Self-propelled cleaning appliance

Abstract

A self-propelled cleaning appliance has a drive unit for moving the cleaning appliance within an environment, a communication interface for outputting a message to a user of the cleaning appliance, an obstacle detection device for detecting obstacles within the environment and a computing device that generates an environment map based on the obstacles detected by the obstacle detection device and for transmitting control commands to the communication interface. The computing device is designed for determining a first environment section, in which a position of a movable obstacle changes in a recurring manner, and for determining a second environment section that could only be cleaned incompletely. The computing device compares the position of the determined first environment section with the position of the determined second environment section and outputs a message concerning the movable obstacle to a user of the cleaning appliance via the communication interface if the positions match.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A self-propelled cleaning appliance comprising:
 a drive unit configured for moving the cleaning appliance within an environment,   a communication interface configured for outputting a message to a user of the cleaning appliance,   an obstacle detection device for detecting obstacles within the environment, and   a computing device that is designed for generating an environment map based on the obstacles detected by the obstacle detection device and for transmitting control commands to the communication interface,   wherein the computing device is designed for determining a first environment section, in which a position of a movable obstacle changes in a recurring manner, and for determining a second environment section that could only be cleaned incompletely,   wherein the computing device is designed for comparing the position of the determined first environment section with the position of the determined second environment section and for outputting a message concerning the movable obstacle to a user of the cleaning appliance via the communication interface if the positions match,   wherein the computing device is designed for determining a recurring position change of the movable obstacle by comparing multiple successively generated environment maps, and   wherein the message contains a request to manually remove the obstacle from the defined environment section, by moving the obstacle to a certain location that is defined in the message and located outside the environment section, in which the position of the movable obstacle changes in a recurring manner.   
     
     
         2 . The cleaning appliance according to  claim 1 , wherein the cleaning appliance has a dirt sensor, which is designed for determining a degree of dirt accumulation of an environment section. 
     
     
         3 . The cleaning appliance according to  claim 2 , wherein the dirt sensor comprises a camera with an assigned image processing device or a particle sensor. 
     
     
         4 . The cleaning appliance according to  claim 1 , wherein the message contains an image or a graphic representation of the movable obstacle. The cleaning appliance according to  claim 1 , wherein the movable obstacle is a piece of furniture, wherein the cleaning appliance has a memory with reference parameters of defined pieces of furniture, and wherein the computing device is designed for comparing parameters of a detected movable obstacle with the stored reference parameters. 
     
     
         6 . The cleaning appliance according to  claim 1 , wherein the communication interface is designed for directly outputting the message to a user in the form of an optical signal or an acoustical signal or for transmitting the message to an external terminal of the user, which is communicatively linked to the cleaning appliance, via wireless data communication. 
     
     
         7 . The cleaning appliance according to  claim 1 , wherein the obstacle detection device is designed for detecting the removal of the movable obstacle from the environment section and for correspondingly notifying the computing device, wherein the computing device is designed for subsequently controlling a cleaning process of the environment section. 
     
     
         8 . The cleaning appliance according to  claim 1 , wherein the computing device is designed for receiving information of the user to the effect that the obstacle has been removed from the environment section via the communication interface of the cleaning appliance and for subsequently starting a cleaning process of the environment section.