Floor treatment machine and method for treating floor surfaces

A floor treatment machine for treating floor surfaces, comprising:

• a housing;
• two drive wheels;
• at least one support wheel;
• a drive device;
• a controller;
• at least one obstacle-recognizing device;
• and
• a floor treatment device, configured to ensure that the floor can be treated in a treatment area comprising a predetermined location relative to the wheels, and including a treatment width perpendicular to the driving direction, wherein the controller encompasses a treatment mode, the treatment mode being configured to ensure that a surface, which is to be treated, can be swept over by way of the treatment area of the treatment machine by groups of route sections, which run next to one another, wherein the position and orientation of the floor treatment machine in the floor coordinate system are provided by a position detection device, the treatment mode further being configured to
• ensure that a treatment direction with a forwards and backwards orientation is determinable and that a current orientation of the treatment direction is one of the forwards and backwards orientation,
• determine driving lines, which are spaced apart perpendicular to the treatment direction, wherein the distances are chosen such that, when driving in opposite directions on driving lines, which are located next to one another, the area between the driving lines is completely treated by the treatment area,
• ensure that route segments on the driving lines are drivable from starting points to end points each in one driving direction, wherein the driving directions on adjacent driving lines are oriented in opposite direction,
• determine the end points in that driving cannot be continued on the respective driving line due to an obstacle, which is detected by the obstacle recognition device,
• store, in a route segment storage, the starting point and the end point of the route segment, which was followed, and for the end points, at least one of the states “completely treated” or “incompletely treated” and a direction information, at least in the case of “incompletely treated”, wherein it becomes clear from the direction information, in which orientation of the treatment direction incompletely treated areas are present, starting at the corresponding end point, and
• ensure that a contour-following movement is triggered at the end point on a current driving line for finding a new starting point, that the contour-following movement starts in the current orientation of the treatment direction and that during the contour-following movement the floor treatment machine follows the obstacle until it encounters the current or a next driving line,
• wherein
• when encountering the current driving line, which was followed prior to the contour-following movement, on a route segment, which, according to the route segment storage, has not yet been followed, a new starting point is determined at that location and the driving direction of this driving line is chosen,
• when encountering the next driving line on a route segment, which, according to the route segment storage, has not yet been followed, a new starting point is determined at that location and the driving direction of this adjacent driving line is chosen,
• when encountering a driving line on a route segment, which, according to the route segment storage, has already been followed, the end of a group of route segments, which run next to one another, is determined, wherein the controller then looks for an end point comprising the state “incompletely treated” in the route segment storage and approaches it with a position search movement, so as to tackle a new group of route sections, which run next to one another, starting at this end point with the current orientation of the treatment direction being set according to the direction information stored for this end point, until no end point comprising the state “incompletely treated” is present any longer.