Vacuum Cleaning Robot

Initioators

Christian Sukdolak(PL)
Michael Robin
Philipp Zwierschitz

Support

Dipl.-Ing. Martin Meschik
Dipl.-Ing. Roland Glas

Job Definition

Vorher-Nachher-Vergleich The idea was to improve an existing vacuum-cleaning-robot.
Original robot: a simple robot, which cleans the floor. The robot runs about 4m straight ahead, stops for a short moment and turns (alternating right/left). This cycle will continue to eternity and beyond, or until the akku goes low. In the case of an obstacle (e.g. table, chair, couch,…) is in the way, the robot crushes into it and because of the pressure sensors the robot recognizes it. So it runs back, turns around and continues running straight ahead.


Further disadvantages of this gadget are:
• The robot doesn’t recognize an abyss (e.g. stairs), which means it would fall down
• It isn’t child-proofed. So a child may get hurt
• There is no way to know the endurance of the robot’s akku
• The robot may get stuck in closely rooms.
• You cant control the moves of the robot

Execution

Vorher-Nachher-Vergleich Now is the challenge to improve this robot. We had to do several tasks: • The robot got equipped with several distance sensors.
• The existing electronic system needs to be improved.
• The robot must not crush into an obstacle.
• Stairs are obstacles and should be identified as those.
• The robot must turn off its motor if someone picks it up
• As a special bonus, a camera got mounted to monitor its movements via PC or TV
• Via infrared, a manual control of the robot should be ensured. You can choose whether to control it via remote-control or via PC
• The robot got equipped with LED’s which are similar to headlights to have a better view while using the camera
• A red LED on the upper side of the robot flashes up when the current akku is low
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HTL Wien 3 Rennweg, Mai 2008