AUTOMATIC MINI FLOOR CLEANER

SANGEETHA THANGARAJ

FACULTY OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

TECHNOLOGY
(MECHATRONIC ENGINEERING)
UNVERSITI MALAYSIA PERLIS

2020
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 OVERVIEW & RESEARCH BACKGROUND

Automation is playing a major role all around the world since it is more
effective and saving time to do a particular process or work that programmed. In that
case, automation in home appliances is also given priority as well as others. Due to the
high rate of pollution the ratio of dust increases. So, this automated floor cleaner is
capable of helping those who cannot spare their time to clean their space. Mostly,
automated cleaners are differentiated based on their cleaning capabilities like dry vacuum
cleaning or floor mopping. The main purpose of this project is to design and develop an
automated mini floor cleaner that will make mopping operations more efficient and
easier. It reduces the cost of cleaning and human efforts. It will assist people at home who
are too busy for daily floor cleaning, especially for working people who do not have
enough time to clean. In particular for the elderly people who live by themselves and do
not have the strength or ability to clean.

An automated mini floor cleaner is a robot with a cleaning function. It is

designed to make the cleaning process easier for the human task. This project consists of
hardware and software. The hardware of the automated mini floor cleaner robot consists
of an arduino uno as the microcontroller, DC motors, motor driver, ultrasonic sensor,
servo motor, power distribution, and also the body for the robot. Software MicroC and
Proteus are used to write the programming and simulate the circuit design. To complete
this automated mini floor cleaner it is required to design an efficient algorithm to enable
the cleaning process to be carried out.
 1.2 PROBLEM STATMENT

People at home are too busy to clean the floor especially those who are working due to
lack of time and being physically tired after long hours of working ,this caused the
demand of market of the automatic mini floor cleaner to increase. For an example, in
2018, approximately 14.8 million people were employed in Malaysia, out of a labour
force of just under 15.3 million people. In that year, the labour force participation rate
was at 68.3 percent. Hence, it is proven in Malaysia that there are a lot of people are
working. The main cause for various diseases spread is unhygienic environment.
However, to ensure hygienic environment in houses cleaning process have to be done
consistently and efficiently. For an example, in a recent statistic research, we got to know
that 60.7% of Malaysians are living with non-communicable disease. 7 out of 10
Malaysians adult suffer from chronic diseases while 45% adults live an unhealthy
lifestyle due to sedentary lifestyle. This shows how much effect can a busy daily working
lifestyle effects on the people’s health. An automated mini floor is an alternative way to
carry out the daily cleaning process at home. The advantages of using this automated mini
floor cleaner are time saving, reduce man power and high effectiveness in cleaning
process. In addition, it is also useful for those with mobility issues to clean the house
without any difficulties.

1.3 RESEARCH SCOPE

The scope of this project is to design and build a prototype of automated mini
floor cleaner which is capable of cleaning the floor automatically. The Arduino Uno is
the main microcontroller to receive the input from all the sensors and process and
transfer to the actuators to carry out the task. Programming the Arduino Uno
accordingly to the project to ensure it cleans and cover the designated area and
programme the sensors accordingly.

The hardware development for this prototype is the structure of the model which is light-
weighted and undulated shape to make sure that it do not stucked in sharp corners. Next, the
sensor development, all the sensor are placed and set up to give reading to the main
controller. Sensors are integrated and aligned to get distance reading accurately to Arduino
UNO. The cleaning process will cover up the all the area as it can move along all the edges as
programmed. Lastly, Arduino IDE being the software for this project, C++ being the
language that will be used for all the codes.

1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

i. To develop a fully automated mini floor cleaner at low cost.

ii. To integrate and calibrate the function of sensors.

iii. To simulate and justify the coverage area of the automatic mini floor cleaner.

1.5 REPORT ORGANISATION

This thesis explores the topic of automatic mini floor cleaner using arduino uno . The
research works carried out are presented in the five chapters of this thesis.

