CN110881901A

CN110881901A - Electric vacuum cleaner

Info

Publication number: CN110881901A
Application number: CN201910160071.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 中村浩之; 桥本翔太; 伊藤则和
Original assignee: Hitachi Global Life Solutions Inc
Current assignee: Hitachi Global Life Solutions Inc
Priority date: 2018-09-07
Filing date: 2019-03-04
Publication date: 2020-03-17
Also published as: JP2020039454A

Abstract

The invention provides an electric dust collector capable of selecting a volume and light quantity mode corresponding to the personality and life style of a user. An electric vacuum cleaner having an electric fan, a motor-drivable driving wheel, and a motor-drivable main brush, and capable of executing an automatic operation mode in which the driving wheel is driven and the driving wheel is autonomously driven, the electric vacuum cleaner being capable of executing the following modes: a weak operation mode in which the emitted sound volume is smaller than that in the automatic operation mode; and a mute operation mode in which the emitted sound volume is smaller than that of the weak operation mode, and a mode specification unit which receives specification of any one of the automatic operation mode, the weak operation mode, and the mute operation mode from a user.

Description

Electric vacuum cleaner

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an electric vacuum cleaner.

Background

Patent document 1 discloses a vacuum cleaner that autonomously travels in either a normal mode in which a fan is rotated at a high speed or a silent mode in which the fan is rotated at a low speed, and that operates a main body of the vacuum cleaner in the silent mode when the time zone is set by a time zone setting mechanism.

Documents of the prior art

Patent document

Patent document 1: japanese laid-open patent publication No. 2000-197599

Disclosure of Invention

Problems to be solved by the invention

The autonomous electric vacuum cleaner is expected to be used in various situations depending on the personality and lifestyle of a user. Therefore, when the mode is uniformly decided by time period, it may be inconvenient for a part of users. Further, since it is conceivable that there are various kinds of driving in which muting is desired, it is desirable to receive instructions one by one according to the preference of the user.

Means for solving the problems

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides an electric vacuum cleaner,

it is provided with an electric fan, a driving wheel driven by a motor and a main brush driven by the motor,

an automatic operation mode in which the drive wheel is driven and the drive is autonomous can be executed, the electric vacuum cleaner being characterized in that:

the following modes can be performed:

a weak operation mode in which the emitted sound volume is smaller than the automatic operation mode; and

a silent operation mode in which a sound volume is emitted smaller than that in the weak operation mode,

the control device includes a mode specifying unit configured to receive a specification from a user to execute any one of the automatic operation mode, the weak operation mode, and the silent operation mode.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an autonomous traveling vacuum cleaner according to an embodiment, as viewed from the front left.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view a-a of fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view illustrating an internal structure of a housing of the autonomous walking type vacuum cleaner.

Fig. 4 is a bottom view of the autonomous walking type cleaner.

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings as appropriate.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S according to the present embodiment as viewed from the front left,

fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along line a-a of fig. 1, fig. 3 is a perspective view showing an internal structure of a housing 1 of the autonomous traveling vacuum cleaner S, and fig. 4 is a bottom view of the autonomous traveling vacuum cleaner S.

[ autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S ]

The autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S has a housing 1 (an upper housing 1u and a lower housing 1S) constituting an outer shell, and has various sensors inside thereof. The autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S can move in the front-rear direction by the

driving wheels

2 and 3 provided on the lower housing 1S side contacting the floor surface Y and the

wheel units

20 and 30 rotating the

driving wheels

2 and 3. In the present embodiment, the side of the autonomous traveling vacuum cleaner S in which the main brush 5 is provided is the rear side in the traveling direction. The autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S generally travels forward and travels backward when approaching or contacting an obstacle or the like. The obstacle or the like can be detected by a known infrared sensor or a camera.

The vertically upward direction is referred to as the upward direction, the driving wheel 2 side is referred to as the left direction, and the driving wheel 3 side is referred to as the right direction in the direction in which the

driving wheels

2 and 3 face each other. I.e., the front-back, up-down, and left-right directions are defined as shown in fig. 1 and the like.

The autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S includes an auxiliary wheel 4, a main brush 5, a rotary brush 7, and the like in addition to the pair of

drive wheels

2 and 3 on the lower housing 1S side. The autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S autonomously moves by the driven auxiliary wheel 4 in addition to the

driving wheels

2 and 3 that receive the rotational force from the motor and rotate. The autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S can advance, retreat, rotate left and right, rotate in place, and the like by setting the rotation speeds of the

driving wheels

2 and 3 to values different from each other, or by making the rotation directions the same or opposite. The

drive wheels

2, 3 are located outside the end of the motor-driven main brush 5 in the left-right direction.

