Robotic vacuum cleaning system

摘要

An autonomous coverage robot includes a cleaning assembly having forward roller and rearward rollers counter-rotating with respect to each other. The rollers are arranged to substantially maintain a cross sectional area between the two rollers yet permitting collapsing therebetween as large debris is passed. Each roller includes a resilient elastomer outer tube and a partially air-occupied inner resilient core configured to bias the outer tube to rebound. The core includes a hub and resilient spokes extending between the inner surface of the outer tube and the hub. The spokes suspend the outer tube to float about the hub and transfer torque from the hub to the outer tube while allowing the outer tube to momentarily deform or move offset from the hub during impact with debris larger than the cross sectional area between the two rollers.

主权项

1. A resilient compressible roller for rotatable engagement with an autonomous coverage robot, the roller comprising:
a resilient flexible tube having inner and outer surfaces and defining a longitudinal axis; a hub disposed within the tube along the longitudinal axis; a rigid drive shaft supporting the hub and rotatably attachable to the robot; resilient spokes extending between the inner surface of the tube and the hub, the spokes suspending the tube to float about the hub and transferring torque from the drive shaft to the tube, a trace length of each spoke being longer than a radial distance between the drive shaft and the inner surface of the tube, allowing the tube to momentarily deform or move offset from the drive shaft during impact with debris, wherein the tube and the spokes are elastically deformable, collapsing from an undeformed shape toward the longitudinal axis to a deformed shaped and elastically rebounding back to the undeformed shape; and at least one vane extending outwardly from the outer surface of the tube.