Chapter 1 of this report contains the introduction which includes the background of the
study, problem statement, objectives, and scopes of this project in detail.

Chapter 2 about the literature review of this project. In this chapter literature review
related to this project will be discussed from sources such as previous thesis, articles,
research papers, books and other sources.

Chapter 3 describes the research methodology of the project. Here all the essential steps
taken to complete this project are discussed in detail. The hardware, software and
hardware and software integration procedure will be discussed briefly.

Chapter 4 provides the result and discussion. The actual automatic mini floor cleaner,
complete circuitry design, complete programming source code, cleaning process,
experimental result of automated mini floor cleaner, statistical analysis of developed
automated mini floor cleaner and summary of results are explained in detailed.

The final chapter, Chapter 5 is all about the conclusion and future works. Findings of the
project are concluded in this chapter.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

.1 INTRODUCTION

The literature review related to this project will be discussed in this chapter briefly.
Previous thesis, articles, research papers, books and other sources were used to conduct
the research. Literature review is done to gather and analysis relevant information and
knowledge from this sources. Extracted information and knowledge will be very useful to
conduct and finish the project smoothly.

.2 LITERATURE REVIEW

We studied about different types robots and different types of projects which are related
to arduino based robots. Ultrasonic sensor is used for obstacle avoidance and with
Arduino UNO. The front portion of the robot is attached with a swabbing cloth for
swabbing of the floor a small water tank can be provided to keep the cloth moist.
Swabbing cloth is provided with magnet for easy attachment and detachment.

It is provided with a reachable battery and four gear motors which help in the movement
of the robot. Things have come an awfully long way since the early 19th-century, when
an infamous band of textile workers called the Luddites smashed up the machines they
feared were stealing their jobs. What would they make of life 200 years later, when most
products come from highly automated factories and many of us are now inviting robots
into our homes? It's still very early days for household robots, but a popular little machine
called the automatic mini floor cleaner robot could be the shape of things to come. It's a
small, computerized cleaner that nips round their house automatically cleaning the floors.
This is a step by step guide to build an automatic mini floor cleaner robot.

We use the Arduino microcontroller to control this robot. We have two different
programs for this robot. The first enables the robot to drive around and avoid anything
that gets in its way. This avoiding obstacles program uses a ultrasonic sensor.

.3 TYPE OF SENSOR

Ultra sound sensor: Ultrasonic Sensor The principle of ultrasonic sensor is similar to
sonar or radar in which interpretation of echoes from radio or sound waves to evaluate the
attributes of a target by generating the high-frequency-sound waves (around 40kHz). The
transducer used for converting energy into ultrasound or sound waves with ranges above
human hearing range is called an ultrasonic transducer. Application of Ultrasonic Sensor
The distance measurement at inaccessible areas is a typical application of ultrasonic
sensors.

The circuit consists of an ultrasonic module, LCD display and microcontroller. The
ultrasonic module is interfaced with the microcontroller and this ultrasonic transducer
consists of a transmitter and receiver.

The waves transmitted by transducer are received back again after the waves are reflected
back from the object. The velocity of sound is considered for calculating time taken for
sending and receiving waves. The distance is calculated by executing a program on
microcontroller, and then it is displayed on the LCD display.

.4 DIFFERENT TYPE OF ROBOTS

2.4.1 A FLOOR CLEANING ROBOT USING SWEDISH WHEELS

Published in: 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics
(ROBIO).

In the early 90s, Denning Company and Windsor Industry Company of America
developed a kind of cleaning robot called RoboScrub. The robot use ultrasonic range
finders for obstacle detection and feature extraction. In addition they are provided with
high precision laser based navigation system. In 1999, Alfred Karcher GmbH & Co. of
Germany developed a floor vacuum cleaning robots called 2000 Robovac. This robot is
small in size, light in weight and can clear an area of 15m2 per hour in a domestic
environment. Furthermore, Hitachi Corporation of Japan, Cyberworks Corporation of
Canada, and Siemens Company of Germany are also developing robotic cleaning
systems [1]–[2][3].

