Oh, patents! Roomba®!

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Ay, caramba! It’s time to Roomba®! This Autonomous surface cleaning robot for wet and dry cleaning is going to give you plenty of extra time to party since it will systematically, and autonomously, negotiate and mop every inch of your living surfaces, picking up dust, dirt and your pet’s hair, without your assistance…! And what is more it will probably give your pet a fun workout… chasing and playing…. saving him or her from any terrifying devices that make too much noise, or come too close for comfort!

This particular iRobot Corp., patent, US201203665, disclosing the automated mopping invention,  is 110 pages long and it has 65 Figure drawings, which should indicate the amount of details subsumed in  building the components of this floor cleaning device, and making them work according to robotic principle.

The Abstract of this invention is included below, with a drawing and a picture of a marketed iRobot Roomba®

Abstract US2012036659

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 arraigned 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.

At the end of the day, the only real difficulty with the Roomba© is which one to choose! !