iRobot Gets Patent for Autonomous Robot to Clean Up After Pets
When most of think of robot vacuums, the brand iRobot comes to mind. Their Roomba products are becoming a common fixture in many homes. They’ve cleaned living rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens. Now the company is looking to have their robots clean up after your pets.
On Nov 5, iRobot was granted a patent for “cleaning of pet areas by autonomous cleaning robots.” According to the patent, the robot will specialize in cleaning areas such as around a dog’s food dish, a bird’s cage, a cat’s litter box, a pet door, and a rabbit cage.
For example, separate sensors will monitor a cat’s litter box. They’ll first determine if the cat is around along with seeing if there is debris in or around the area. If the cat is gone but there is debris, the sensors will send a signal to the robot that the litter box needs cleaning. The pet cleaning robot then gets to work. Once the task is complete, a notification gets sent to the user’s smartphone.
Pet Cleaning Robot Will Adjust Power and Method Based on Pet
According to the document, the vacuum power will automatically change depending on what needs to be clean. A birdcage would get a higher vacuum power level than say an area with some dog hair. The autonomous robot would also include a cleaning pad holder along with a place for liquid. Like some of iRobot’s other models, multiple pet cleaning robots will also be able to work in tandem to tackle a mess.
This is just a patent so there is probably a good amount of work and development to do. Although if iRobot’s track record is any indication, these autonomous robots will eventually become a fixture in pet lover’s homes in the future.
Check out our articles on patient simulator Pediatric Hal and Botride’s on-demand self-driving vehicles.