Granted Patent B2

US 12,642,401 · App. 18/743,383 · Granted Jun 2, 2026

Inventors: Frank Schnitzer (Bad Neustadt, DE); Dominik Schreiner (Kalbach, DE); Julius Geis (Burkardroth, DE); Stefan Hassfurter (Maroldsweisach, DE)

Assignee: BSH Hausgeräte

A47L9/0063A47L9/149A47L9/2873A47L9/2894A47L11/4011A47L11/4091A47L2201/022A47L2201/024

Abstract

Claims (13)

1 . A method for operating a mobile self-propelled appliance at a servicing station, the servicing station being configured to charge a rechargeable battery of the appliance and to offer at least one service function, the method comprising:

detecting whether or not the appliance is docked at the servicing station by conducting a charging current via two charging contacts of the appliance and two corresponding mating contacts of the servicing station;

checking of the servicing station for a presence of a communication interface of the appliance;

automatically starting, by the servicing station, the at least one service function at predetermined times or, if the communication interface of the appliance is absent, after predefined actions of the appliance.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , which comprises:

waiting for a start command from the appliance to start the at least one service function if the communication interface is present; and

starting the at least one service function on receiving the start command.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined times or the predefined actions of the appliance are at least one of a defined number of docking processes of the appliance or a predetermined time interval since a last service function.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of checking of the servicing station comprises sending a request from the servicing station to the appliance and potentially receiving feedback from the appliance at the servicing station via the communication interface.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the servicing station offers further service functions that start automatically or in response to a start command received from the appliance, depending on a presence or an absence of the communication interface.

6 . A non-transitory computer program comprising commands which, when the program is executed by the servicing station of the mobile self-propelled appliance, causes the servicing station to perform the steps of the method according to claim 1 .

7 . A non-transitory computer-readable data carrier having stored thereon a computer program with computer-executable commands which, when the program is executed by the servicing station of the mobile self-propelled appliance, causes the servicing station to perform the steps of the method according to claim 1 .

8 . The method according to claim 4 , which comprises automatically starting the at least one service function if no feedback is received within a predefined tolerance time interval.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (13)