Now and Future of the Robot Vacuum Cleaner Technology - An analysis from the Patent Database

• Main Authors: Yu-Chung Wu, 吳友眾
• Other Authors: Po-Ting Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/m3j682

碩士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 高階科研EMRD === 107 === The world's first robot vacuum cleaner (RVC) was the "Trilobite" designed by the Swedish Electrolux in 1996. Today, RVCs are entering a phase of rapid development. In 2018, the global market size of RVCs has exceeded 20 million units per year. In order to enhance the user experience, RVC has been developing towards "intelligence" and "functionalization", and the navigation function is the core of intelligence. In 2010, Neato introduced model XV-11, it was the first RVC with LiDAR (light dection and ranging). Compared to the early-staged random-collision products, robots with planning capabilities provides a better user experience. In 2017, Xiaomi introduced LiDAR RVC that was only half of competitors’ prices, it puts pressure to those existing manufacturers and makes the navigation function becoming a standard for RVCs. From the US patent database analysis, figure out the diagrams present the number of patents, patent classification disposition and important assignee. Meanwhile, refer to the methods proposed by CHI Research, Ernst and John R. Allison, through patent quantitative indicators to evaluate the technical capabilities of representative companies in the market. The indicators include number of patent applications, grant rate, number of citations, number of the files were cited, number of claims, time passed for review. These analysis results can further understand the current situation of the industry and the development trend of major companies. Then survey a number of meaningful patents, including 2005, 2013, 2017 for litigation initiated by iRobot, the patent litigation in 2017 pushed Taiwanese manufacturers make some actions like, MSI announced exiting the market, and MSI assigned 3 patents to iRobot. Matsutek and iRobot got reconciliation after ITRI assigned 6 patents to Matsutek. The research results show that the number of patents for RVCs is growing year by year, and 2 kinds of companies with different technical fields joined the market. One is from traditional vacuum cleaner manufacturers, some of them have decades of history of home appliance manufacturers, another is from robot design companies, they are good at navigation algorithms and communication technology. The main patent layouts of the two parties include three categories: indoor navigation, obstacle avoidance, and robot special structure design. From the statistics, the top four patent quantified indicators are iRobot, Samsung, Electrolux, and LG. Among them, iRobot, Samsung, and LG use visual navigation. On the other hand, LiDAR navigation owns less related patents, the algorithm can be obtained from open source code. Many newcomers prefer to choose the design of the LiDAR navigation.