Dreame, a Chinese company specializing in smart home cleaning devices, has launched its new robot vacuum cleaner – the Dreame Bot W10 Pro. The smart vacuum cleaner is equipped with a camera with Infineon's REAL3 Time-of-Flight (ToF) image sensor Technologies and pmdtechnologies.
The ToF imager enables intelligent navigation, 3D mapping and excellent obstacle avoidance for service robots, cleaning robots and mops.
“Dreame’s premium robot vacuum camera is equipped with our state-of-the-art 3D ToF imaging technology. Combined with Dreame’s latest technology for enhanced contextual recognition, the imager allows the cleaning device to identify and avoid obstacles,” said Christian Herzum, vice president of Infineon’s 3D-Sensing product line.
“Our advanced 3D vision engineering helps service robots learn from their daily cleaning routine and recognize household items that can interfere with floor cleaning, such as lanyards, shoes, slippers and socks,” Herzum added.
Infineon's 3D ToF imager provides additional distance information for each of the cameras' 38,000 pixels. It offers significantly improved 3D accuracy and precision compared to conventional solutions, including single-pixel ToF devices. This high resolution enables 3D camera designs with a large vertical field of view (FoV), allowing robots to detect small objects with high resolution and measure the height of furniture.
Without getting stuck, the robot can move under the sofa, chair, table or other objects, reducing maintenance.
Because pmdtechnologies' patented SBI (Suppression of Background Illumination) technology is integrated into each pixel, the cleaning robot can be used in different lighting conditions. As a result, the ToF imager generates robust 3D depth data that allows the room to be imaged in difficult ambient lighting conditions.
Even disturbances such as bright sunlight, weak light or materials with different reflection indices do not affect the repeatability and quality of the measurement.
REAL3 3D ToF image sensors are available. Products can be ordered as single die variants for chip-on-board assembly. Special components with a form factor of 4.42 x 5.02 mm² or less enable greater flexibility and a smaller module design for service robots. Easy integration into compact modules facilitates the design of very low profile robots that can clean under most furniture.
