Abstract
The potential applications of automation for cleaning are many and diverse. All over the world, research organizations and companies are developing automatic cleaning systems [70.1]. Products such as automatic floor cleaning robots and floor vacuum cleaners available for household use are sold ten thousand times over every year at prices below US $300 (Fig. 70.1). While versatile, high-performance systems exist for other applications such as professional floor cleaning, airplane washing, ship cleaning, and facade cleaning, they are by no means as widespread as household systems.
iRobot Roomba
Automatic cleaning systems are frequently extremely complex robot systems that operate autonomously in unstructured environments or outdoor areas. Cleaning automation not only incorporates cleaning engineering but also a variety of other technical disciplines, e.g., autonomous power supply, sensor systems, environment modeling, and path planning in dynamic environments.
Some examples of automatic cleaning systems for floors, facades, swimming pools, ventilation ducts, and sewer lines serve to highlight the current potential of cleaning automation and provide a glimpse of future developments.
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Abbreviations
- IFF:
-
identify friend or foe
- UV:
-
ultraviolet
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Elkmann, N., Hortig, J., Fritzsche, M. (2009). Cleaning Automation. In: Nof, S. (eds) Springer Handbook of Automation. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78831-7_70
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