A Novel Nested Reconfigurable Approach for a Glass Façade Cleaning Robot

• Main Authors: Shunsuke Nansai, Mohan Rajesh Elara, Thein Than Tun, Prabakaran Veerajagadheswar, Thejus Pathmakumar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-08-01
• Series: Inventions
• Subjects: nested reconfiguration; self reconfigurable robots; glass façade cleaning; wall climbing robot
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5134/2/3/18

The façade 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 façade 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 façade cleaning and develope a system of robot modules that performs glass façade 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.