Smart Floor continued...
A decisive system advantage: The smart floor system enables controlled navigation, even in the case of obstacles. Fixed obstacles are noted on the virtual map and subsequently circumvented. Temporary obstacles are detected by the robot unit, triggering a spontaneous change in navigation.
If the obstacle no longer exists later on, that area of the floor is targeted directly once again. In the case of cleaning robots, working in this manner means that a nearly 100% coverage of the surface can be achieved. And both time and energy are saved. A distinct advance over existing robot systems, which until now have merely moved more or less randomly across a space.
Yet the smart floor system can do even more. For instance, using this system it is possible to have a robot go to different areas on a scheduled basis, e.g., when experience has shown that no one else will be moving around there at that time. The robot receives the appropriate information from a control PC via Bluetooth. It is furthermore possible to deposit information on an RFID chip regarding the space itself (for example corridor or room numbers) or certain properties of the flooring underneath.
A robust protective layer is applied to both sides of the textile weave for smart floor installation. That protection is not sensitive to normal adhesives used for carpets, laminates, tiles or synthetic floor coverings. The communication capability of the RFID chips in the underlay extends to a thickness of about 30mm in terms of the floor coverings installed on top of it. Practically all conventional types of floor coverings can thus be utilized. In addition, the smart floor construction does not impair the usage and care characteristics of the covering in any way.
Today's robot control systems are mostly navigated via video or GPS. Both processes are complicated and costly. They lead to high-priced equipment, which in turn can be applied only in specific industrial sectors. Here the smart floor system from Vorwerk offers a simple and reasonably priced alternative suitable for all contract floor-covering segments.
In the future, the smart floor system is going to be of particular interest for buildings with a high degree of transport activities, for instance hospitals or nursing homes. In this case the deployment of entire fleets of robots is conceivable in order to spare personnel repetitive long distances. One conceivable example is that smart floor controls the automated transport of empty beds to the basement for cleaning.
Equally feasible is the system's ability to take over the navigation of transport robots for meals, bedclothes, medication or in-house mail. Viewed on a medium-term basis, even a deployment in private sectors is conceivable. As for the robot end-product industry, with its futuristic high-tech system Vorwerk is offering an ideal opportunity to bring solutions oriented to end-consumers to the market.
Vorwerk is presented the innovative high-tech product smart floor to the public for the first time this week at the CeBIT 2006 as an underlay ready for series production. Experts explained the technological details and displayed the possibilities of the RFID underlay.
