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US 8,551,254 B2Granted
Systems and methods for robotic gutter cleaning along an axis of rotation
AssigneeiRobot Corporation
InventorsDouglas C. Dayton, Sung K. Park, Karl Eaton Abele, Jason Robinson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In embodiments of the present invention, a gutter-cleaning device comprises a housing containing an impeller drive facility, the housing configured to fit into a gutter, an impeller, disposed at an end of the housing and driven by the impeller drive facility, and a transport facility for transporting the housing along the gutter.
Claims20
A gutter-cleaning device, comprising:
- a housing containing an impeller drive facility, the housing configured to fit into an open residential gutter;
- an impeller, disposed at an end of the housing and driven by the impeller drive facility, the impeller including at least one flexible paddle and at least one stiff bristle brush each oriented about an axis of rotation, the axis of rotation arranged at an angle to a direction of travel of the device to aim toward an inside corner of the gutter, the impeller ejecting agitated debris from the gutter and away from the impeller;
- a transport drive adapted to automatically transport the device along an interior surface of the gutter;
- and
- a wireless communication facility, operable to receive control signals from a remote control for controlling at least one of the transport drive and the impeller drive facility.
2 more elements
A method of a gutter-cleaning device, comprising:
- configuring a housing containing an impeller drive facility, the housing configured to fit into an open residential gutter;
- disposing an impeller at an end of the housing and driving the impeller with the impeller drive facility, wherein the impeller has an axis of rotation arranged at an angle to a direction of travel of the device to aim toward an inside corner of the gutter, the impeller ejecting agitated debris from the gutter and away from the impeller, and wherein the impeller includes one or more flexible paddles and one or more stiff bristle brushes arranged about the axis;
- adapting a transport drive to be in contact with the gutter for transporting the housing along an interior surface of the gutter;
- and
- disposing a wireless communication facility in electrical communication with at least one of the transport drive and the impeller drive facility, operable to receive control signals from a remote control for controlling at least one of the transport drive and the impeller drive facility.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.