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2002
Conference Paper
Titel
Mechanical design of an autonomous, lightweight robot for window cleaning
Abstract
In the future automation by small household robot systems will increasingly enter the private environment. In this paper a demonstrator of a small and lightweight window-cleaning robot will be introduced. The robot is an autonomous system with its own power supply, sensors and a microcontroller on board. Two cleaning systems have been installed, one in the front and one at the rear of the robot. The climbing mechanism has been realized by a certain number of passive suction cups, which are mounted on a special caterpillar system. This motion system enables a continuous forward movement that is important for the cleaning result of the window. The combination of the caterpillar kinematics with passive suction cups represents a new and patented development that enables a low energy consumption. The description, calculation and future potentials of this kinematics will be the main topic of this paper.