Development of a vacuum cleaner robot

• Main Authors: T.B. Asafa, T.M. Afonja, E.A. Olaniyan, H.O. Alade
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2018-12-01
• Series: Alexandria Engineering Journal
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110016818300899

Modern households are becoming more automated thereby delivering convenience and reducing time spent on house chores. While vacuum cleaners have made home cleaning easier, they are largely noisy and bulky for everyday use. It is therefore sine qua non to improve the technology of vacuum cleaning to reduce these deficiencies. Here, we report the development of a compact and efficient vacuum cleaner robot for potential office and home use. The developed robot is disk-shaped, equipped with vacuuming and cleaning technology and controlled by Arduino mega microcontroller. It sucks dirt via a retractable dustbin on top of which a cooling fan is mounted, and two sweepers each driven by a 3 V DC motor. The robot navigates via two motor shield controlled rear wheels and a front caster wheel which also governs its turning. Four ultrasonic sensors, placed at 90° apart, detect obstacles and subsequently help the robot navigate. The robot is powered by 3 batteries (28.8 V DC), rechargeable via an embedded AC-DC adapter. It is 12 cm wide and 9 cm tall making it easy for maneuvering its environment. Because of the light weight battery, cardboard based dustbin and small blower used, its weight is about 1.5 kg. The total current consumed is ∼1102 mA. When fully charged, a 2200 mAh-capacity battery works continuously for two hours and cleans floor efficiently. With this capability, the device will be deployed for office and home use thereby making cleaning a fully autonomous duty. Keywords: Vacuum cleaner, Robot, Control