These mentioned robotic cleaning systems have the characteristics of being driven
differentially and a castor wheel for support, equipped with ultrasonic sensors,
gyroscopes, laser scanners etc, mostly equipped with single cleaning system. The
differentially driven cleaning system has a drawback of trembling down when the robot
starts to move from rest or from moving to stop.

This paper presents a new floor cleaning robot, which can move along all direction by its
Swedish wheels and has four cleaners with automatic switching capability. The robot can
move longitudinally and laterally, pivot around and move toward arbitrary direction. In
addition to the installation of optical proximity sensors and ultrasonic sensors, the robot
also collocated with pressure sensors around its perimeter, which can help the robot to
gain obstacle avoidance, impaction, and other functions. Moreover a real time power
management system is provided for optimized performance and signals the low battery
condition. In case that power is low, the alarm can be announced. This robot is especially
suitable for cleaning jobs in domestic, complex and crowded environments.
2.4.2 THE MINT FLOOR CLEANER
Published in: 2012 IEEE Workshop on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts
(ARSO).

Early in 2008, Samsung introduced the first robotic vacuum cleaner that maps its
environment and systematically navigates in a home. For this purposes the Samsung
Hauzen robot utilizes a camera observing the ceiling and employs a visual localization
and mapping approach [5]. Several other products have followed since then
including LG's RoboKing or Neato Robotics' laser-equipped vacuum robot.

In 2010 we launched a new robot for autonomous floor cleaning: the Mint

Cleaner [4] shown in Fig. 1. Unlike its competitors, Mint is not a vacuum robot but uses
disposable or washable cleaning clothes for sweeping and mopping hard-surface floors.
The robot employs a systematic cleaning strategy that maps the environment using a
GPS-like indoor localization system. This allows Mint to track where it cleans so it does
not miss a spot.

In this paper we investigate the social impact of Mint as a systematic floor cleaner. There
have been numerous related studies regarding the impact of robots in home and work
environments. Mutlu and Forlizzi [6], for example, studied the impact of delivery robots
in a hospital with respect to the work-flow of hospital staff in different units. They found
that while the work load got significantly less for some departments, e.g. kitchen and
laundry, the staff of other units experienced an increase of work. The acceptance of the
hospital robots also varied among the different departments.

The contributions of this work are the feedback from Mint users about their usage of the
product, and a survey that targets on how the technical concepts of Mint are received by
the consumers. While some of our findings are similar to the results reported in previous
work, the research on technical aspects of how the robot cleans is novel. Our results give
an indication of people's attitude towards systematic cleaning and what benefits Mint
brought to their lifestyle.
2.4.3 SWEEPY - THE SMART FLOOR CLEANER
Published in: 2018 International Conference on Design Innovations for 3Cs Compute
Communicate Control (ICDI3C).

The robot is designed to move autonomously throughout the room. Ultrasonic sensors
that are interfaced to the Arduino Mega serves the role for obstacle detection. Moreover, a
manual control of the robot is established by using the Bluetooth module HC05 and an
application is designed to control the robotic movements. In one sweep simultaneous
sweeping and mopping is facilitated. The water pump allows the flow of water to mop an
area. A vacuum cleaner is used to suck out the dust and dirt encountered by the robot. The
app allows the user to control the accessories on the robot thus enabling a judicious use of
power and water.The autonomous motion of the robot involves the zigzag movement of
the robot, the zigzag motion occur when the robot encounters the walls or other objects. A
person can wirelessly control the robot using the application as well. The robot can be
switched between autonomous or manual operation at the push of a button on the
application. The anterior of the robot sucks dust and other particles using the vacuum
pump. The bottom of the robot performs the mopping enabled via wiper. These
accessories can be controlled using the app as well. A drying equipment is placed on the
posterior end to dry the area that is mopped.The MPU is used to enable the zig zag
motion the robot takes in the automatic mode.

