Cleaning Apparatus and Method for Controlling the Same

This application is a continuation application, filed under 35 U.S.C. § 111(a), of International Application PCT/KR2025/004006 filed Mar. 28, 2025, and is based on and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Korean Patent Applications No. 10-2024-0044964, filed on Apr. 2, 2024 and Korean Patent Applications No. 10-2024-0089248, filed on Jul. 5, 2024 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

The disclosure relates to a cleaning apparatus and a method for controlling the same.

In general, a robot cleaner is a device that moves across a cleaning area and automatically cleans the cleaning area by vacuuming dirt and other debris from the floor without user operation. The robot cleaner cleans the area while moving across the cleaning area.

The robot cleaner uses a distance sensor to determine a distance to an obstacle, such as furniture, office equipment, and walls in the cleaning area, and changes direction to clean the cleaning area by selectively driving the left and right wheel motors of the robot cleaner.

Recently, to further improve cleaning convenience for users, a robot cleaner has been developed that automatically empties a dirt container of the robot cleaner when docking with a station.

The disclosure provides a cleaning apparatus including a robot cleaner and a station, and a method for controlling the cleaning apparatus that may position the robot cleaner at a correct location corresponding to an inlet of the station during a dirt discharge process of the robot cleaner.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a cleaning apparatus may include: a robot cleaner including a motion driver including a main wheel and a wheel motor configured to drive the main wheel, and a dust bin configured to store dirt and have an openable side; a station to which the robot cleaner is docked, the station including a dirt container, a seating portion on which the robot cleaner is seated in response to docking the robot cleaner to the station and including an inlet through which the dirt is introduced from the dust bin, and a dirt collection duct configured to have one end communicating with the inlet and an other end communicating with the dirt container; and at least one processor configured to control an operation of the robot cleaner and an operation of the station, wherein the robot cleaner further includes a location detection sensor configured to obtain information about a location of the robot cleaner according to a movement of the robot cleaner by the motion driver, the station further includes a pressure sensor configured to obtain information about a pressure inside the dirt collection duct, and the at least one processor is further configured to control the motion driver to adjust the location of the robot cleaner to allow an opening of the dust bin to correspond to the inlet based on the information obtained by the location detection sensor and the pressure sensor.

The seating portion may further comprise: a first wheel seating portion on which the main wheel is seated; and a second wheel seating portion spaced apart from the first wheel seating portion, and the first wheel seating portion is arranged in front of the second wheel seating portion based on a direction where the robot cleaner enters the station.

The robot cleaner may further comprise: a battery; and a robot cleaner charging terminal configured to charge the battery, the station may further comprise a station charging terminal configured to connect to the robot cleaner charging terminal, and the at least one processor may be further configured to determine that the main wheel is located on the first wheel seating portion based on the robot cleaner charging terminal being connected to the station charging terminal.

The location detection sensor may comprise a Hall sensor configured to detect a magnetic field between the Hall sensor and a magnetic object, and the magnetic object is spaced apart from the Hall sensor.

The station may comprises the magnetic object, and the information about the location of the robot cleaner obtained by the location detection sensor includes at least one of the location of the robot cleaner based on the station or a distance between the station and the robot cleaner.

The main wheel may comprise an encoder disk and the magnetic object attached to the encoder disk, and the information about the location of the robot cleaner obtained by the location detection sensor includes at least one of a driving direction, a rotation speed, and a rotation angle of the main wheel.

The at least one processor may be further configured to redetermine whether the main wheel is located on the first wheel seating portion based on the information about the location of the robot cleaner obtained by the location detection sensor, after determining that the main wheel is located on the first wheel seating portion based on the robot cleaner charging terminal being connected to the station charging terminal.

The at least one processor may be further configured to move the main wheel to the second wheel seating portion based on the determining that the main wheel is located on the first wheel seating portion.

The at least one processor may be further configured to determine at least one of a driving speed and a driving distance to move the main wheel to the second wheel seating portion based on the information about the location of the robot cleaner obtained by the location detection sensor.

The station may further comprise a station intake motor configured to generate suction force to move the dirt to the dirt container, and the at least one processor may be configured to determine whether a detection value of the pressure sensor is less than a preset reference pressure for a preset reference time based on the main wheel is seated on the second wheel seating portion and the station intake motor operates.

The at least one processor may be configured to control the motion driver to adjust the location of the robot cleaner based on the detection value of the pressure sensor being less than the preset reference pressure for the preset reference time.

The robot cleaner may further comprise a lower door at the opening of the dust bin, the station further comprises a lever device including an opening link coupled to the lower door, and configured to open or close the opening of the dust bin by rotating the opening link, and the at least one processor may be configured to control the lever device to close the opening of the dust bin so as to close the inlet, before controlling the motion driver to adjust the location of the robot cleaner based on the detection value of the pressure sensor being less than the preset reference pressure for the preset reference time.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, in a method for controlling a cleaning apparatus further including a robot cleaner and a station on which the robot cleaner is seated, the method may include: entering, by the robot cleaner, the station to sit on the station and perform a dirt discharge process; obtaining information about a location of the robot cleaner from a location detection sensor; obtaining information about a pressure inside a dirt collection duct of the station from a pressure sensor; and adjusting the location of the robot cleaner to allow an opening of a dust bin of the robot cleaner to correspond to an inlet of the station through which dirt is introduced from the dust bin based on the information obtained by the location detection sensor or the pressure sensor.

The station may comprise a first wheel seating portion on which a main wheel of the robot cleaner is seated and a second wheel seating portion spaced apart from the first wheel seating portion, the first wheel seating portion is arranged in front of the second wheel seating portion based on a direction where the robot cleaner enters the station, and the method may further comprise determining that the main wheel is located on the first wheel seating portion based on a robot cleaner charging terminal being connected to a station charging terminal.

