TODAY’S PATENT – WINDOW CLEANING ROBOT

The ivention is invented jointly by Shai Abramson, Asaf Levin, Shalom Levin and Dedy Gur and currently assigned to Alfred Kaercher SE and Co KG and the same was published on 24-10-2019 with the patent no. US20190320860A1.  The disclosed invention pertains to window cleaning robots with novel features. The robot includes a movement system for window traversal and at least one agitator for debris removal, situated ahead of at least one cleaning pad.

These components address different widths in a direction perpendicular to the robot’s movement, with the agitator’s width being equal to or greater than the cleaning pad’s. Optionally, both agitators and cleaning pads may be elongated in this width direction. The robot may also feature reservoirs for cleaning fluid, which are connected to supply the cleaning pads, typically made of microfiber cloth. Additionally, there are polishing pads designed to contact and polish the window surface, redistributing cleaning fluid. These pads may have the same width as the cleaning pads and are arranged rearwards or forwards.

An attachment system, comprising sealing members and vacuum pumps, allows the robot to attach itself to the window surface. In a separate aspect, the robot can operate in active or paused modes, with active-mode sealing members and paused-mode sealing members connected to vacuum pumps for attachment. The robot’s processors control the modes, with significantly lower power consumption in the paused mode.

Air pressure sensors monitor the space between paused-mode sealing members and the window surface, allowing the robot to operate based on sensed air pressure. The paused-mode sealing members can move between positions, typically biased towards staying spaced apart from the window surface, and deformation may be involved in this movement. These innovations collectively enable efficient and effective window cleaning with a robot that can adapt to various cleaning and attachment scenarios.