In the beginning it is checked if the user has opted for the manual or the automatic mode
of operation. In case of manual mode the user can control the motion of the robot. In the
autonomous mode the robot navigates the room taking turns with the aid of the mpu6050.

2.4.4 SMART WINDORO V1.0 : SMART WINDOW CLEANING ROBOT

Published in: 2012 9th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient
Intelligence (URAI).

Window cleaning at the high place is one of the most laborious and dangerous work,
therefore, several researches have conducted to liberate human from this laborious and
dangerous window cleaning during last ten years.

Until now, several types of window cleaning robot with special locomotion have been
proposed. Most of them are using vacuum sucker as an adhering unit. Some of them have
the driving wheels to make continuous movement on the window, others use the legged
locomotion to make a discrete walking on the window. However, it is difficult to apply
these kinds of vacuum sucker based window cleaning robots to the real domestic
environments. To be the practical window cleaning robot for the home, a small office and
a shop, it should be small, light and energy efficient to such an extent as to need no
external line for portability. In addition to this, it should be safe from falling down and
autonomous operating system with no human concern during the entire cleaning stage.
Most of vacuum sucker based window cleaning robot do not meet all conditions
addressed above, they generally have a external power line or a vacuum pipe line because
keeping vacuum state is very energy consuming and they are not safe from falling down
in system malfunction situation losing controllability to keep vacuum state.

In our previous paper, we proposed a new concept of a window cleaning robot named
windoro which is developed for practical usage in the domestic environment such as
home, shop and so on [10].In this paper, we introduce the smart windoro which is the
follow-up model of the windoro. In order to improve the windoro's weakness, the smart
windoro adopts additional units such as an autonomous magnetic force control unit, a
vertical position control unit and a corner cleaning mechanism.

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the methodology used to complete this project is discussed in detail.
Firstly, it mentions about the project flow which is very important to carry out this
project. The project is divided into automated mini floor cleaner design, circuit
development, and software programming. Meanwhile, sensor and actuators chosen to
construct the machine are also discussed in this chapter. Project management and project
costing are included at the end of this chapter. Figure 3.1 shows the complete system
design.

Mechanical Electronic Software

hardware circuit Programming
 Integration

Testing and Fine Tuning

Complete

Figure 3.1 Complete system design

.2 RESEARCH FLOW

In order to complete the project successfully, it requires a good planning before

implementing. Project flow is the tasks need be done and arranged according to
sequence to avoid any problems during the implementation. Once done with the project
selection, the next step is the literature review.

Articles, journals, and research papers were searched and read to extract information
related to this project. After gathering on theories and concept started to research on the
automated floor cleaner.

Designs were drawn using AutoCAD according to the complexity and requirement to
perform the cleaning process. Based on the design selected, materials to be used will be
bought and construction of the hardware and circuit will be completed. Software and
hardware integration will be the next step which requires more time since it is the
hardest part.

Testing and tuning will be carried out after integrating the software and hardware
successfully. If the automated floor cleaner fulfil the requirement as desired, the work
will be stopped and declared a success. If there is any errors or complications, software
and hardware integration need to be corrected. Figure 3.2 shows the project flow.

PROJECT SELECTION

LITERATURE REVIEW

DESIGN THE ROBOT USING AUTOCAD

PURCHASE THE MATERIALS

HARDWARE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

 CIRCUIT DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

SOFTWARE ALGORITHM

SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE INTEGRATION

FINE TUNING AND TESTING

Figure 3.2 Research flow

.3 PROTOTYPE FLOW

The automated mini floor cleaner is to be turned on first. Once turned on, the automated
mini floor cleaner will start to move to clean the entire area and also will identify the
border of the room. Ultrasonic sensor will detect the obstacles, if obstacle is detected
then it moves back and change its path and other is used to detect the height in order to
prevent the cleaner from falling down. If obstacle is not detected then it moves in forward
direction. Once done with cleaning, LCD display will state the progress of the project by
displaying "starting", "cleaning" and "shutting down". After it show total time it will
make a sound to alert the user to turn it off. Figure 3.3 shows the prototype flow.