As shown in fig. 2 and the like, the autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S includes an operation button 16, an LED17, and an infrared light receiving element 18 on the upper case 1u side. By operating the operation button 16, the start and stop of the operation and the switching of the mode can be performed. For example, by switching to the setting change mode of the main body by long-pressing the operation button, the threshold value for determining the travel locus according to the sound volume, the suction force of the electric blower, the height at which the step can be overcome, and the suction amount of dust can be changed. The LED17 is provided below the operation button 16, and transmits the state of the main body to the user with or without light emission, color of light emission, and position of light emission.

The autonomous walking type vacuum cleaner S has a speaker that can generate sound, and can generate a message or an effect sound notifying a user of the content, for example, when some error occurs in autonomous driving and the cleaning is completed. This sound generation may not be performed in the weak operation mode and the silent operation mode described later.

As shown in fig. 2 and the like, the autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S includes a main brush 5 and a rotary brush 7 on the lower housing 1S side, and further includes a rechargeable battery 9, a control device 10 (control board), a motor fan 11, and a dust box 12 inside the housing 1.

Electric power from the charging battery 9 is supplied to a motor that drives the

drive wheels

2, 3 and the

various brushes

5, 7, an electric blower 11, and the like.

The internal speed reduction mechanism of the

drive wheels

2 and 3 can be configured to be small by using, for example, a cycloid gear, the rotary brush 7 is a brush having 1 or two or more tufts that rotate about a vertical rotation axis, and can bounce dust present on the floor surface Y rearward, the rotary brush 7 rotates in a direction (direction of an arrow α 1 in the drawing) from the outside in the lateral direction of the autonomous traveling vacuum cleaner S to the front, and thereby dust on the outside in the lateral dimension of the autonomous traveling vacuum cleaner S can be collected inward, the rotation axis of the rotary brush 7 is preferably substantially parallel to the vertical direction, and the position of the rotation axis and the length of the tufts can be set by the rotary brush 7 so that at least a part of the tufts reaches the outside of the end in the lateral direction of the rotary brush 7.

The length of the rotating brush 7 is preferably projected to the outside of the housing 1 so that the end of the corner can be touched when the autonomous traveling vacuum cleaner S moves to a corner where two wall surfaces in a room intersect, for example, but is preferably not extended to the center axis of the

driving wheels

2 and 3 so as not to interfere with the rotation of the

driving wheels

2 and 3. In addition, a part or the whole of the rotary brush 7 may be covered with an elastic body. Thus, strength can be ensured even in the case of a long tuft.

The main brush 5 is a brush having a rotation axis in the left-right direction, and can scrape dust existing on the floor surface Y and send the dust into the dust box 12 in the housing 1. The main brush 5 is located behind the rotary brush 7, so that dust kicked up by the rotary brush 7 can be easily scraped in. The rotation axis of the main brush 5 is not limited to the left-right direction, and may be provided along another horizontal direction.

The electric fan 11 is disposed between the upper casing 1u and the lower casing 1S in the vicinity of the center of the autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S in the front-rear direction and the left-right direction. When the electric fan 11 is driven, an air flow is generated in which air is sucked from the floor Y into the dust box 12 through the suction port 14i and is discharged to the outside through the exhaust port 1s 5. The dust is sent into the dust collecting case 12 together with the air, and the dust cannot pass through the dust collecting filter 1/2 and is stored in the dust collecting case. The air flows from the suction port 14i to the downstream side in this order through the suction port 12i, the dust box 12, the dust collection filter 1/2, the electric fan 11, and the exhaust port 1s5 illustrated in fig. 4. The exhaust port 1s5 can be provided within the range of the electric blower 11 in the front-rear direction and inside the

drive wheels

2 and 3 in the left-right direction. This can shorten the flow path from the electric blower 11 to the exhaust port 1s 5. Further, the suction port 14i is provided on the upper rear side of the main brush 5 for scraping dust on the floor surface. The main brush 5 receives a rotational force from a main brush motor 5 m. The electric fan 11 and the main brush motor 5m are preferably brushless motors in order to easily suppress noise and control the rotation speed.

