Abstract
The cleaning robots are going through some significant development in recent years, driven by the greater market penetration and the demand for better cleaning performance. However, most of the robots have problems covering the total cleaning area given geometric limitations of the platforms in relation to the cleaning stage, given furniture and architecture. In this paper, we describe the hTrihex platform, which is a self-reconfigurable adaptive robot that attains three different configurations. The change in configuration gives rise to variation in the kinematic model, which in turn changes the behavior of robot locomotion. The change in configuration and the robot position is evaluated using the measurements from the on-board sensors like the encoders, LIDAR, and inertial measuring unit (IMU). These data are then utilized to develop a new cascade control strategy for motion control of h-Trihex. The control cascade comprises of a robust backstepping controller in the outer loop for tackling the varying kinematic and a conventional PID in the inner loop for speed control. This cascade is appended by a PID controller, for correcting the wheel orientation after each configuration change. The proposed design assures asymptotic path tracking and satisfactory closed-loop performance, which are validated through numerical simulations and experiments.
Highlights
Cleaning has been an essential and important part of our lives, which has evolved and improved over time
As per the global market study, there is a huge demand for the application these robots in domestics setting with fully automated features and the least human assistance and these robots still constitute a minute market share of the global vacuum cleaner market, but their recognition and adoption is growing at a significant pace. iRobot Corporation, Neato Robotics, Dyson Ltd., Samsung Electronics Company
We have developed various polyform based self-reconfigurable robotic platforms, including the hTetro, hTetrkis, hHoneycomb, and hTetran [7]–[10]
Summary
Cleaning has been an essential and important part of our lives, which has evolved and improved over time. The hTetro platform is the first of kind self-reconfigurable robot that consists of four rectangular blocks connected through revolute joints and attains seven distinct configurations All these configurations are of regular geometric patterns which help to access the spaces with 90 degrees included angles. Arcs, and covering unstructured environment, we have developed another polyform based platform called the ‘hHoneycomb’ which consists of four regular hexagonal blocks [9] This platform adapts seven distinct shapes which has arc and convex shapes. In a dynamic environment, there is a need of robust controller and flexible design of the platform that can access convex, concave, arch, and circular spaces Considering all these factors, we have developed a compact polyhex based platform called ‘hTrihex,’ consisting of three hexagonal blocks connected with two revolute hinged.
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