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Development of a high-endurance cleaning robot with scanning-based path planning and path correction

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Abstract

The cleaning of large-scale indoor public spaces is currently performed by workers driving cleaning machines. However, labor shortages are becoming more acute, resulting in human labor being substituted with robotics solutions for the cleaning of large public facilities (e.g., airport terminals, stations, and underground commercial streets). With the rapid development of sensing and automation technologies, various types of large-scale cleaning robots have been proposed. However, due to difficulty in precise indoor positioning, cleaning along a preplanned path is still challenging for robots. Therefore, this study proposes a cleaning robot that maps large indoor spaces using laser scanning and can avoid obstacles. The chassis of the robot has two independent primary wheels and two auxiliary wheels as power and support; direct current (DC) is employed to power the vacuum cleaner and the robot’s drive motor, to prevent power loss due to DC–alternating current conversion. An indoor facility undergoes three-dimensional laser scanning, and the cleaning space is then mapped through matrix graphics; subsequently, a path is planned using the boustrophedon method. The distance to the wall, measured by the laser rangefinder, is employed as a reference for the correction of the robot’s movement. The powerful vacuum cleaner design of the proposed cleaning robot was experimentally confirmed as having the ability to suction trash. In addition, the proposed robot was shown to clearly identify obstacles through laser scanning and successfully avoid them during the cleaning process to complete the cleaning task along the preplanned cleaning route.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan for supporting this research under project number MOST 106-2622-E-151-018-CC3

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Sciences and Technology, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Tsung-I Liao, Chun-Chieh Lien, Hung-Cheng Lin & Wen-Ping Chen

  2. Department of Radiation Oncology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Tsung-I Liao

  3. Department of Information Networking Technology, Hsiuping University of Science and Technology, Taichung, Taiwan

    Song-Shyong Chen

  4. Sinfu Asset Management Corporation, Taipei, Taiwan

    Meng-Fang Lu

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  1. Tsung-I Liao
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  2. Song-Shyong Chen
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  3. Chun-Chieh Lien
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  4. Hung-Cheng Lin
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  5. Meng-Fang Lu
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  6. Wen-Ping Chen
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Correspondence to Wen-Ping Chen.

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Liao, TI., Chen, SS., Lien, CC. et al. Development of a high-endurance cleaning robot with scanning-based path planning and path correction. Microsyst Technol 27, 1061–1074 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-018-4048-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-018-4048-2

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