Aspects of a Safety Operation of Service Robots on Glass Walls

Abstract

The paper focuses on problems of the safety operation of service robots on glass facades of high-rise buildings exposed to a local additional load during the robot motion and any subsequent service operation (e.g. cleaning, diagnostics, mounting). Owing to afraid of a possible glass cracking and a subsequent destruction, the authors pay attention to an analysis of the strength of façade glass sheets being in contact with the robot holding-down vacuum system as well as with the supporting steel construction. With a view of appraising a state of stress, a computer model was build up respecting the real composition of façade glass, material properties and contact edge conditions. The paper presents achieved results by means of graphic outputs, and in conclusion, it discusses them with aim to supply owners of service robots from a sphere of the building administration a number of details.

Materials Having a High Degree of Adhesion for Gripping Elements Designing

“…by the least squares method in cases that a dependence of the engineering stress on relative deformation is found experimentally. Therefore it is valid that (4) In general there will be the function for the set of n measured and experimentally found points…”

“…Fig. 2 Surface structure of silicone rubber (60,000x magnified) This type of material was applied subsequently as the adhesion layer for the specific combined gripping element described in detail in [3,4]. This element can work in two operating regimes having either passive or combined character, when moreover vacuum is supplied into the sealed space between the element and the object handled.…”

Service Robot for Motion on the Vertical Oriented Walls

“…The first-generation platform of the service robot [9,10,11] was successfully tested in operation on the glass wall. Subsequently the verified design of the motive principle was optimized, and used for the second-generation platform [12], where the motive principle was not changed fundamentally but applying smart servo-actuators and a frame new design, the required reduction of weight as well as increase of effective carrying capacity up to ca 25 kg can be reached.…”