Tradeoff Between Area Coverage and Energy Usage of a Self-Reconfigurable Floor Cleaning Robot Based on User Preference

Muthugala, M. A. Viraj J.; Samarakoon, S. M. Bhagya P.; Elara, Mohan Rajesh

doi:10.1109/access.2020.2988977

Cited by 32 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…According to [18], energy usage is another crucial factor determining the productivity of a floor cleaning robot apart from area coverage, and they are often conflicting entities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…us, the scope of this study is limited to improving the performance of a reconfigurable tiling robot in terms of area coverage and coverage time by considering the pleomorphism. e area coverage and energy usage could be appropriately balanced by utilizing the method proposed in [18]. e integration of such an energy tradeoff method with the P-hTetro is proposed for future work.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Area coverage, energy usage, and coverage time are the crucial parameters that determine the productivity of a floor cleaning robot [17,18]. However, the area coverage performance of floor cleaning robots with a fixed morphology is limited in typical indoor environments due to the inclusion of objects with complex shapes such as furniture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Toward Pleomorphic Reconfigurable Robots for Optimum Coverage

et al. 2021

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Buildings are constructed for accommodating living and industrial needs. Floor cleaning robots have been developed to cater to the demand of these buildings. Area coverage and coverage time are crucial performance factors of a floor cleaning robot. Reconfigurable tiling robots have been introduced over fixed shape robots to improve area coverage in floor cleaning applications compared to robots with fixed morphologies. However, area coverage and coverage time of a tiling robot compromised one another. This study proposes a novel concept that considers the ability of a tiling robot to configure both its morphology and size according to the environment. This concept is inspired by the pleomorphism that could be seen in bacteria. In this regard, P-hTetro, a pleomorphic tiling robot that can reconfigure its morphology and size, is considered. A novel coverage strategy for realizing the size reconfiguration is also proposed. According to this strategy, the robot covers obstacle-free areas with its maximum size, while an obstacle cluster is covered after shrinking to an optimum size. The optimum size for reconfiguration is determined by the genetic algorithm based on the arrangement of the environment. The performance and behavior of the proposed P-hTetro have been compared against that of an existing tiling robot which has a fixed size. According to the statistical outcomes, a tiling robot with the ability to reconfigure its size can significantly improve the performance in the aspects of area coverage and coverage time compared to a tiling robot with no ability to reconfigure its size.

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“…According to [18], energy usage is another crucial factor determining the productivity of a floor cleaning robot apart from area coverage, and they are often conflicting entities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Toward Pleomorphic Reconfigurable Robots for Optimum Coverage

et al. 2021

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“…Therefore, these robots are known as tiling robots. Various perspectives of coverage path planning of reconfigurable tiling robots, such as area coverage, energy usage, and coverage time, have been extensively studied [6,[18][19][20]22]. It has been proven that the tiling robots outperform robots with fixed morphologies in the problem of area coverage [26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward complete area coverage of a reconfigurable tiling robot by following obstacle shape

Samarakoon

Muthugala

et al. 2021

Complex Intell. Syst.

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Complete area coverage is a crucial factor for a floor cleaning robot. Self-reconfigurable tiling robots have been introduced over robots with a fixed shape for floor cleaning since they improve the area coverage by the flexibility of shape-shifting in cluttered environments. The existing coverage methods of reconfigurable tiling robots follow the tiling theory to cope with the area coverage problem. However, these methods merely consider a limited set of predefined shapes for the reconfiguration of a robot. The consideration of a limited set of predefined shapes for the reconfiguration impedes the ability of coverage to a certain extent in typical floor environments. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel method to improve area coverage of a tiling robot by reconfiguring according to the shape of obstacles. To this end, the required hinge angles for reconfiguring per the shape of an obstacle are determined by a genetic algorithm. The proposed method considers an optimized shape for reconfiguration in lieu of a limited set of predefined shapes. The coverage improvement of the proposed concept has been compared against the existing coverage methods of tiling robots to validate the performance. According to the experimental results, the proposed method surpasses the existing coverage methods of tiling robots from the perspective of area coverage, and the improvement is significant and noteworthy.

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“…Much literature has exploited the uncertainty handling capabilities of fuzzy logic in diverse application domains of robots, including climbing robotics [ 32 , 33 ], autonomous vehicles [ 34 , 35 ], aerial robotics [ 36 , 37 ], and maintenance and inspection robotics [ 38 , 39 ]. In particular, fuzzy logic has often been utilized for navigating robots in unknown environments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collision Avoidance and Stability Study of a Self-Reconfigurable Drainage Robot

Parween

Muthugala

Heredia

et al. 2021

Sensors

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The inspection and maintenance of drains with varying heights necessitates a drain mapping robot with trained labour to maintain community hygiene and prevent the spread of diseases. For adapting to level changes and navigating in the narrow confined environments of drains, we developed a self-configurable hybrid robot, named Tarantula-II. The platform is a quadruped robot with hybrid locomotion and the ability to reconfigure to achieve variable height and width. It has four legs, and each leg is made of linear actuators and modular rolling wheel mechanisms with bi-directional movement. The platform has a fuzzy logic system for collision avoidance of the side wall in the drain environment. During level shifting, the platform achieves stability by using the pitch angle as the feedback from the inertial measuring unit (IMU) mounted on the platform. This feedback helps to adjust the accurate height of the platform. In this paper, we describe the detailed mechanical design and system architecture, kinematic models, control architecture, and stability of the platform. We deployed the platform both in a lab setting and in a real-time drain environment to demonstrate the wall collision avoidance, stability, and level shifting capabilities of the platform.

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Tradeoff Between Area Coverage and Energy Usage of a Self-Reconfigurable Floor Cleaning Robot Based on User Preference

Cited by 32 publications

References 41 publications

Toward Pleomorphic Reconfigurable Robots for Optimum Coverage

Toward Pleomorphic Reconfigurable Robots for Optimum Coverage

Toward complete area coverage of a reconfigurable tiling robot by following obstacle shape

Collision Avoidance and Stability Study of a Self-Reconfigurable Drainage Robot

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