Spider Robot for Façade Cleaning

Abstract

Most skyscrapers require their glass windows to be cleaned not only on the inside but on the outside as well since dust, rains, birds, etc. can cause stains on them. This cleaning process is often carried out by people who dangle from the top of the building using a rope and carry liquid soap and other cleaning equipment required to manually clean all the windows. Not only is this operation extremely time consuming, but it is also highly dangerous. The proposed work aims at automating this cleaning operation using a spider-like robot. The body of the robot is made of two octagonal plates with six legs at six vertices, each having a degree of freedom of three and a suction cup at its end. The remaining two vertices can have cleaning arms and the bottom of the robot consists of a rotating cleaner. Cleaning resources like water and soap are placed in-between the two plates. The robot climbs the wall due to the suction provided by the hydraulic force of steam at high pressure which is controlled and programmed using the Robotic Operating System. Six legs of the robot which comprise of eighteen double shaft NEMA-17 motors are controlled using Arduino Mega and are synchronized using ROS. The tripod gait mechanism is used to move forward and pressurized steam is used to provide the suction required to hold on to the wall. This robot can be extended to perform other applications like painting a wall, or can be used in an industry to detect any gas leak or perform any assembly and transport operations.