scholarly journals Design and Experiment of a Novel Façade Cleaning Robot with a Biped Mechanism

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 2398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shunsuke Nansai ◽  
Keichi Onodera ◽  
Prabakaran Veerajagadheswar ◽  
Mohan Rajesh Elara ◽  
Masami Iwase
Keyword(s):  
Polynomial Interpolation ◽  
Area Coverage ◽  
Glass Panel ◽  
High Rise ◽  
Cleaning Robot ◽  
Glass Panels ◽  
Glass Facade ◽  
Cleaning Robots ◽  
Real Scenario ◽  
Glass Façade

Façade cleaning in high-rise buildings has always been considered a hazardous task when carried out by labor forces. Even though numerous studies have focused on the development of glass façade cleaning systems, the available technologies in this domain are limited and their performances are broadly affected by the frames that connect the glass panels. These frames generally act as a barrier for the glass façade cleaning robots to cross over from one glass panel to another, which leads to a performance degradation in terms of area coverage. We present a new class of façade cleaning robot with a biped mechanism that is able overcome these obstacles to maximize its area coverage. The developed robot uses active suction cups to adhere to glass walls and adopts mechanical linkage to navigate the glass surface to perform cleaning. This research addresses the design challenges in realizing the developed robot. Its control system consists of inverse kinematics, a fifth polynomial interpolation, and sequential control. Experiments were conducted in a real scenario, and the results indicate that the developed robot achieves significantly higher coverage performance by overcoming both negative and positive obstacles in a glass panel.

scholarly journals Multi-Sensor Orientation Tracking for a Façade-Cleaning Robot

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 1483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Vega-Heredia ◽  
Ilyas Muhammad ◽  
Sriharsha Ghanta ◽  
Vengadesh Ayyalusami ◽  
Siti Aisyah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Orientation Angle ◽  
Position Estimation ◽  
Measurement Unit ◽  
Vision Sensor ◽  
Window Frame ◽  
Cleaning Robot ◽  
Heading Angle ◽  
Glass Facade ◽  
Cleaning Robots ◽  
Glass Façade

Glass-façade-cleaning robots are an emerging class of service robots. This kind of cleaning robot is designed to operate on vertical surfaces, for which tracking the position and orientation becomes more challenging. In this article, we have presented a glass-façade-cleaning robot, Mantis v2, who can shift from one window panel to another like any other in the market. Due to the complexity of the panel shifting, we proposed and evaluated different methods for estimating its orientation using different kinds of sensors working together on the Robot Operating System (ROS). For this application, we used an onboard Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), wheel encoders, a beacon-based system, Time-of-Flight (ToF) range sensors, and an external vision sensor (camera) for angular position estimation of the Mantis v2 robot. The external camera is used to monitor the robot’s operation and to track the coordinates of two colored markers attached along the longitudinal axis of the robot to estimate its orientation angle. ToF lidar sensors are attached on both sides of the robot to detect the window frame. ToF sensors are used for calculating the distance to the window frame; differences between beam readings are used to calculate the orientation angle of the robot. Differential drive wheel encoder data are used to estimate the robot’s heading angle on a 2D façade surface. An integrated heading angle estimation is also provided by using simple fusion techniques, i.e., a complementary filter (CF) and 1D Kalman filter (KF) utilizing the IMU sensor’s raw data. The heading angle information provided by different sensory systems is then evaluated in static and dynamic tests against an off-the-shelf attitude and heading reference system (AHRS). It is observed that ToF sensors work effectively from 0 to 30 degrees, beacons have a delay up to five seconds, and the odometry error increases according to the navigation distance due to slippage and/or sliding on the glass. Among all tested orientation sensors and methods, the vision sensor scheme proved to be better, with an orientation angle error of less than 0.8 degrees for this application. The experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed techniques in this orientation tracking, which has never applied in this specific application of cleaning robots.

