Techniques for bounding cleaning operations of a robotic surface cleaning device within a region of interest
A hand-held surface cleaning device includes circuitry to communicate with a robotic surface cleaning device to cause the same to target an area/region of interest for cleaning. Thus, a user may utilize the hand-held surface cleaning device to perform targeted cleaning and conveniently direct a robotic surface cleaning device to focus on a region of interest. Moreover, the hand-held surface cleaning device may include sensory such as a camera device for extracting three-dimensional information from a field of view. This information may be utilized to map locations of walls, stairs, obstacles, changes in surface types, and other features in a given location. Thus, a robotic surface cleaning device may utilize the mapping information from the hand-held surface cleaning device as an input in a real-time control loop, e.g., as an input to a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) routine.
1. A cleaning system comprising:
a robotic surface cleaning device configured to autonomously travel about a surrounding environment while collecting dirt and debris;
a hand-held surface cleaning device comprising:
a body having a handle and a nozzle;
a power supply;
a suction motor fluidly coupled to the nozzle;
an antenna arrangement to communicate with the robotic surface cleaning device; and
at least a first sensor to capture a plurality of location data points, each location data point corresponding to a physical location in the surrounding environment; and
a controller configured to:
translate the captured location data points into a plurality of localized coordinates, each localized coordinate of the plurality of localized coordinates corresponding to locations in a map that virtually represents the surrounding environment;
identify at least one region of interest in the map based on the translated localized coordinates; and
send a command to cause the robotic surface cleaning device to remain substantially within areas of the surrounding environment corresponding to the at least one identified region of interest during cleaning operations.
2. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is implemented within the hand-held surface cleaning device, and wherein the command is transmitted via the antenna arrangement of the hand-held surface cleaning device to the robotic surface cleaning device, and wherein the command is further configured to update a map in a memory of the robotic surface cleaning device based on the at least one identified region of interest.
3. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is implemented within the robotic surface cleaning device, and wherein the hand-held surface cleaning device sends the plurality of captured location data points to the robotic surface cleaning device within the surrounding environment via the antenna arrangement of the hand-held surface cleaning device.
4. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the controller identifies the at least one region of interest in the map based on the translated localized coordinates collectively forming a shape.
5. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the hand-held surface cleaning device further includes a second sensor, the second sensor being an image sensor.
6. The control system of claim 5 , wherein the controller identifies at least one obstacle within the at least one identified region of interest based on image data from the image sensor of the hand-held surface cleaning device or based on user input.
7. The control system of claim 5 , wherein the controller identifies at least one surface type within the at least one identified region of interest based on image data from the image sensor of the hand-held surface cleaning device, and wherein the controller causes the robotic surface cleaning device to adjust a cleaning mode when performing cleaning operations within the at least one identified region of interest based on the at least one identified surface type.
8. The control system of claim 6 , wherein the controller updates the map to include a representation of the at least one identified obstacle, and wherein the robotic surface cleaning device navigates around the obstacle during cleaning operations based on the updated map.
9. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the hand-held surface cleaning device includes a dust cup fluidly coupled to the nozzle and the suction motor, and, wherein a longitudinal axis of the body intersects both the nozzle and the handle and the power supply includes one or more batteries disposed within the handle.