Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Masanori Tsuboi

Masashi Matsumoto

Toshihiro Senoo

Mami Yatake

Jitsuo Sakamoto

Fumio Yoshimura

A self-propelled electronic device including: at least one drive wheel disposed at a bottom of a housing, the drive wheel traveling the housing while being displaced in a vertical direction in accordance with undulations of a floor surface; a drive wheel sensor for detecting a position of the drive wheel relative to the housing; a floor detection sensor for detecting a distance between the bottom of the housing and the floor surface; and a travel control unit for determining and deciding a course of the housing based on the determination that there exists a step on the floor surface if the distance detected by the floor detection sensor is longer than a predetermined reference distance, or, otherwise, the position of the drive wheel detected by the drive wheel sensor is lower than a predetermined reference position, by successively referring to output of the drive wheel sensor and the floor detection sensor, wherein, if the position of the drive wheel detected by the drive wheel sensor is lower than a predetermined reference position, the travel control unit further refers to the distance detected by the floor detection sensor, and if the distance detected by the floor detection sensor is longer than the predetermined reference distance, the travel control unit perform the avoidance traveling control of the housing to avoid the step, and travels the housing, whereas, if the distance detected by the floor detection sensor is the predetermined reference distance or shorter, the travel control unit does not perform the avoidance traveling control of the housing, and continues the traveling of the housing.

Self-propelled electronic device

A self-propelled electronic device comprising: a housing; a drive wheel that enables the housing to travel; a wheel drop sensor that detects loss of contact of the drive wheel with a floor surface; and a travel control unit that controls travel of the housing, wherein, when the wheel drop sensor detects loss of contact of the drive wheel with the floor surface, the travel control unit continues travel of the housing for a predetermined continuous travel time, and if the wheel drop sensor still detects loss of contact of the drive wheel with the floor surface after the continuous travel time has elapsed, the travel control unit stops the rotation of the drive wheel, and then, rotates the drive wheel in a direction opposite to the direction of the rotation for a predetermined reverse travel time, to cause the housing to travel in a reverse direction.

Self-propelled electronic device and travel method for said self-propelled electronic device

A self-propelled electronic device comprising: a housing; drive wheels that enable the housing to travel; a travel control unit that controls travel of the housing; and a periphery detection sensor that detects a region around the housing where the device is unable to travel, wherein the drive wheels include a left drive wheel and a right drive wheel which are independently driven, and the travel control unit: causes the left drive wheel and the right drive wheel to move backward in such a manner that an amount of rotation of the left drive wheel is smaller than an amount of rotation of the right drive wheel, when the periphery detection sensor detects that there is a region where the device is unable to travel at front left of the housing; and causes the left drive wheel and the right drive wheel to move backward in such a manner that an amount of rotation of the right drive wheel is smaller than an amount of rotation of the left drive wheel when the periphery detection sensor detects that there is a region where the device is unable to travel at front right of the housing.

The self-propelled cleaner () of the present invention includes an event detecting section () for detecting an event which relates to cleaning and has occurred in the cleaner, a feeling selecting section () for selecting, from a plurality of options, an operation mode with which the cleaner carries out an operation in response to the event, in accordance with measured information which relates to the cleaning and is measured by the cleaner, and a response operation control section () for controlling the cleaner to carry out the operation based on the operation information which is associated with the event and the operation mode.

Cleaner

A self-propelled cleaner (), i.e., a self-propelled electronic device, includes a temperature measurement unit () that measures an ambient temperature during self-propelled operation, a temperature decision unit () that decides whether the measured ambient temperature is equal to or more than a set value, and an abnormal temperature notification unit () that externally reports abnormal temperature information indicating that the measured ambient temperature is equal to or more than the set value if the measured ambient temperature is decided to be equal to or more than the set value.

A cleaning robot () is provided with: a main body housing () that moves along a floor in a self-propelled manner with a suction port () and an exhaust port () open; a motor fan () positioned inside the main body housing (); a dust collection part () driven by the motor fan () so as to collect airflow dust that has been suctioned from the suction port (); an infrared remote controller () that specifies an arbitrarily-defined location in space for setting up the main body housing () by emitting infrared rays; and an infrared sensor () that detects the specified location specified by the infrared remote controller (). The cleaning robot moves to the specified location detected by the infrared sensor () and then carries out a cleaning operation, or carries out a cleaning operation while moving to the specified location.

Growing community of inventors

Sakai, Japan

Masanori Tsuboi