A Novel Nested Reconfigurable Approach for a Glass Façade Cleaning Robot

Shunsuke Nansai,Thein Tun,Mohan Elara,Thejus Pathmakumar,Prabakaran Veerajagadheswar

doi:10.3390/inventions2030018

Abstract

The facade cleaning of high rise buildings is one of the hazardous tasks that is performed by human operators. Even after a significant advancement in construction technologies, several newfangled skyscrapers are still using the manual method for cleaning the glass panels. This research is aimed at the development of a glass facade cleaning robot, capable of adapting to any kind of building architecture. A robotic system capable of cleaning vertical glass surfaces demands a transformable morphology. A self-reconfigurable robot is one of the potential solutions to realize high degrees of adaptability. Following the design principles we derived, we propose a nested reconfigurable design approach for glass facade cleaning and develope a system of robot modules that performs glass facade cleaning. Throughout this research article, we discuss the brief concept and scheme of nested reconfigurable design principle and the hardware-software challenges associated with it. This article also discusses the capability to maximize the flexibility and modularity of the robot by using intra- and inter-reconfigurations. The effectiveness of the designed system is verified by experimental means.

Highlights

Robots have been advancing exponentially over the last three decades, beyond the traditional bounds of industrial applications, service, and even towards the sharing of social spaces with human beings
We identified the nested reconfigurable design principle for a glass façade cleaning robot and we developed two module robot system as a primary footstep towards the effective realization of the nested reconfigurable façade cleaning robot
We formulated the concept and the scheme of the nested reconfigurable design principle and identified two major factors that play a significant role in the design of the robot system for glass façade cleaning of high rise buildings

Summary

Introduction

Robots have been advancing exponentially over the last three decades, beyond the traditional bounds of industrial applications, service, and even towards the sharing of social spaces with human beings. We have identified plenty of research works on the robot involved solution for the façad cleaning, which have sprouted up in a decade. The SIRIUS robot is capable of performing an up-and-down motion on a vertical surface, using a crane installed on buildings for façade maintenance. We are exploiting a nested reconfigurable design concept for the development of a wall climbing robot system for glass façade cleaning. Our previous works [26,27,28] covers a brief concept and scheme of the nested reconfigurable design principle we used for the development of the proposed robot. This paper covers the solutions for the development of the wall climbing robot for cleaning of high rise buildings based on the nested reconfigurable design principles.

Nested Reconfigurable Design Challenges for a Glass Façade Cleaning Robot

Mechanical Design

System Architecture

Conclusions