Drift Performance of Point Fixed Glass Façade Systems

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 1481-1495 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Sivanerupan ◽  
J.L. Wilson ◽  
E.F. Gad ◽  
N.T.K. Lam
Keyword(s):  
Rigid Body ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Drift Capacity ◽  
Structural Support ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Glass Panels ◽  
Glass Facade ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Glass Façade

Glass façade systems in buildings are subject to racking actions caused by inter storey drifts from earthquakes and wind action. The performance of façade systems is dependent on the amount of imposed drift and the interaction of the glass panels with the façade structural support frames. There are two major concerns related to the glass façade system performance during and immediately after a seismic event; hazards to people from falling glass and the cost associated with building down time and repair. It was observed that earthquake damage to glass façade systems resulting from in-plane racking actions is increasingly common and yet there has been limited research published in this field. The research completed to date has mainly focused on traditional framed glass façade systems; however, the racking performance of point fixed glass façade system (PFGFS) is likely to be quite different. Therefore, the aim of the research presented in this paper is to assess the in-plane racking performance of PFGFS which is a façade system gaining popularity worldwide. Two unique full scale in-plane racking laboratory tests on typical PFGFS with different types of connections were conducted and specific racking mechanisms were identified. Sophisticated non-linear finite element models (FE models) were developed and benchmarked against experimental results with excellent correlation. Further detailed FE analyses were conducted to evaluate the individual drift contributions of each racking mechanism such as rigid body translation of the glass panels at the oversize holes for construction tolerance, spider arm rotation and spider arm deformation. It was found that most of the drift capacity is attributed to the rigid body translation at the oversize holes. In this paper, the laboratory test setup and the experimental results are discussed together with the confirmatory FE analysis results to assess the in-plane racking performance of the PFGFS.

Field measurement of wind-induced stress on glass facade of a coastal high-rise building

2011 ◽  
Vol 54 (10) ◽  
pp. 2587-2596 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZhengNong Li ◽  
DieFeng Luo ◽  
WenHai Shi ◽  
ZhiQi Li ◽  
XiaoHan Liang
Keyword(s):  
Field Measurement ◽  
High Rise ◽  
High Rise Building ◽  
Induced Stress ◽  
Glass Facade ◽  
Glass Façade

scholarly journals Analysis of wind load impact on the high-rise buildings glass facade

2019 ◽  
Vol 698 ◽  
pp. 022046
Author(s):  
L A Zolotareva ◽  
A R Lebedinskaya ◽  
S E Komarova
Keyword(s):  
Wind Load ◽  
High Rise ◽  
Glass Facade ◽  
Load Impact ◽  
Glass Façade

Glass facade cleaning robot with passive suction cups and self-locking trapezoidal lead screw drive

2018 ◽  
Vol 96 ◽  
pp. 180-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thein Than Tun ◽  
Mohan Rajesh Elara ◽  
Manivannan Kalimuthu ◽  
Ayyalusami Vengadesh
Keyword(s):  
Screw Drive ◽  
Lead Screw ◽  
Cleaning Robot ◽  
Glass Facade ◽  
Suction Cups ◽  
Glass Façade

scholarly journals Toward Pleomorphic Reconfigurable Robots for Optimum Coverage

Complexity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
S. M. Bhagya P. Samarakoon ◽  
M. A. Viraj J. Muthugala ◽  
Mohan R. Elara ◽  
Selva kumaran
Keyword(s):  
Maximum Size ◽  
Area Coverage ◽  
Optimum Size ◽  
Performance Factors ◽  
Reconfigurable Robots ◽  
Cleaning Robot ◽  
Cleaning Robots ◽  
Novel Concept ◽  
Industrial Needs ◽  
And Behavior

Buildings are constructed for accommodating living and industrial needs. Floor cleaning robots have been developed to cater to the demand of these buildings. Area coverage and coverage time are crucial performance factors of a floor cleaning robot. Reconfigurable tiling robots have been introduced over fixed shape robots to improve area coverage in floor cleaning applications compared to robots with fixed morphologies. However, area coverage and coverage time of a tiling robot compromised one another. This study proposes a novel concept that considers the ability of a tiling robot to configure both its morphology and size according to the environment. This concept is inspired by the pleomorphism that could be seen in bacteria. In this regard, P-hTetro, a pleomorphic tiling robot that can reconfigure its morphology and size, is considered. A novel coverage strategy for realizing the size reconfiguration is also proposed. According to this strategy, the robot covers obstacle-free areas with its maximum size, while an obstacle cluster is covered after shrinking to an optimum size. The optimum size for reconfiguration is determined by the genetic algorithm based on the arrangement of the environment. The performance and behavior of the proposed P-hTetro have been compared against that of an existing tiling robot which has a fixed size. According to the statistical outcomes, a tiling robot with the ability to reconfigure its size can significantly improve the performance in the aspects of area coverage and coverage time compared to a tiling robot with no ability to reconfigure its size.

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