Control apparatus for plane working robot

A control apparatus for a floor cleaning robot comprising a running unit for running on a plane surface as a working object, a steering unit for steering said running unit in a predetermined direction, a cleaning unit for cleaning said plane surface, a detecting unit for detecting information about running direction and distance of said robot and an obstacle on said plane surface, and a control unit for controlling running and cleaning of said robot on the basis of said informations from said detecting unit, characterized by the provision of:

• working information setting means for setting a cleaning area where said cleaning is conducted to set an optimum working running path within said cleaning area thus set by a predetermined algorithm, and comprising data processing means for processing various data in regard to cleaning that said robot conducts, a data storage unit for storing said various data, a data input unit for inputting predetermined data into said processing means, and a display unit for displaying data contents in order to set said various data;
• and
• working control means for controlling said running unit and said steering unit so that said running unit runs along said working running path set by said working information setting means and for controlling said working unit to carry out said cleaning;
• and
• wherein said processing means comprises running area setting means for setting a cleaning area as an area where said robot should carry out cleaning;
• obstacle setting means for setting a position of an obstacle within a cleaning area set by said area setting means;
• running path setting means for setting a running path in accordance with a predetermined algorithm so that cleaning is carried out on the basis of data set by said two setting means;
• path attribute setting means for adding a path attribute peculiar to a running path set by said path setting means;
• next block setting means wherein when said cleaning area is a broad area and/or is in a complicated form, said next block setting means divides said area into several blocks to make a setting every block such that cleaning can be conducted while avoiding said obstacle;
• and storage unit management means for allowing said data storage unit to store a cleaning/running path set by said respective setting means.