Evacuation station
AssigneeiRobot Corporation
InventorsRussell Walter Morin, Harold Boeschenstein, David Orrin Swett, Jude Royston Jonas
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mobile robot includes a body configured to traverse a surface and to receive debris from the surface, and a debris bin within the body. The debris bin includes a chamber to hold the debris received by the mobile robot, an exhaust port through which the debris exits the debris bin; and a door unit over the exhaust port. The door unit includes a flap configured to move, in response to air pressure at the exhaust port, between a closed position to cover the exhaust port and an open position to open a path between the chamber and the exhaust port. The door unit, including the flap in the open position and in the closed position, is within an exterior surface of the mobile robot.
Claims15
An evacuation station comprising:
- a control system comprising one or more processing devices programmed to control evacuation of a debris bin of a mobile robot;
- a base to receive the mobile robot, the base comprising an intake port to align to an exhaust port of the debris bin;
- a canister to hold a bag to store debris from the debris bin;
- one or more conduits extending from the intake port to the bag, through which debris is transported between the intake port and the bag;
- a motor that is responsive to commands from the control system to remove air from the canister and thereby generate negative air pressure in the canister to evacuate the debris bin by suctioning the debris from the debris bin;
- and
- a pressure sensor to monitor the air pressure;
- wherein the control system is programmed to control an amount of time to evacuate the debris bin based on the air pressure monitored by the pressure sensor.
The evacuation station 12, wherein the second pipe, when in contact with the bag, make a substantially airtight seal to a latex membrane of the bag;
- and
- wherein the first pipe and the second pipe are interfaced via flexible grommets, a cam mechanism controlling movement of the second pipe based on movement of the plunger.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.