Floor Machine and Surface Cleaning Within a Field of RFID Tags
OwnerEric C. Li, Robert J. Erkoinventors
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A machine and method of use for cleaning a floor surface by traversing the floor field with a floor cleaning machine having an RFID system and accessing a plurality of RFID tags within the floor field to determine a position of the cleaning machine within the floor field during a cleaning session. An electronic map may be generated by and/or stored on the floor cleaning machine or may be remotely accessed during the floor cleaning session. A variety of information relating to machine operation characteristics and/or performance can be collected during the cleaning session in combination with machine location information from the RFID system.
Claims24
A floor cleaning machine operating in a region of RFID tags comprising:
- a floor maintenance tool carried by the floor cleaning machine, said floor maintenance tool performing a floor cleaning task as the floor cleaning machine traverses the region;
- and
- an REID system including an REID reader accessing one or more of a plurality of RFID tags distributed throughout the region as the floor cleaning machine traverses the region during a cleaning session.
A method of operating a portable floor cleaning machine, comprising:
- dispersing a plurality of RFID tags throughout a floor field within which the location of the cleaning machine is to be identified;
- traversing the flooring field with the cleaning machine during a cleaning operation;
- accessing one or more of the RFID tags during said cleaning operation;
- and
- utilizing information received during said accessing to determine the relative position of the cleaning machine based at least in part on said map.
A method of floor cleaning machine localization comprising:
- mapping signals emitted by a plurality of RFID tags distributed throughout a region of the floor field to define a floor map;
- traversing the floor field during a floor cleaning operation;
- and
- accessing one or more RFID tags and the floor map during said traversing to determine a location of the cleaning machine during the cleaning operation.
A method of operating a floor cleaning machine comprising:
- cleaning a floor surface by traversing the floor field with the floor cleaning machine,
- during said cleaning, accessing a RFID tag;
- and
- utilizing information received during said accessing to determine a position of the cleaning machine within the floor field.
The method of claim 19 wherein the electronic map is stored on the cleaning machine or stored at a remote location or both.
A method of operating a floor cleaning machine comprising:
- cleaning a floor surface by traversing the floor field with the floor cleaning machine,
- during said cleaning, accessing a plurality of RFID tags;
- and
- utilizing information received during said accessing to determine a floor cleaning machine performance characteristic.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.