Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Yoshiya Yamaue

Daizo Takaoka

Hiroaki Arakawa

Ryuji Suzuki

Kazuhiro Hiratsuka

Toshihiko Matsuhashi

Takashi Tanaka

Katsunori Hayashi

Yoshimori Fujiwara

Masashi Ikegami

An electric working apparatus includes a movable body which is driven by a movement mechanism, and the movable body is provided with a working mechanism such as an articulated robot. The movement mechanism, the working mechanism and etc. are driven by an electric power which is supplied through a power supply cord being extended from a cord reel mechanism fixed on a wall or floor within a working space of the movable body to be connected to the movable body. When the movable body moves in a manner that the movable body goes away from the cord reel mechanism, a tension detection switch is turned-off by a lever, a reel motor is turned-off, and clutch plates are released, and therefore, the power supply cord is wound from the cord reel mechanism by necessary length. When the movable body moves in a manner that the movable body approaches to the cord reel mechanism, the tension detection switch is turned-on by the lever and the clutch plates are engaged to each other, and therefore, the cord reel is rotated by the reel motor to wind the power supply cord.

Electric working apparatus supplied with electric power through power

A robot for cleaning a floor of a railroad vehicle has a robot body equipped with a cleaning mechanism and includes a travel mechanism controllable for locomotion in a desired direction. The robot also includes a distance detecting arrangement directed at least toward the front and opposite sides of the robot body for measuring the distance to an obstacle or a wall, and a map storing arrangement which has stored therein a cleaning region of the floor previously as a two-dimensional map. The robot also includes a path storing arrangement which has stored therein a predetermined path of travel for cleaning the floor as expressed in coordinates on the map. A first control arrangement is provided for recognizing the coordinates of the position of the robot body on the map based on outputs from the distance detecting arrangement when the robot body is placed at an end portion of the floor. A second control arrangement is also provided for correcting the course of the robot body based on outputs from the distance detecting arrangement while the robot body travels from the coordinate position recognized by the first control arrangement along the predetermined path.

Floor cleaning robot and method of controlling same

Growing community of inventors

Moriguchi, Japan

Yoshiya Yamaue