Robotic vacuum cleaning system

1. A resilient compressible roller for rotatable engagement with an autonomous coverage robot, the roller comprising:

a resilient flexible tube having inner and outer surfaces and defining a longitudinal axis;

a hub disposed within the tube along the longitudinal axis;

a rigid drive shaft supporting the hub and rotatably attachable to the robot;

resilient spokes extending between the inner surface of the tube and the hub, the spokes suspending the tube to float about the hub and transferring torque from the drive shaft to the tube, a trace length of each spoke being longer than a radial distance between the drive shaft and the inner surface of the tube, allowing the tube to momentarily deform or move offset from the drive shaft during impact with debris, wherein the tube and the spokes are elastically deformable, collapsing from an undeformed shape toward the longitudinal axis to a deformed shaped and elastically rebounding back to the undeformed shape; and

at least one vane extending outwardly from the outer surface of the tube.

2. The roller of claim 1 , further comprising a resilient compressible material disposed between the resilient tube and the drive shaft.

3. The roller of claim 2 , wherein the resilient compressible material comprises a foamed elastomer.

4. The roller of claim 3 , where the foamed elastomer comprises thermoplastic polyurethane, ethylene-vinyl acetate, or polypropylene.

5. The roller of claim 1 , wherein the spokes define a serpentine shaped in cross section.

6. The roller of claim 1 , wherein the spokes occupy between about 10% and about 20% of a length of the tube and are symmetrically distributed about a central point along the length of the tube.

7. The roller of claim 1 , wherein the at least one vane extends from the outer surface of the tube at an angle of between about 30° and about 60° relative to a radial axis of the tube and are inclined toward a direction of rotation of the roller.

8. The roller of claim 7 , wherein the angle of the at least one vane is 45° relative to the radial axis of the tube.

9. The roller of claim 1 , wherein the at least one vane is integrally formed with the tube and defines a V-shaped chevron, the chevron having a central tip, a first leg extending from the central tip to a first end of the tube and a second leg extending from the central tip to a second end of the tube.

10. The roller of claim 9 , further comprising multiple vanes equidistantly spaced around a circumference of the tube.

11. The roller of claim 10 , further comprising at least five vanes aligned to have distal ends of the legs of one chevron coplanar with a central tip of an adjacent chevron.

12. The roller of claim 11 , wherein the diameter of an outside circumference swept by tips of the vanes is about 30 mm.

13. The roller of claim 9 , wherein the legs of the V-shaped chevron are arranged at an angle of between about 5° and about 10° relative to a linear longitudinal path traced on the surface of the tube and extend from a first end of the tube to a second end of the tube.

14. The roller of claim 13 , wherein the legs of the V-shaped chevron are at about a 7° angle relative to the linear longitudinal path.

15. The roller of claim 1 , further comprising a hub disposed along the longitudinal axis of the tube and having inner and outer surfaces, wherein the tube, the spokes, and the hub are integrally and homogenously formed from a resilient material having a durometer of between 60 A and 80 A.

16. The roller of claim 1 , wherein the at least one vane has a height of at least 10% of a diameter of the tube.

17. A cleaning assembly for a coverage robot, the cleaning assembly comprising:

a cleaning head frame and a roller housing, the cleaning head frame defining a portion to which the roller housing is movably linked or immovably attached to the robot;

a forward roller and a rearward roller counter-rotating with respect to each other in the roller housing to retrieve debris from a cleaning surface engaged by the rollers, the forward and rearward rollers arranged to substantially maintain a cross sectional area between the two rollers yet permitting collapsing therebetween as large debris is passed, each roller comprising:

an integrally and homogenously formed resilient elastomer outer tube having inner and outer surfaces and defining a longitudinal axis; and

a partially air-occupied inner resilient core more resilient than the outer tube and configured to bias the outer tube to rebound, the core comprising:

a hub disposed along the longitudinal axis of the outer tube; and

resilient spokes extending between the inner surface of the outer tube and the hub, the spokes suspending the outer tube to float about the hub and transferring torque from the hub to the outer tube, a trace length of each resilient spoke being longer than a radial distance between the hub and the inner surface of the outer tube, allowing the outer tube to momentarily deform or move offset from the hub during impact with debris larger than the cross sectional area between the two rollers.

18. The cleaning assembly of claim 17 , further comprising an enclosed dust bin module arranged rearward of the rollers, the enclosed dust bin module defining a collection volume in communication with the two counter-rotating rollers via a sealed vacuum plenum.

19. The cleaning assembly of claim 18 , wherein the sealed vacuum plenum has a first opening positioned above the two counter-rotating rollers and a second opening positioned at an entry to the collection volume.

20. A resilient compressible roller for rotatable engagement with an autonomous coverage robot, the roller comprising:

a resilient flexible tube having inner and outer surfaces and defining a longitudinal axis;

a hub disposed within the resilient flexible tube along the longitudinal axis;

a rigid drive shaft supporting the hub and rotatably attachable to the robot;

resilient spokes extending between the inner surface of the tube and the hub, the spokes suspending the tube to float about the hub and transferring torque from the drive shaft to the tube, a trace length of each spoke being longer than a radial distance between the drive shaft and the inner surface of the tube, allowing the tube to momentarily deform or move offset from the drive shaft during impact with debris; and

at least one agitator extending outwardly from the outer surface of the tube;

wherein the at least one agitator is integrally formed with the tube and defines a V-shaped chevron, the chevron having a central tip, a first leg extending from the central tip to a first end of the tube and a second leg extending from the central tip to a second end of the tube.