The location detection sensor may comprise a Hall sensor, and the method further comprises: obtaining the information about the location of the robot cleaner from the location detection sensor; and detecting a magnetic field between the Hall sensor and a magnetic object which is spaced apart from the Hall sensor.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, a cleaning apparatus may improve user convenience.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, a cleaning apparatus may improve cleaning efficiency.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, a cleaning apparatus may guide a robot cleaner to allow an outlet of the robot cleaner to correspond exactly to an inlet of a station during a dirt discharge process of the robot cleaner for a hygienic cleaning environment.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, first and second seating positions where a robot cleaner is seated on a station may be distinguished depending on a process performed by a cleaning apparatus, thereby preventing washing water for performing a washing process from splashing into an inlet of the station and preventing a decrease in dust suction efficiency.

Technical aspects that can be achieved by the disclosure are not limited to the above-mentioned aspects, and other technical aspects not mentioned will be clearly understood by one of ordinary skill in the technical art to which the disclosure belongs from the following description.

Various embodiments of the disclosure and terms used herein are not intended to limit the technical features described herein to specific embodiments, and should be understood to include various modifications, equivalents, or substitutions of the corresponding embodiments.

In describing of the drawings, similar reference numerals may be used for similar or related elements.

The singular form of a noun corresponding to an item may include one or more of the items unless clearly indicated otherwise in a related context.

In the disclosure, phrases, such as “A or B”, “at least one of A and B”, “at least one of A or B”, “A, B or C”, “at least one of A, B and C”, and “at least one of A, B, or C” may include any one or all possible combinations of the items listed together in the corresponding phrase among the phrases.

As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

Terms such as “˜portion”, “˜member”, “˜module”, and the like may be implemented in hardware or software or any combination thereof. According to various embodiments, a plurality of “˜portions”, “˜members”, or “˜modules” may be embodied as a single element, or a single “˜portion”, “˜member”, or “˜module” may include a plurality of elements. Terms such as “1st”, “2nd”, “primary”, or “secondary” may be used simply to distinguish an element from other elements, without limiting the element in other aspects (e.g., importance or order).

When an element (e.g., a first element) is referred to as being “(functionally or communicatively) coupled” or “connected” to another element (e.g., a second element), the first element may be connected to the second element, directly (e.g., wired), wirelessly, or through a third element.

It will be understood that the terms “includes”, “comprises”, “including”, and/or “comprising” are used in the disclosure, they specify the presence of the specified features, figures, steps, operations, components, members, or combinations thereof, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, figures, steps, operations, components, members, or combinations thereof.

When a given element is referred to as being “connected to”, “coupled to”, “supported by” or “in contact with” another element, it is to be understood that it may be directly or indirectly connected to, coupled to, supported by, or in contact with the other element. When a given element is indirectly connected to, coupled to, supported by, or in contact with another element, it is to be understood that it may be connected to, coupled to, supported by, or in contact with the other element through a third element.

It will also be understood that when an element is referred to as being “on” another element, it may be directly on the other element or intervening elements may also be present.

The terms “front,” “rear,” “left,” “right,” “upper,” “lower” etc., used in the following description are defined based on the drawings, and the shape and position of each component are not limited by these terms. For example, as shown in, a direction in which a robot cleanerenters a stationmay be defined as the rear (−X direction), and an opposite direction may be defined as the front (+X direction).

Hereinafter, embodiments of the disclosure are described in detail with reference to accompanying drawings.

illustrates a state in which the robot cleaneris away from the stationin a cleaning apparatusaccording to an embodiment.

illustrates a state in which the robot cleaneris seated on the stationin the cleaning apparatusaccording to an embodiment.

Referring toand, the cleaning apparatusmay include the robot cleanerand the station. The cleaning apparatusmay be referred to as the cleaning system.

The robot cleanermay clean a floor while moving across the floor. The floor cleaned by the robot cleanermay be referred to as a surface to be cleaned (surface being cleaned). The robot cleanermay perform dry cleaning and/or wet cleaning. The robot cleanermay draw in (pick up) or wipe away dirt on the surface to be cleaned. Here, the term “dirt” may refer to foreign substances, such as dust, hair, food particles, and the like.

The robot cleanermay be seated on the station. The robot cleanermay be placed on the station. The robot cleanermay be docked to the station. At least a portion of the robot cleanermay be positioned in a receiving spaceof the station.

The robot cleanermay move to the stationduring cleaning and/or after completion of the cleaning.

For example, the robot cleanermay move to the stationin a case where recharging is required, in a case where dirt in a dust binrequires to be emptied, in a case where moisture content of a mopis low, in a case where the moprequires to be washed, in a case where the moprequires to be sterilized, and/or in a case where the moprequires to be dried.

The stationmay be configured such that the robot cleanermay be docked to the station. The stationmay be configured such that the robot cleanermay be seated. The stationmay be configured to store the robot cleaner.

For example, while the robot cleaneris seated on the station, the stationmay charge a batteryof the robot cleaner. For example, while the robot cleaneris seated on the station, the stationmay collect the dirt collected in the dust binof the robot cleaner. For example, while the robot cleaneris seated on the station, the stationmay wet the mopwith water and/or steam. For example, while the robot cleaneris seated on the station, the stationmay wash the mop. For example, while the robot cleaneris seated on the station, the stationmay sterilize the mop. For example, while the robot cleaneris seated on the station, the stationmay dry the mop.

is a view illustrating the robot cleaneraccording to an embodiment.

is a view illustrating a rear portion of the robot cleanershown in.

is a view illustrating a lower portion of the robot cleanershown in.