Design of an Adhesion-Aware Façade Cleaning Robot

Abstract

Cleaning requirements of glass façades of high-rise buildings have been significantly increased in recent years due to the growth of the construction industry. The conventional cleaning methods for high-rise buildings require human labor where efficiency, cost, and safety are major concerns. Therefore, robotic systems that can climb and clean glass fagades in high-rise buildings have been developed. Capability to attach to a façade surface is one of the critical requirements of a glass façade cleaning robot. Diverse approaches have been proposed for adhesion of cleaning robots to a glass façade. Active vacuum suction mechanisms are widely used for these robots since they provide better controllability to move the robots smartly on the surface. Notably, those are decent for a reconfigurable robot that can transit between window frames. The suction mechanism of a glass façade cleaning robot must provide a reliable suction force to make the robot stay safely and move smartly on a façade. Nevertheless, these suction mechanisms can be failed due to improper fastening between a façade and the mechanism, which may lead to safety and operational issues. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel method to realize the adhesion-awareness of a glass façade cleaning robot. The adhesion-awareness is realized by analyzing The current drawn by the motors attached to the impellers of the vacuum mechanisms. Experiment results validate the capability of the proposed approach in raising the adhesion-awareness of a façade cleaning robot.