Patents Assigned to IROBOT
  • Patent number: 11185204
    Abstract: An autonomous floor cleaning robot includes a transport drive and control system arranged for autonomous movement of the robot over a floor for performing cleaning operations. The robot chassis carries a first cleaning zone comprising cleaning elements arranged to suction loose particulates up from the cleaning surface and a second cleaning zone comprising cleaning elements arranged to apply a cleaning fluid onto the surface and to thereafter collect the cleaning fluid up from the surface after it has been used to clean the surface. The robot chassis carries a supply of cleaning fluid and a waste container for storing waste materials collected up from the cleaning surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew Ziegler, Christopher John Morse, Duane L. Gilbert, Jr., Andrew Jones, Scott Pratt, Paul E. Sandin, Nancy Dussault-Smith
  • Patent number: 11160432
    Abstract: A system for enabling spot cleaning includes a mobile computing device and a mobile cleaning robot. The mobile computing device includes at least one camera configured to capture images of an environment, and at least one data processor configured to (a) establish, based at least in part on first information provided by the at least one image sensor, a coordinate system in the environment, (b) determine, based at least in part on second information provided by the at least one camera, a first set of coordinates of a region at a first location, (c) determine, based at least in part on third information provided by the at least one camera, a second set of coordinates of a mobile cleaning robot at a second location, (d) send the first set of coordinates and second set of coordinates, or coordinates of the first location relative to the second location, to the mobile cleaning robot, and (e) send an instruction to the mobile cleaning robot to request the mobile cleaning robot to travel to the first location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Angela Bassa, Husain al-Mohssen
  • Patent number: 11157015
    Abstract: A method of navigating an autonomous coverage robot on a floor includes controlling movement of the robot across the floor in a cleaning mode. A sensor signal indicative of an obstacle is received. The robot is rotated away from the sensed obstacle. A change in the received sensor signal during at least a portion of the rotation of the robot away from the sensed obstacle is determined. The sensed obstacle is identified based at least in part on the determined change in the received sensor signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventor: Mark Steven Schnittman
  • Patent number: 11122951
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides, in one aspect, an autonomous cleaning robot including a body, a drive operable to move the body across a floor surface, and a circuit board mounted below an upper surface of the body of the autonomous cleaning robot. The autonomous cleaning robot also includes one or more electrical contacts, a base of each electrical contact being mounted on the circuit board and a contact tip of each electrical contact being configured to protrude through a corresponding opening in the upper surface, wherein each electrical contact comprises a double curved structure to allow the electrical contact to be vertically flexible. The autonomous cleaning robot also includes a hinged lid including one or more contact pads, the one or more contact pads being configured to contact corresponding electrical contacts protruding through the upper surface as the lid is opened or closed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Travis James Gschrey, Eric Burbank, Oliver Lewis, Milan Modh, Sophia Wennstedt
  • Patent number: 11109727
    Abstract: A cleaning roller mountable to a cleaning robot is featured. The cleaning roller includes an elongate member extending along a longitudinal axis of the cleaning roller, and a vane extending outward from the elongate member. The vane includes a first vane portion attached to the elongate member, and a second vane portion attached to the first vane portion. The first vane portion extends from the elongate member at a location intersecting a radial axis of the cleaning roller. The first vane portion extends along a first axis angled relative to the radial axis and away from the radial axis in a tangential direction. The second vane portion extends along a second axis angled relative to the first axis. A first angle between the first axis and the radial axis is greater than a second angle between the second axis and the radial axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Eric Burbank, Timothy R. Ohm, Erik Amaral
  • Patent number: 11110595
    Abstract: An autonomous mobile robot includes a flexible member including a polymer layer extending along an entire length of the flexible member, and an end portion vertically movable away from a body of the robot. A first portion of a fastening mechanism extends along a first lateral edge of the polymer layer and a second portion of the fastening mechanism extends along a second lateral edge of the polymer layer. The first portion of the fastening mechanism is attached to the second portion of the fastening mechanism and forms a conduit to support the image capture device. The conduit includes an inner surface and an outer surface, and the outer surface of the conduit is at least partially defined by the polymer layer. An image capture device is mounted to an end portion of the flexible member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Patrick Chow, Irene Lee, Kenneth Holm, Jr., Frederic D. Hook, Patrick Petrossian, Fred Alibozek
  • Patent number: 11115798
    Abstract: A method performed by a mobile lawn mowing robot includes pairing a beacon with the mobile lawn mowing robot. Pairing the beacon with the mobile lawn mowing robot includes determining a distance between the beacon and the mobile lawn mowing robot and confirming that the beacon is within a pairing distance from the mobile lawn mowing robot based on a comparison of the determined distance to a pairing distance. Pairing the beacon with the mobile robot lawn mowing robot further includes, subsequent to confirming that the beacon is within the pairing distance from the mobile lawn mowing robot, pairing the beacon with the mobile lawn mowing robot, and, following pairing, detecting wideband or ultra-wideband signals from the beacon, and using the wideband or ultra-wideband signals to enable navigation over an area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew Beaulieu, Brian Yamauchi, Erik Steltz
  • Patent number: 11103113
    Abstract: An autonomous cleaning robot includes a drive configured to move the robot across a floor surface, a brush proximate a lateral side of the robot, and a motor configured to rotate the brush about an axis of rotation. The brush includes a hub configured to engage the motor of the robot and arms each extending outwardly from the hub away from the axis of rotation and each being angled relative to a plane normal to the axis of rotation of the brush. Each of the arms include a first portion extending outwardly from the hub away from the axis of rotation and a second portion extending outwardly from the first portion away from the axis of rotation. An angle between the first portion of each of the arms and the plane is larger than an angle between the second portion of the each of the arms and the plane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas P. Schregardus, Travis James Gschrey
