Mechanical design of an autonomous, lightweight robot for window cleaning

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.