Design and construction of a stair cleaning robot

Abstract

The introduction of robots to the domestic sector has made every day human life easier. Using domestic robots such as the floor cleaning robots have helped humans reduce the workload in their everyday schedule. However, floor cleaning robots are limited to only level floors and during this dissertation a design and a physical prototype of a stair cleaning robot was introduced. The objectives of the dissertation were to prove the concept that a prototype for a stair cleaning robot can be built by keeping the working mechanism as simple as possible. Research on domestic robot components, cleaning robots, stair climbing robots and stair cleaning robots was carried out. Such research helped in the design of the robot itself. To initialise the conceptualisation phase of the design, a market research survey was carried out, obtaining important feedback on what potential customers would look for in such a device. Results obtained from the survey were converted into design tools such as the quality function deployment to implement the customer feedback in the design. Several concepts were generated and the best concept was chosen and improved through a series of design tools. Before initialising the design process, the raw materials were carefully selected by means of a material selection process and a theoretical approach on how the robot prototype would operate was carried out. The detailed design of the robot chassis was initialised, whereby the parts to be bought were carefully selected and the parts to be manufactured were cautiously designed to allow the fastening of the mechanical components. Simulations and analyses on each load bearing part, mechanical components and the chassis itself were carried out to ensure neither will fail. Circuit design, construction and programming of the electronic components making up the device was carried out. The device was fabricated using 3D printing and laser cutting, the robot chassis was considerably light-weight having a mass of 1.6kg together with all the mechanical and electronic components. Results obtained from the theory carried out were reflected in the physical prototype system evaluation, where processes such as the descent procedure and cleaning procedure operated almost identically as described in the theoretical analysis. In conclusion the concept of a stair cleaning device was proven during this dissertation.