US 7,568,536 B2
Omni-directional robot cleaner
Hung-Hsiu Yu, Changhua County (Taiwan); Shou-Ren Chen, Taichung (Taiwan); Yu-Lun Ho, Taipei County (Taiwan); Wei-Han Wang, Taipei County (Taiwan); and Fang Chang, Hsinchu (Taiwan)
Assigned to Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu (Taiwan)
Filed on Sep. 21, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/524,478.
Claims priority of application No. 95118246 A (TW), filed on May 23, 2006.
Prior Publication US 2007/0272463 A1, Nov. 29, 2007
Int. Cl. B62D 6/00 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 180—6.2  [180/168; 180/169; 700/245; 318/568.12; 318/567; 318/587; 15/319] 5 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An omni-directional robot cleaner, comprising:
a sensing unit, for obstacle detection;
a cleaning unit, for collecting and removing dust and dirt;
a processing unit, capable of receiving signals transmitted from the sensing unit while planning and mapping a travel path accordingly;
a power unit, for providing power to the omni-directional robot cleaner while managing the same;
a platform, for supporting the aforesaid units; and
at least three driving units are configured in the omni-directional robot cleaner, for driving and controlling the movement of the platform, each being composed of an omni-directional wheel and an actuator, wherein said three omni-directional wheels can be identified as the first omni-directional wheel, the second omni-directional wheel and the third omni-directional wheel respectively, and wherein when the first omni-directional wheel is stopped without rotating while the second omni-directional wheel is rotating clockwisely and the third omni-directional wheel is rotating counterclockwisely, by which the platform is driven to in the direction specified by a first direction, when the first omni-directional wheel is stopped without rotating while the second omni-directional wheel is rotating counterclockwisely and the third omni-directional wheel is rotating clockwisely, the platform is driven to in the direction specified by a second direction that is the opposite direction of the first direction, when the third omni-directional wheel is stopped without rotating while the first omni-directional wheel is rotating clockwisely and the second omni-directional wheel is rotating counterclockwisely, by which the platform is driven to in the direction specified by a third direction, when the third omni-directional wheel is stopped without rotating while the first omni-directional wheel is rotating counterclockwisely and the second omni-directional wheel is rotating clockwisely, the platform is driven to in the direction specified by a forth direction that is the opposite direction of the third direction, and when the second omni-directional wheel is stopped without rotating while the third omni-directional wheel is rotating clockwisely and the first omni-directional wheel is rotating counterclockwisely, by which the platform is driven to in the direction specified by a fifth direction, and when the second omni-directional wheel is stopped without rotating while the first omni-directional wheel is rotating counterclockwisely and the third omni-directional wheel is rotating clockwisely, the platform is driven to in the direction specified by a sixth direction that is the opposite direction of the fifth direction, and when all the three omni-directional wheels are all enabled to rotate counterclockwisely, the platform is driven to rotate clockwisely without moving and when all the three omni-directional wheels are all enabled to rotate clockwisely, the platform is driven to rotate counterclockwisely without moving.