum cleaners.
There is a need for a vacuum cleaner of the type described above which will embody the characteristics of:
(1) robust obstacle detection and display or robust obstacle detection and avoidance or robust obstacle detection, display, and avoidance and
(2) non-contact or minimal contact sensing
(3) simple electronics and mechanics
(4) low cost
(5) the ability to retrofit existing designs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide an apparatus such as a vacuum cleaner which will exhibit the characteristics listed above.
Another object of the invention is to provide a vacuum cleaner that is adapted to avoid obstacles on a surface to be cleaned even if the outer contour of the cleaner body is generally flat or blunt or rounded, and in which the drive direction is actively controlled.
Another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus such as a vacuum cleaner to detect and avoid obstacles and wherein the driving and/or direction-determining means is actively controlled to achieve, at the point in time of obstacle touch or obstacle sensing, a resultant velocity away from obstacles in the path of the cleaning apparatus.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus such as a vacuum cleaner wherein the driving and/or direction-determining means is actively controlled to achieve, at the point in time of touch or obstacle sensing, a resultant velocity away from obstacles in the path of the cleaning apparatus and which is adapted to achieve this result when the cleaning apparatus is subjected to arbitrary forward velocities such as those that a user imposes by pulling the vacuum by the hose.
Another object is to provide an apparatus such as a vacuum cleaner wherein the distance of an obstacle is sensed and remotely displayed to the user to permit the user to “see” the obstacle even when the same is not visible, for example when it is hidden under furniture or the like. Optionally, the vacuum cleaner may otherwise be of conventional design, and the user may use the displayed information to manually avoid the obstacle, or this detect and display feature of the invention may be combined with an apparatus having an obstacle avoidance feature according to the invention and wherein the driving and/or direction-determining means is actively controlled to achieve, at the point in time of obstacle detection and/or touch and/or display, a resultant velocity away from the displayed and/or sensed and/or touched obstacle.
These and other objects are accomplished, according to the invention by the provision of a cleaning apparatus, for example, a vacuum cleaner which comprises:
a housing provided with an electric motor, an intake portion, a body portion, a controller comprising a signal processing unit (SPU), and display means associatively adapted to display an input from the SPU, wherein the body portion includes at least one touch or proximity sensor for detecting the presence of at least one obstacle in the proximity of the cleaning apparatus travel path and delivering an input to the SPU for display on said display means.
In a preferred embodiment, the cleaning apparatus also includes means for sensing the distance of an obstacle and remotely displaying information derived from said sensing, and in especially preferred embodiments, the means for sensing includes at least three sensors located as left, right, and middle sensors the input from which is respectively displayed and is indicative of the approximate distances from the cleaning apparatus to the obstacle detected by the respective sensor.
In another preferred embodiment of the invention, there is provided a cleaning apparatus having a housing provided with an electric motor, a body portion which comprises an intake hose, at least one direction-controlling means, for example at least one castor wheel, at least one driving means, for example at least one drive wheel, and means, for example, a controller comprising a signal processing unit (SPU), for controlling at least the direction of at least one of the direction-controlling means or driving means, wherein the means for controlling direction, for example the controller, also includes multiple sensors for detecting the presence of at least one obstacle in the proximity of the vacuum cleaner travel path and delivering information or input to the SPU, the controller being adapted to actuate a change in at least the direction of at least one of the direction-controlling means or driving means based on said sensor detection and information or input to move the vacuum cleaner to avoid the obstacle at the point in time of contact and/or sensing and to maintain an arbitrary, forward velocity.
For ease of description, the invention will be described in terms of a vacuum cleaner with castor wheel or castor wheels and drive wheel or wheels. It will be understood that the invention is not to be limited to such terms and any cleaning apparatus with suitable direction-
Guida Frank
Hendriks Antonius
Lyons Damian M.
Bartlett Ernestine C.
McKane Elizabeth
Philips Electronics North America Corp.
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