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Rectangular Roomba?

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

Published US patent application 20080276407 has an abstract

An autonomous coverage robot includes a chassis having forward and rearward portions and a drive system carried by the chassis. The forward portion of the chassis defines a substantially rectangular shape. The robot includes a cleaning assembly mounted on the forward portion of the chassis and a bin disposed adjacent the cleaning assembly and configured to receive debris agitated by the cleaning assembly. A bin cover is pivotally attached to a lower portion of the chassis and configured to rotate between a first, closed position providing closure of an opening defined by the bin and a second, open position providing access to the bin opening. The robot includes a body attached to the chassis and a handle disposed on an upper portion of the body. A bin cover release is actuatable from substantially near the handle.

and a first claim

An autonomous coverage robot comprising:a chassis having forward and rearward portions, the forward portion of the chassis defining a substantially rectangular shape; a drive system carried by the chassis and configured to maneuver the robot over a cleaning surface;a cleaning assembly mounted on the forward portion of the chassis;a bin disposed adjacent the cleaning assembly and configured to receive debris agitated by the cleaning assembly;a bin cover pivotally attached to a lower portion of the chassis and configured to rotate between a first, closed position providing closure of an opening defined by the bin and a second, open position providing access to the bin opening;a body attached to the chassis;a handle disposed on an upper portion of the body; anda bin cover release configured to control movement of the bin cover between its first and second positions, the bin cover release being actuatable from substantially near the handle.

Of related applications:

[0001]This U.S. patent application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application 60/938,699, filed on May 17, 2007 and U.S. Provisional Application 60/917,065, filed on May 9, 2007. The disclosures of the prior applications are considered part of the disclosure of this application and are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

[0002]The contents of U.S. Pre-grant Publications 2003/0192144, 2006/0200281, and 2007/0016328, and also U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,748,297 and 6,883,201 are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

The case was done by FISH & RICHARDSON PC. The assignee is IROBOT CORPORATION.

Don't forget application 20080109126 to the lawn care robot:

A robot lawnmower includes a body and a drive system carried by the body and configured to maneuver the robot across a lawn. The robot also includes a grass cutter and a swath edge detector, both carried by the body. The swath edge detector is configured to detect a swath edge between cut and uncut grass while the drive system maneuvers the robot across the lawn while following a detected swath edge. The swath edge detector includes a calibrator that monitors uncut grass for calibration of the swath edge detector. In some examples, the calibrator comprises a second swath edge detector.

Full post as published by IPBiz on May 26, 2009 (boomark / email).