FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The disclosure relates to robotic floor-cleaning devices and methods for automatically removing obstructions from robotic floor-cleaning devices.

BACKGROUND

During operation, robotic floor-cleaning devices may encounter obstructions on work surfaces, which may become entangled in one or more wheels of the device, preventing the device from completing work. Several solutions have been proposed in prior art to detect wheel obstructions. For example, the amount of electrical current generated by an individual wheel motor has been used to detect obstructions as the electrical current drawn to rotate a wheel increases when the wheel is obstructed. Once an obstruction is detected, the wheel is programmed to stop rotating and the robotic device reverses direction until the electrical current is below a certain threshold, at which time the robotic device may resume operation. Sensors have also been used to detect entanglement with similar response of wheel reversal upon detection. This method may not be ideal as the robotic device is required to operate in the opposite direction for a period of time until the entanglement is removed which is inefficient and increases cleaning time. Furthermore, in certain cases, large objects may be drawn up by a wheel and lodged above it or an object may become tightly wound around the wheel. In these situations, further jamming could occur wherein the wheel can neither operate normally in the forward nor reverse direction to remove the entangled object. Generally, in prior art, the wheels are reversed to remove obstructions. A more precise and efficient method for removing an obstruction from a wheel may be beneficial.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary of some embodiments of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some embodiments of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented below.

Some embodiments include a robot, including: a plurality of sensors; at least one encoder; a processor; a tangible, non-transitory, machine readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor effectuates operations including: measuring, with the at least one encoder, wheel rotation of at least one wheel; capturing, with an image sensor, images of an environment as the robot moves within the environment; identifying, with the processor, at least one characteristic of at least one object captured in the images of the environment; determining, with the processor, an object type of the at least one object based on characteristics of different types of objects stored in an object database; and instructing, with the processor, the robot to execute at least one action based on at least one of: the object type of the at least one object and the measured wheel rotation of the at least one wheel.

Some embodiments include a method for detecting an obstruction to a robot, including: measuring, with at least one encoder, wheel rotations of at least one wheel; capturing, with an image sensor, images of an environment as the robot moves within the environment; identifying, with a processor, at least one characteristic of at least one object captured in the images of the environment; determining, with the processor, an object type of the at least one object based on characteristics of different types of objects stored in an object database; and instructing, with the processor, the robot to execute at least one action based on at least one of: the object type of the at least one object and the measured wheel rotations of the at least one wheel.

Some embodiments include a tangible, non-transitory, machine readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor effectuates operations including: measuring, with at least one encoder, wheel rotations of at least one wheel; capturing, with an image sensor, images of an environment as the robot moves within the environment; identifying, with the processor, at least one characteristic of at least one object captured in the images of the environment; determining, with the processor, an object type of the at least one object based on characteristics of different types of objects stored in an object database, including: determining, with the processor, a percentage of characteristics of the at least one object matching the characteristics of at least one object stored in the object database; and determining, with the processor, the object type of the at least one object based on the object type of the at least one object in the object database corresponding with a percentage above a predetermined threshold or the highest percentage; and instructing, with the processor, the robot to execute at least one action based on at least one of: the object type of the at least one object and the measured wheel rotations of the at least one wheel, including: determining, with the processor, if the object type of the at least one object is a type of object with high likelihood of obstructing the robot; and identifying, with the processor, an obstruction of the at least one wheel based on the measured wheel rotations of the at least one wheel.