[ mode selection ]

The autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S can control the driving speed and the cleaning time of each motor by the control device 10, and can select the driving speed and the cleaning time of the motor by specifying the operation mode by the user. The operation modes include, for example, an automatic operation mode, a fine operation mode, a spot operation mode, a weak operation mode, and a silent operation mode, and it is possible to receive, for example, which mode the autonomous driving is started in from a button disposed in the main body of the autonomous traveling vacuum cleaner S.

In the automatic operation mode, as the rotation speeds of the electric fan 11 and the main brush 5, "normal" and "strong" are switched between the state on the floor (detected from the resistance of the main brush 5) and the amount of the garbage detected by the garbage sensor provided in the suction port 12 i. In addition, the

driving wheels

2, 3 rotate at a "fast" speed. In order to transmit to the user whether the rotational speed of the electric fan 11 and the main brush 5 is "normal" or "strong", the color of the LED17 is changed according to the rotational speed of the electric fan. The light emission may not be performed in the weak operation mode and the silent operation mode, which will be described later. The operation time (cleaning time) of the autonomous driving is automatically determined to be about 30 minutes to about 60 minutes based on the size of the clean space detected by the sensor and the remaining amount of the garbage detected by the garbage sensor. This enables the operation to be started quickly, the operation time to be shortened, and high cleaning performance to be exhibited over a wide range.

Here, the operation time is a time from when the cleaning start command is received to when the return operation to the base station or the charging stand is started or until the return operation to the base station or the charging stand is completed, in the automatic operation mode, the fine operation mode, the weak operation mode, and the silent operation mode. On the other hand, the point operation mode can be pointed at the execution time of the operation mode.

In the fine operation mode, the rotation speed of the electric blower 11 and the main brush 5 and the speed of the

driving wheels

2 and 3 are fixed to the cleaning time preferably longer than the automatic operation mode, for example, to about 70 minutes, as in the automatic operation mode. Thus, regardless of the size of the room, a higher cleaning ability can be exhibited over a wide range.

In the spot operation mode, the electric blower 11 is fixed to the "turbo" whose rotation speed is "higher" than that in the automatic operation mode, and the

drive wheels

2 and 3 rotate at the "slow" speed. The main brush 5 rotates in "standard". The cleaning time was about 1 minute, and cleaning was performed in a defined space. This enables cleaning of an arbitrarily narrow area with a higher suction force.

In the weak operation mode, the electric fan 11 is fixed to be "weak", and the

drive wheels

2 and 3 rotate at a "slow" speed. The main brush 5 rotates in "standard". The cleaning time is automatically judged to be about 45 to 90 minutes in the same manner as the automatic operation mode. In this way, in the weak operation mode, a longer time or a shorter time can be taken than in the automatic operation mode and the fine operation mode. Thus, when the autonomous walking type vacuum cleaner S is used at home or the like, a wide range of cleaning can be performed with sufficient cleaning power while suppressing noise. The magnitude of the cleaning time is large because various preferences of the user are taken into consideration (the operation is ended quickly, or the operation can be continued for a long time even if the operation is weak). The weak operation mode suppresses the cleaning performance due to the reduction of the rotation speed of the electric blower 11, and thus performs cleaning for a long time in the same area by reducing the rotation speed of the

driving wheels

2, 3 at the same time to supplement the suppressed cleaning performance. Therefore, the cleaning time is preferably longer than in the automatic operation mode.

Further, the user may set the cleaning time. By setting the rotation speed so that the difference between the noise in the automatic operation mode and the noise in the weak operation mode is 3dB or more, the energy of the noise felt by the user can be halved.

In the silent operation mode, the electric fan 11 is fixed at "weak" which is lower in rotation speed than in the weak operation mode, and the

drive wheels

2 and 3 rotate at "slow" speed. The main brush 5 rotates at a "weak" speed that is less than the weak operation mode speed. The cleaning time is fixed to a time preferably longer than the silent operation mode, for example, to about 120 minutes. This makes it possible to exhibit a higher cleaning ability in a wide range, regardless of the size of the room or the like. The speed of the driving wheel is approximately the same as the speed of the weak operation, the power consumption is reduced, and the cleaning time is prolonged, so that the driving wheel can repeatedly pass through the same place in a situation that the cleaning time is redundant such as night, and the cleaning capability can be improved. The silent operation mode suppresses the cleaning performance by reducing the rotation speed of the electric fan 11 and the main brush 5, and thus performs cleaning for a long time for the same area by reducing the rotation speed of the

driving wheels

2, 3 at the same time to supplement the suppressed cleaning performance. Therefore, the cleaning time is preferably longer than the automatic operation mode and the weak operation mode. In the silent operation mode, when the user is expected to operate at bedtime, one or both of the sound emission of the speaker 15 and the light emission of the LED17 are stopped so as not to disturb sleep by sound and light. A sensor for detecting the ambient temperature may be provided in the autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S, and the autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S may detect whether or not a human body is present in the vicinity and may travel away from the human body.