  • Patent number: 11104268
    Abstract: An autonomous mobile robot includes a body, a drive supporting the body above a floor surface, a light-propagating plate positioned on the body and having a periphery defining a continuous loop, light sources each being positioned to direct light through a portion of the plate to a portion of the continuous loop, and a controller to selectively operate the light sources to provide a visual indicator of a status or service condition of the autonomous mobile robot. The drive is configured to maneuver the mobile robot about the floor surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Cory White, Benjamin H. Schriesheim, Oliver Lewis, Stephen A. Hickey, Stuart R. Jang, Michael J. Dooley
  • Patent number: 11104006
    Abstract: A robot includes a body and a bumper. The body is movable relative to a surface and includes a first portion of a sensor. The bumper is mounted on the body and movable relative to the body and includes a backing and a second portion of the sensor. The backing is movable relative to the body in response to a force applied to the bumper. The second portion of the sensor is attached to the backing and movable with the backing relative to the first portion of the sensor in response to a force applied to the bumper. The sensor is configured to output an electrical signal in response to a movement of the backing. The electrical signal is proportional to an amount of displacement of the second portion relative to the first portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Victor Fay, Seth Blitzblau, Samuel Duffley, Kyle Dumont, Justin H. Woodman
  • Patent number: 11084172
    Abstract: A robot obstacle detection system including a robot housing which navigates with respect to a surface and a sensor subsystem aimed at the surface for detecting the surface. The sensor subsystem includes an emitter which emits a signal having a field of emission and a photon detector having a field of view which intersects the field of emission at a region. The subsystem detects the presence of an object proximate the mobile robot and determines a value of a signal corresponding to the object. It compares the value to a predetermined value, moves the mobile robot in response to the comparison, and updates the predetermined value upon the occurrence of an event.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher M. Casey, Matthew Cross, Daniel N. Ozick, Joseph L. Jones
  • Patent number: 11072250
    Abstract: An autonomous coverage robot detection system includes an emitter configured to emit a directed beam, a detector configured to detect the directed beam and a controller configured to direct the robot in response to a signal detected by the detector. In some examples, the detection system detects a stasis condition of the robot. In some examples, the detection system detects a wall and can follow the wall in response to the detected signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Duane L. Gilbert, Jr., Marcus Williams, Andrea M. Okerholm, Elaine H. Kristant, Sheila A. Longo, Daniel E. Kee, Marc D. Strauss
  • Patent number: 11058053
    Abstract: An autonomous robot lawnmower includes a blade assembly including blades, a drive system to drive the blades through a cutting area having a cutting width, and a lateral blade guard including at least four bars spaced apart from one another by no less than 1 mm and no more than 15 mm. The at least four bars are positioned between the blades and a mowable area when the robot lawnmower is supported on the mowable area. The at least four bars extend across a portion of the cutting width and extending rearward and forward of the cutting area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Shaan Patel, Brian Doughty
  • Patent number: 11058276
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a base station for receiving a mobile cleaning robot including a docking structure. The docking structure includes a horizontal surface and at least two electrical charging contacts, each of the electrical charging contacts having a contact surface positioned above the horizontal surface. The base station also includes a platform that is connectable to the docking structure. The platform includes a raised rear surface having a front portion and a rear portion, two wheel wells located in the front portion of the raised rear surface of the platform, and a plurality of raised surface features forward of the raised rear surface configured to support an underside portion of the mobile cleaning robot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Levi Fox, Marcus R. Williams, Yanhan Li, Jason Jeffrey Suchman, Lucile Driscoll
  • Patent number: 11058271
    Abstract: A rotating cleaning element configured to be inserted in a cleaning head compartment of a robotic vacuum, the rotating cleaning element including: a drive end including a drive protrusion configured to engage a drive mechanism of the cleaning head compartment; a bearing end and a shroud configured to surround at least a portion of the bearing end to lessen an amount of hair and similar matter that reaches the bearing; and a central member extending between the bearing end and the drive end.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventor: Matthew Blouin
  • Patent number: 11052540
    Abstract: A robot configured to navigate a surface, the robot comprising a movement mechanism; a logical map representing data about the surface and associating locations with one or more properties observed during navigation; an initialization module configured to establish an initial pose comprising an initial location and an initial orientation; a region covering module configured to cause the robot to move so as to cover a region; an edge-following module configured to cause the robot to follow unfollowed edges; a control module configured to invoke region covering on a first region defined at least in part based at least part of the initial pose, to invoke region covering on least one additional region, to invoke edge-following, and to invoke region covering cause the mapping module to mark followed edges as followed, and cause a third region covering on regions discovered during edge-following.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Michael S. Stout, Gabriel Francis Brisson, Enrico Di Bernardo, Paolo Pirjanian, Dhiraj Goel, James Philip Case, Michael Dooley
  • Patent number: D924522
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventor: Stuart R. Jang
  • Patent number: D930053
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Jason Jeffrey Suchman, Douglas Dell'Accio, Andrew Vincent Wolff, Flavia Pastore
  • Patent number: D931797
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Eric Burbank, Stephen A. Hickey, Milan Modh
  • Patent number: D934314
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: iRobot Corporation
    Inventors: Jason Jeffrey Suchman, Douglas Dell'Accio, Andrew Vincent Wolff, Flavia Pastore