START

TURN ON

MOVING = TRUE

NO
IF
OBSTACLE
OR
 YES
TURN ON TO AVOID
OBSTACLE

OFF (IF FINISH CLEANING)

END

Figure 3.3 Prototype flow

.4 ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS

In this section, the controller and sensor used to construct the automatic mini floor cleaner
will be discussed in detail. To make a selection for each device that will be used in this
project, the research should be conducted to look at the suitability of the device according
to the specifications required. Comparisons were conducted to assess the suitability of the
device. Parts and components that need to be studied are the ultrasonic sensor, LCD
display, servo motor, motor driver, and DC motors.

.4.1 ARDUINO UNO

 Figure 3.4 Arduino Uno Board

Figure 3.4 shows Arduino Uno which used as main controller in this project. Arduino
Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328P. It has 14 digital input/output
pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16MHz crystal
oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It contains
everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a
USB cable or battery to get started.

3.4.1 ULTRASONIC SENSOR

Figure 3.5 HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor

Figure 3.5 shows HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor. It uses sonar to determine distance to an object
like bats do. It offers excellent non-contact range detection with high accuracy and stable
readings in an easy-to-use package. It is used to detect the obstacles, if obstacle is detected
then it moves back and change its path and other is used to detect the height in order to
prevent the cleaner from falling down. If obstacle is not detected then it moves forward
direction.

.4.3 LIQUID-CRYSTAL DISPLAY (LCD)

Figure 3.6 LCD Display 1602 with I2C/IIC interface

Figure 3.6 shows LCD Display 1602 with I2C/IIC interface. A liquid-crystal
display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that
uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizer. Liquid
crystals do not emit light directly, instead using a backlight or reflector to produce images
in color or monochrome.This display overcomes the drawback of LCD 1602 Parallel
LCD Display in which you’ll waste about 8 Pins on your Arduino for the display to get
working. Luckily in this product, an I2C adapter is directly soldered right onto the pins of
the display. So all you need to connect are the I2C pins, which shows a good library and
little of coding. It will state the progress of the project by displaying "starting", "cleaning"
and "shutting down". It may be also a proper and helpful to user to see the process that go
through by the project.

.4.4 SERVO MOTOR

 Figure 3.7 Servo Motor

Figure 3.7 shows a servo motor which is an electrical component which can be used push or
rotate an object with great precision. The servo is just made up of simple motor which runs
through servo mechanism. If the motor used is DC powered then it is called DC servo motor,
and if it is AC powered then it is called AC servo motor. We can get a very high torque motor
in a small and light weight packages. Servo motor is used in this project to rotate the
ultrasonic sensor.

.4.5 MOTOR DRIVER

Figure 3.8 Motor Driver L298N

Figure 3.8 shows L298N Motor Driver Module. It is a high power motor driver module for
driving DC and Stepper Motors. This module consists of an L298 motor driver IC and a
78M05 5V regulator. L298N Module can control up to 4 DC motors, or 2 DC motors with
directional and speed control. Motor Driver L298N is used in this project to drive the DC
motors.

.4.6 DC MOTOR

Figure 3.9 DC Motor

Figure 3.9 shows a DC motor is any of a class of rotary electrical motors that converts direct
current electrical energy into mechanical energy. The most common types rely on the forces
produced by magnetic fields. Nearly all types of DC motors have some internal mechanism,
either electro mechanical or electronic, to periodically change the direction of current in part
of the motor.

CHAPTER 4

RESULTS & DISCUSSION

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION