Requirements, preferences, and constraints

Requirements

• The robot should at least inspect and clean every window once, regardless of the dirtiness of the window. In other words, even windows that are not dirty should be cleaned. This is a very reasonable requirement because people who hire a window washing company expect that they will clean every window.
• The window cleaning robot is not allowed to leave stripes due to the dripping of water or incomplete horizontal movements.
• For window washing companies, speed in terms of surface area cleaned per unit of time is of major importance. The higher the rate at which the windows can be cleaned, the more profit can be made. The goal is to reach a speed of 125 m2/hr, which is the highest of three popular commercially available window cleaning robots that are considered. This seems to be an acceptable requirement for the model.
• The water consumption is another important aspect, since this has an influence on the speed of the cleaning process and also has a minor impact on the total cost of the cleaning job. All current window cleaning robots of the considered size of roughly 25 x 25 cm do not have a water supply or tank, but use detergent instead. The innovative part of the model is therefore that a water supply in the form of a tank is included. This is similar to real window washers, because they also do not solely use detergent. The requirement for the water consumption is based on a bigger window cleaning robot (GEKKO Facade Robot) which has a water consumption of approximately 1 L/min. Because this bigger robot has a size of around 4 times the size of the considered cleaning robots, a requirement of maximum 0.25 L/min seems suitable.
• Due to the presence of the water tank, it is important that its volume is large enough to clean a window without requiring the employee to do a refill.
• The battery capacity of the window cleaning robot should be large enough to clean an entire window without requiring the employee to replace it during the cleaning job.
• Energy consumption is the last relevant aspect since this has an impact on the total cost of the cleaning job. The requirement for the energy consumption is also determined by averaging over the considered window cleaning robots: maximum 73.5 W.

Preferences

• The window should be made as clean as possible in a reasonable time span.
• Speed in terms of surface area cleaned per unit should be as high as possible.
• First because it is not desired that the robot runs out of water. The second reason is that is has a influence on the total cost, but this is of course less important since the price of water is relatively low, and using soapy water is already better for the environment than using conventional detergents.
• Energy consumption should be as low as possible.

Constraints

• The robot should be able to clean rectangle windows with a dimensions between 0.5 x 0.5 m and 4.0 x 4.0 m. In this range most common windows will be covered.