Patent ID: 11966222
Assignee: BISSELL INC.
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. An autonomous floor cleaner comprising:
an autonomously moveable housing,
a drive system for autonomously moving the housing over a surface to be cleaned,
a controller for controlling the operation of the autonomous floor cleaner, and
a plurality of occupiable space sensors having overlapping sensing zones and configured to detect open areas around the autonomous floor cleaner and provide this information as input to the controller;
wherein the controller configured to:
drive the autonomous floor cleaner in a zero-radius turn;
search for open areas around the autonomous floor cleaner by analyzing input from the plurality of occupiable space sensors to identify the presence of an open area that meets a predetermined exit threshold and the presence of at least one area of occupiable space around the autonomous floor cleaner, wherein the at least one area of occupiable space comprises an open area large enough to drive the autonomous floor cleaner through;
in response to an identification of an open area that meets the predetermined exit threshold while searching for open areas:
stop driving the autonomous floor cleaner in the zero-radius turn prior to completion of a 360 degree zero-radius turn; and
operate the drive system to drive the autonomous floor cleaner forwardly on a current heading of the autonomous floor cleaner; and

in response to completing at least a 360 degree zero-radius turn without an identification of an open area that meets the predetermined exit threshold while searching for open areas:
select a best heading for the autonomous floor cleaner based on an identification of at least one area of occupiable space around the autonomous floor cleaner during the zero-radius turn; and
operate the drive system to drive the autonomous floor cleaner forwardly on the best heading.