Design of sTetro: A Modular, Reconfigurable, and Autonomous Staircase Cleaning Robot

Abstract

The mechanical, electrical, and autonomy aspects of designing a novel, modular, and reconfigurable cleaning robot, dubbed as sTetro (stair Tetro), are presented. The developed robotic platform uses a vertical conveyor mechanism to reconfigure itself and is capable of navigating over flat surfaces as well as staircases, thus significantly extending the automated cleaning capabilities as compared to conventional home cleaning robots. The mechanical design and system architecture are introduced first, followed by a detailed description of system modelling and controller design efforts in sTetro. An autonomy algorithm is also proposed for self-reconfiguration, locomotion, and autonomous navigation of sTetro in the controlled environment, for example, in homes/offices with a flat floor and a straight staircase. A staircase recognition algorithm is presented to distinguish between the surrounding environment and the stairs. The misalignment detection technique of the robot with a front staircase riser is also given, and a feedback from the IMU sensor for misalignment corrective measures is provided. The experiments performed with the sTetro robot demonstrated the efficacy and validity of the developed system models, control, and autonomy approaches.

A Novel Method for 3D Absolute Localization and Orientation of a Stair Cleaning Robot Using Staircase Geometry and Onboard Sensors

“…The sTetro robot's design and working principle are described in full detail in our previous work [19]. The sTetro robot is driven to traverse staircase as shown in Figure 4(a).…”

“…In this work, we present a novel yet very simple technique to estimate the 3D absolute localization information of an indoor mobile robot, called sTetro, developed at RoAR Laboratory, SUTD [19]. Sensor installation and typical working environment of this robot is shown in Figure 1.…”

Table Cleaning Task by Human Support Robot Using Deep Learning Technique

“…Due to long working hours, low wages, unwillingness to work as a cleaner, workforce shortage has been a constant problem for food court cleaning and maintenance tasks in recent times [1]. Recently, many robotic platforms are designed for different cleaning application which include floor cleaning [2,3], facade cleaning [4], staircase cleaning [5], pavement cleaning [6,7] and garden cleaning [8]. However, these robot architectures could not support table cleaning and maintenance tasks.…”

Design and Control of a Wall Cleaning Robot with Adhesion-Awareness

“…Therefore, robots have been developed to cater to demands in cleaning activities in various domains of building environments, including floor cleaning [4], garden cleaning [5], window cleaning [6], and staircase cleaning [7] with the aid of different cleaning methods, such as vacuuming and wiping [8]. In this regard, nowadays, special attention has to be paid in the development of wall cleaning robots to eliminate the health and safety concerns of human labor involved in the conventional cleaning process of tall vertical structures [9,10].…”