ABSTRACT

The adoption of domestic robots is evolving as households of today are becoming smarter and more automated. Home automation provide convenience and creates more time for people. Several robotic vacuum cleaners are available on the market but only few ones implement wet cleaning of floors. The developed concept carries a dry cleaning mechanism in the front and a wet cleaning mechanism in the back. First large particles and debris are suctioned, afterwards clean water is applied to a rotating cylindrical brush that scrubs the floor and lastly the dirty water is suctioned and removed from the floor. It holds a square design to enhance reachability of cleaning areas and a one-stroke strategy to implement both cleaning procedures in one sweep.

INTRODUCTION

A robotic vacuum cleaner, often called a robovac, is an autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner that has intelligent programming and a limited vacuum cleaning system. Some designs use spinning brushes to reach tight corners. Others combine a number of cleaning features (mopping, UV sterilization, etc.) simultaneous to vacuuming, thus rendering the machine into more than just a robot "vacuum" cleaner.The world’s first robotic vacuum cleaner was introduced by Electrolux in 2001 (Hanlon, 2013). Since then there is an abundance of different robotic vacuum cleaners on the market. The hectic lifestyles of today and the use of advanced technology have developed a need for this type of product. People want to waste less time and effort on cleaning and desire easy and convenient solutions.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The given problem description was to design a conceptual solution for a domestic cleaning robot that vacuum cleans and wet cleans. There are several problem areas that are required to be solved to introduce this type of product on the market e.g. path planning, detecting obstacles or the maintenance in between cleaning cycles, while keeping the robot as small as possible to enable its mobility in the use environment. Not only does it require achieving this, but it also must achieve a proper cleaning result. However, the main focus of this project is to manage the actual cleaning procedure.

PURPOSE

The product requires to:

1. Remove the debris and large particles from the floor.

2. Wet clean the floor with fresh water.

3. Remove the dirty water and leave the floor as dry as possible.

This type of product must enhance the convenience for the customers using it while providing them with a proper cleaning result. This implies that the system is required work with minimal human intervention. At the moment, there are only a few products on the market that offer this solution. This indicates a difficulty and complexity in solving the task in an efficient and satisfactory way.

MORPHOLOGICAL CHART

Subfunction Option 1 Option 2 Option 3

Dry cleaning mechanism :-

Suction

Only a rotating brush to lift the debris to a compartment, so no suction is used.

Wet cleaning mechanism

Water tank

Spray

Microfiber roller

Suction

Fan

Dirt bin

Tube

Lid(shape)

PUGH DECISION MATRIX

CTQ or Criteria CTQ or Criteria (optional)

1st conceptThe one by one

2nd conceptCombined

3rd conceptSquare

Cost 6 -1 0 +1Durability 8 +1 +1 +1

Effectiveness 9 0 -1 0Maintanance 5 -1 -1 0

Features 7 0 -1 -1Total + + 9 9 16Total - - 9 20 6

Overall total 0 -11 10Weighted total -3 -13 4

CHOSEN CLEANING PROCEDURE AND CONCEPT

The selection and evaluation procedure enabled the cleaning mechanism to be decided. TheDry Cleaning Mechanism was chosen to not contain a collecting tool, to be able to sustain theproduct’s minimal size. This resulted in a suction nozzle that must be designed to achieve thedesired suction. The Wet Cleaning Mechanism will utilise a cylindrical cleaning brush and theapplied water is will be suctioned

The square concept locates the particle suction in the front of the cleaning robot and the watersuction nozzle is located in the back of the robot. This geometrical layout will ensure that therobot can perform vacuum cleaning and wet mopping in all desired areas, with the suggesteddriving strategy.

Water level