AI-Enabled Condition Monitoring Framework for Indoor Mobile Cleaning Robots

Abstract

Autonomous mobile cleaning robots are ubiquitous today and have a vast market need. Current studies are mainly focused on autonomous cleaning performances, and there exists a research gap on monitoring the robot’s health and safety. Vibration is a key indicator of system deterioration or external factors causing accelerated degradation or threats. Hence, this work proposes an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled automated condition monitoring (CM) framework using two heterogeneous sensor datasets to predict the sources of anomalous vibration in mobile robots with high accuracy. This allows triggering proper maintenance or corrective actions based on the condition of the robot’s health or workspace, easing condition-based maintenance (CbM). Anomalous vibration sources are classified as induced by uneven Terrain, Collision with obstacles, loose Assembly, and unbalanced Structure, which causes accelerated system deterioration or potential hazards. Here, an unexplored heterogeneous sensor dataset using inertial measurement unit (IMU) and current sensors is proposed for effective recognition across different vibration classes, resulting in higher-accuracy prediction. A simple-structured 1D convolutional neural network (1D CNN) is developed for training and real-time prediction. A 2D CbM map is generated by fusing the predicted classes in real time on an occupancy grid map of the workspace to monitor the conditions of the robot and workspace remotely. The evaluation test results of the proposed method show that the usage of heterogeneous sensors performs significantly more accurately (98.4%) than previous studies, which used IMU (92.2%) and camera (93.8%) sensors individually. Also, this model is comparatively fast, fit for the environment, and ideal for real-time applications in mobile robots based on field trial validations, enhancing mobile robots’ productivity and operational safety.