Modeling and Analysis of a Glass Facade Robot

For glass facade cleaning, we developed a reconfigurable robot, Mantis-mini, with a dry cleaning mechanism and linear actuator based transitioning mechanism. It consists of three suction modules, connected by a support structure and each suction module has individual differential drive wheels with independent steering capability. This paper focuses on the detailed design of the platform, static structural analysis for and kinematic formulation. The adhesion performance of the suction module is evaluated using experiments, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, and analytically formulated estimation. The suction pressure magnitude predicted from the simulations increases with suction impeller speed and agrees well with measurements and analytical calculation in terms of order of magnitude and qualitative trend. An adaptive proportional-integral (PI) controller is designed and implemented for regulating suction pressure and motion controller of the platform. The suction performance of the platform is validated through real-time experiments of the platform on the glass surface.

Automated summary

This paper presents a reconfigurable robot, Mantis-mini, developed for glass facade cleaning, with a dry cleaning mechanism and linear actuator based transitioning mechanism. The adhesion performance of the suction module is evaluated using experiments, CFD simulations, and analytically formulated estimation, showing an increase in suction pressure magnitude with suction impeller speed.