PRE2024 3 Group6
Dev, Geert Langhout - 1721704, Michiel Sweere - 1762435, Merlin 1734008, Haochen1533819
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pPDWfC-ANSb7UUsSuHuB8DjOFGSYxDZMXs8z4nUY1Wk/edit?usp=sharing
^shared document
Problem statement:
Blackboards are widely used even in the digital age. At the Technical University of Eindhoven blackboards are beloved with teachers and students alike. There are many reasons for the love for blackboards, however one downside is that cleaning the blackboards is inefficient. While the professor is cleaning the blackboard the lesson is momentarily halted and the chalk can get everywhere which can make for an unclean environment. A blackboard cleaning robot could mean that a teacher does not need to pause their lecture and could lessen the unsanitary environment of the teacher.
Objective:
The objective of this project is to develop a robot that can efficiently and without much drawbacks clean the blackboard. The robot should be able to reach all the spaces on the blackboard and clean them. This is the basic requirement of the robot, furthermore several things are preferred. First of all the robot should be able to detect if parts are not necessarily erased and avoid erasing these locations. Second, the space the robot takes up should be minimized and the chalk residue should be stored, as to lessen the need for routine cleaning of the machine. Lastly the robot should clean the robot efficiently as to be as small as a distraction for students and professors as possible.
Goals
Core goal: Clean the blackboard quickly and effectively, leaving no dead corners.
Secondary goals:
1. Provide a function to save the blackboard content before erasing, which can be linked with the projector to recall the previously erased content.
2. Remote control through a mobile app.
3. Provide a dust removal solution to prevent dust pollution from affecting the health of users. (May be the most important secondary goal)
4. If you decide to have projection capabilities, you may be able to combine voice recognition and natural language processing functions to record some important words (using ready-made APIs, such as Google Speech-to-Text), or even connect with chat AI such as GPT or Deepseek to provide AI assistant services instantly through oral dictation when needed. (This is relatively simple in theory. After all, it is a purely procedural job and does not even require much debugging.)
Designs:
1.simple one, one eraser hanging on a track. Moved up and down.
2.Traditional design, one big bar moves from left to right
3.Shaped like car wipers.
4.Freely moving little car with two cables pointed on two corners.
5. Drone
Planning and milestones
| Week | Activities | Milestones |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Decide on subject, start literature research and user study | |
| 2 | Decide on design, work out design and develop algorithms | Design chosen, cleaning path algorithm chosen |
| 3 | Work out design and start prototyping, start writing code for robot | |
| 4 | Put together mechanical aspects of prototype, combine software with actuators | Mechanical part prototype finished, software finished |
| 5 | Combine software, mechanical, actuators into one prototype | Prototype put together |
| 6 | Test out prototype on blackboards, prepare presentation | Tests finished |
| 7 | Present, write out improvement points for robot. |
Deliverables
At the end of this project we aim to have a robot which is able to clean a blackboard automatically.
Task division
| Name | Task |
|---|---|
| Dev | |
| Geert | Mechanical design |
| Michiel | |
| Merlin | |
| Haochen |
Time division
| Name | Total | Breakdown |
|---|---|---|
| Dev | ||
| Geert | ||
| Michiel | ||
| Merlin | ||
| Haochen |
| Name | Total | Breakdown |
|---|---|---|
| Dev | ||
| Geert | ||
| Michiel | ||
| Merlin | ||
| Haochen |
Papers:
Michiel:
Prashanth Pai Manihalla, Yathin Krishna, Nagaraja Anand Naik, Naveen Kumar, Rakshith, Rakshith Billava Ramappa; Design and fabrication of an electromechanical system to clean the blackboard. AIP Conf. Proc. 20 May 2020; 2236 (1): 050006. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0007099
V. Mohanavel, C. Kailasanathan, T. Sathish, V. Kannadhasan, S. Vinoth Joe Marshal, K. Sakthivel, Modeling and fabrication of automatic blackboard dust remover, Materials Today: Proceedings, Volume 37, Part 2, 2021, Pages 527-530, ISSN 2214-7853, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.05.487.
Junyu Hu, Xu Han, Yourui Tao, Shizhe Feng, A magnetic crawler wall-climbing robot with capacity of high payload on the convex surface, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Volume 148, 2022,103907, ISSN 0921-8890, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2021.103907.
https://patents.google.com/patent/CN203184863U/en
Geert:
T. Kusnur and M. Likhachev, "Complete, Decomposition-Free Coverage Path Planning," 2022 IEEE 18th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Mexico City, Mexico, 2022, pp. 1431-1437, doi: 10.1109/CASE49997.2022.9926483.
Could be used for finding the optimal cleaning path without being too computationally intensive.
