Publication: Autonomous drain cleaning robot for residential drainage system
Date
2022-07-01
Authors
Viswanathan, Selvakumar
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Abstract
As the growth of the urban population taking place at an exceptionally rapid rate, a city may unable to cope with changing situations due to its internal resource constraints and
management limitations. In recent years, many residential neighborhoods in Malaysia have experienced major drainage problems during the monsoon season, which has become a typical and recurring issue. Blockage of drainage and irrigation systems causes a slew of problems and inhibits a country's urbanization and growth. Covered and uncovered drainage systems in Malaysia’s residential areas must be inspected and cleaned on a regular basis to ensure appropriate function and public health and safety. Robots have been created to help with drain cleaning. Existing drain cleaning robots, on the other hand, require design and autonomy enhancements. As a result, this project details the development of an autonomous drain cleaning robot for a residential drainage system, replete with safety features and wireless control. The mechanical design, control architecture, and autonomy functions of the robot have all been thoroughly described in the thesis, along with insights. The drain cleaning robot features a collecting mechanism that allows it to gather various sizes of rubbish and soil deposits in the drain. Aside from that, the robot clears blockages in the drain with crusher mechanism, allowing water to flow freely. It is also outfitted with automatic mechanisms that realign its movement and make corrections to avoid a crash or malfunction. Few experimental tests are configured to test the functionality and efficiency of each mechanism. For example, two pseudo drains were designed with different sizes and filled with different blockages to test the functionality of the mechanism by gathering the result from the percentage of blockages cleared and removed. The designed autonomous drain cleaning robot can successfully remove obstructions and deposits in the drain, and the robot's automatic mechanism allows it to complete the operation flawlessly.