Research On A Multi-functional Cleaning Robot

Cleaning robot is one kind of robots which can replace people to do the family ground cleaning works, and it is the service robot which most likely to enter the homes. The research of cleaning robots involves many key scientific problems, such as mechanisms, kinematics, navigation & path planning. In recent years cleaning robots become an important point in the aspect of service robots, and are researched by scholars all over the world.Currently, the function of cleaning robots is simple and existed mopping robots cannot work effectively. Based on the idea of reconfiguration, this paper uses the modularized method to design a multi-functional cleaning robot, which achieves the function of vacuum cleaning and mopping on a single platform. In addition, this paper proposes a new mop method which uses a rolling sponge to sweep the floor. Lastly, this paper proposes a novel obstacle avoidance method which arranges the sensors in the non-radial directions. This method can make the cleaning robot move without touching any environments. The main research contents in the paper are listed as follows:(1) Analyzing the structure characteristics of exist cleaning robots and designing a multi-functional cleaning robot which can do vacuum cleaning and mopping floor work. Different cleaning works can be realized by connecting different functional modules to the cleaning robot through a bolt connection structure.(2) Analyzing the mopping floor principle and improving the mopping method to solve the sewage residues problem. A novel method which using the sponge to roll and clean the floor is proposed, and the mathematical model of the mop module is established. Several experiments have been done to validate the effectiveness of the mopping method.(3) Analyzing the obstacle avoidance method base on the non-radial infrared sensors in order to solve the problem that the cleaning robot cannot avoid small obstacles. The sensor measurement model is established and analyzed to ensure this method can make the cleaning robot detect the environment without blind angles.(4) Firstly, after the prototype of the cleaning robot has been built,some connection experiments have been done to verify the feasibility of multi-function cleaning robot project; Secondly, some mopping experiments have been done to verify the feasibility of the mopping method; Finally, some robot navigation experiments have been done to verify the feasibility of obstacle avoidance scheme.