TIANLEI WANG, NANLIN TAN, et al; "Global-Equivalent Sliding Mode Control Method for Bridge Crane"
Could be used for controller if we decide to go the direction of cranes. Instead of wind resistance we can use the resistance of the cleaner against the blackboard. Unsure if still applicable when using two wires to hang something from, but should be fine.
C. -Y. Lin and T. -C. Hu, "Development and Locomotion Control of a Horizontal Ledge-Climbing Robot," 2021 7th International Conference on Control, Automation and Robotics (ICCAR), Singapore, 2021, pp. 60-64, doi: 10.1109/ICCAR52225.2021.9463324.
Interesting way to do locomotion on the top of the blackboard. Depending on execution might be widely usable, also over handles like in the lecture hall in Gemini-south.
Patent automatic blackboard cleaner: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3731335A/en
Spans the entire height of the board, not very adjustable.
Y. A. Maruthi 1 & S. Ramprasad 1 & N. Lakshmana Das 2; Trace Elemental Characterization of Chalk Dust and Their Associated Health Risk Assessment
Reason besides labor saving to make the robot: might prevent some chalk from going into the air. Would need scientifically supported better method of cleaning then.
Haochen:
1.intelligent and Automatic Blackboard Cleaning Nacgube
FENGYIBAO, RESIN XIAODAN, WU SONGZUE, XU HAO, SU HAILONG, FUMIN
(School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300222, China)
The design of a vertical column-shaped blackboard-erasing robot was demonstrated, which uses roller felt for cleaning and a dust collection module that uses static electricity to prevent dust from flyiny around.
2.M. Umbarkar, S. Kattitharayil, and F. Rozario, "Design & Fabrication of Smart Board Cleaner," International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 1645-1650, Apr. 2019.
This is a design that divides the blackboard into four different areas, and has the function of connecting and controlling via mobile phone Bluetooth. Based on Arduino, it can be used as a reference.
3.V. A., N. Abinesh, J. Abiram, C. Abishack, and V. A. Kumar, "Design and Fabrication of Blackboard Cleaner," International Journal of Engineering Applied Sciences and Technology (IJEAST), vol. 5, no. 11, pp. 229-237, Mar. 2021.
This is a six-rod mechanism designed to imitate car wipers. Considering the long-standing successful design of car wipers, referring to this solution for improvement may make our design more eye-catching. Merlin:
Merlin:
Jagtap, S., & Tuljapure, S. (n.d.). DESIGN OF BLACKBOARD DUSTER CLEANING MACHINE.
Paper shows a specific design of a blackboard duster machine that aims to prevent dust particles getting into the air. Paper can also be a useful reference when we write down our own design.
Tang, L., Tang, X., Jiang, X., & Gosselin, C. (2015). Dynamic trajectory planning study of planar two-dof redundantly actuated cable-suspended parallel robots. Mechatronics, 30, 187–197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mechatronics.2015.07.005
Paper explores different designs of two-dof (degrees of freedom) actuated cable-suspended robots. If we choose to do a cable implementation for our robot, the systems would almost be the same, except for the (electro)magnet. Our robot would be a statically determined, cable-driven, parallel robot.
German, J. J., K.W. Jablokow, & Cannon, D. J. (2002). The cable array robot: theory and experiment. 3, 2804–2810. https://doi.org/10.1109/robot.2001.933047
This paper shows some of the mathematics behind cable arrays, or actuated cable-suspended systems. They also demonstrate that this can be done well in practice, with small error margins, which would be fine for our robot.
Dev:
Review of advancements in wall climbing robot techniques: Junru Zhu, Yongqiang Zhu, Pingxia Zhang
This paper provides a detailed overview of the current advancements (as of 2024) in the field of wall climbing robots. This provides multiple options for different adhesion, locomotion and control strategies for a freely moving blackboard cleaning robot.
Building a Better Snail: Lubrication and Adhesive Locomotion: Brian Chan, N. J. Balmforth, and A. E. Hosoi
This paper proposes two designs for adhesive locomotion (relevant for vertical locomotion on a blackboard) based on the biomechanics of a snail.
Albagul, Abdulgani & Asseni, A & Khalifa, Othman. (2011). Wall climbing robot: Mechanical design and implementation.
This paper details a wall climbing design from end-to-end using a vacuum pump and suction pumps. Design can be incorporated with a duster to provide utility for the task at hand.
VertiGo - a Wall-Climbing Robot including Ground-Wall Transition: Dr Paul Beardsley
This paper provides a innovative design for using propellors to provide force along with wheels for multimodal locomotion.
BLACKBOARD CLEANING ROBOT: Akshay Rajeev, K Dinesh Raj, Ria Augustine, S.K Yukta Swamy
This paper details a side-to-side blackboard cleaning robot using Arduino as a microcontroller and DC motor for actuation. Can be incorporated with sensors for additional functionality.