For example, the electric blower 11 of the present embodiment is controlled by: the "weak" is about 7500 revolutions, the "weak" is about 12000 revolutions, the "normal" is about 17500 revolutions, the "strong" is about 2450 revolutions, and the "turbine" is about 37000 revolutions, and the

driving wheels

2 and 3 are controlled so that the main body traveling speed at the time of traveling in a state other than the obstacle avoidance operation is controlled to "fast" 330mm/s and "slow" 200 mm/s.

The "standard" and "strong" of the electric fan 11 are set to the maximum rotation speed according to the capacity of the rechargeable battery 9 and the cleaning time. The control of the

driving wheels

2, 3 is set to 330mm/s "fast" according to the size of the body and according to the maximum speed based on the braking distance from the sensor reaction to the stop of the body, and 200mm/s "slow" as the lowest speed at which the internal gear can operate. At this time, the noise difference between "fast" and "slow" of the

driving wheels

2 and 3 is about 2.5dB, and a difference of about 9dB is required to be provided to set the difference between the automatic operation mode and the weak operation mode to 3dB, so that "weak" of the electric fan is 12000 revolutions which is reduced by about 30% from "normal". The "weak" of the electric fan 11 is 7500 revolutions reduced by about 40% in order to avoid a resonance point of the rotation of the electric fan 11, and to set the difference between the automatic operation mode and the silent operation mode to 5 dB. The "weak" of the main brush 5 is reduced by about 25% from the "normal" in order to maintain the minimum cleaning performance while setting the difference between the automatic operation mode and the silent operation mode to 5 dB. The "strong", "normal", and "weak" of the rotation speed N of the main brush 5 are set such that the remainder of f/Nh is 0, where f is the frequency of the electric fan 11 expressed by the rotation speed N of the electric fan 11 divided by 60, and Nh is the value obtained by multiplying the rotation speed N of the main brush 5 by the number h of bristle surfaces implanted in the vertical direction from the axis of the main brush 5.

Description of the reference numerals

2. 3 driving wheel (wheel)

5 Main brush

6 dust guide member

7 rotating brush

8 sensor (obstacle detecting mechanism)

9 charging battery

11 electric fan

12 dust collecting box

14 suction part

15 speaker (sounding part)

16 operating button

17 LED (luminous part)

S autonomous walking type dust collector.

Claims

1. An electric vacuum cleaner having an electric blower, a motor-drivable driving wheel, and a motor-drivable main brush, and capable of performing an automatic operation mode in which the driving wheel is driven and autonomous driving is performed, the electric vacuum cleaner characterized in that:

the following modes can be performed:

2. The electric vacuum cleaner according to claim 1, wherein:

has a sound-emitting part and/or a light-emitting part,

in the silent operation mode, the output of sound from the sound emitting unit and/or the light from the light emitting unit is set to be weaker than in the normal mode or the weak operation mode, or is controlled to be no output.

3. The electric vacuum cleaner according to claim 1 or 2, wherein:

in the weak operation mode, the rotation speed of the electric blower and the main brush is lower than that in the automatic operation mode,

in the silent operation mode, the rotation speed of the electric blower and the main brush is lower than that in the weak operation mode,

the rotation speed of the drive wheel during forward travel in a state other than the obstacle avoidance operation in the weak operation mode and the silent operation mode is substantially the same.

4. The electric vacuum cleaner according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein:

in the silent operation mode, when f is a frequency of the electric fan and Nh is a value obtained by multiplying a rotation speed N of the main brush by a number h of brush surfaces of the main brush, a remainder of f/Nh is 0.

5. The electric vacuum cleaner according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein:

having sensors capable of detecting the presence of surrounding human bodies,

in the silent operation mode, when the sensor detects a human body, the vehicle can travel in a direction away from the human body.