Wind resistance performance analysis of automated exterior wall painting robot for apartment buildings

Abstract

Painters who have to work on the exterior walls of high-rise buildings are constantly exposed to the risk of falling, which can be fatal. Korea and other countries are endeavoring to develop technology that automates exterior wall painting. Since robots that paint the exterior walls of apartment buildings should hang on to the exterior wall, they are greatly affected by the wind; thus, predicting the wind load on a robot hanging outside an apartment building is very important to secure adequate wind resistance and assure safe movement and uniform painting quality. This study applied a proposed analysis model for the wind resistance of an exterior wall painting robot to an actual apartment building complex in order to improve the reliability of the proposed model. Computational fluid dynamics simulation and the structural analysis program MIDAS were used to analyze the wind resistance performance of the exterior wall painting robot and verify the structural safety.