Patent Application
20240317425
This U.S. patent application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to: Indian patent application Ser. No. 202321019005, filed Mar. 21, 2023. The entire contents of the aforementioned application are incorporated herein by reference.
The disclosure herein generally relates to the field of automated surface cleaning systems, and, more particularly, to Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Propelled Autonomous Multiplane Cleaning System (UPAMCS).
Autonomous cleaning is in demand for solar panels with varying installation types including roof top solar paneling and floating solar panels spread over wide areas. Clean solar panels improve the efficiency of power generation. Similarly, developments in building and construction has led to high rise buildings, which mostly are covered with glass panes. Cleaning of these inclined glass panes is a regular task performed during building maintenance. Autonomous cleaning is one of the ideal options for cleaning of the above stated surfaces.
Use of efficient methods for the surface cleaning tasks in terms of time, cost and power consumption is critical in automation approaches. One major reason being the sites of cleaning surfaces are generally remote with challenges faced in easy access to power recharging points. Many a times the sites are at remote places. Thus, on-board battery power must be efficiently used. However, conventional autonomous surface cleaners or solar panel cleaners such as autonomous mobile robots or drones used electrically powered motors for movement of a cleaning apparatus across the surface, as well as for activating the cleaning mechanism. Thus, the existing methods are power consuming systems, affecting time and cost of cleaning. One way to assess cleaning efficiency of the surface cleaners can be in terms of ratio of power consumed to area cleaned. Further, in addition to the power consumption aspect, the construct of the cleaning mechanism is critical.
Cleaning systems proposed in the art have technical construct limitations in the cleaning mechanisms used, which lead to a lower ratio of power consumed to area cleaned, directly affecting the cleaning efficiency.
Embodiments of the present disclosure present technological improvements as solutions to one or more of the above-mentioned technical problems recognized by the inventors in conventional systems. For example, in one embodiment, a system, also referred as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Propelled Autonomous Multiplane Cleaning System (UPAMCS), is provided.
The system comprises a UAV and Mopping Interface Mechanism (UAV-MIM) mounted on a base frame connecting to a UAV as a slung load; a driver wheel frame connected to a rear end of the base frame, a pair of driving wheels attached to a lower side of the driver wheel frame at the rear end, a worm and a worm wheel, wherein the worm wheel is attached to a driver wheel axle of the pair of driving wheels, which in turn drives the worm about a vertical axis, a driver pulley fixed at a top end of the worm, wherein one or more driven pulley belts transmit drive from the driver pulley to one or more driven pulleys connecting one or more mopping systems.
Each mopping system comprising: a set of drive arms driven by the driven pulley attached, an annular gear wheel fixed to the lower side of the base frame, a set of planet gear wheels, each planet gear wheel from the set of planet gear wheels connected to a drive arm among the set of drive arms, wherein the set of planet gear wheels are meshed between fixed internal teeth of the annular gear wheel and a sun gear wheel, while each of the drive arm rotates the set of planet gear wheels which in turn rotates the sun gear wheel and a mopping material fixed to a bottom side of the sun gear wheel and the set of planet gear wheels.
The system further comprises a cleaning fluid distribution network attached to the base frame comprising (i) an inclined surface cleaning mechanism for spraying a cleaning fluid in upward direction and (ii) a flat surface cleaning mechanism for spraying the cleaning fluid in downward direction for a surface to be cleaned below the one or more mopping systems.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this disclosure, illustrate exemplary embodiments and, together with the description, serve to explain the disclosed principles:
It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any block diagrams herein represent conceptual views of illustrative systems and devices embodying the principles of the present subject matter. Similarly, it will be appreciated that any flow charts, flow diagrams, and the like represent various processes which may be substantially represented in computer readable medium and so executed by a computer or processor, whether or not such computer or processor is explicitly shown.
Exemplary embodiments are described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. Wherever convenient, the same reference numbers are used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts. While examples and features of disclosed principles are described herein, modifications, adaptations, and other implementations are possible without departing from the scope of the disclosed embodiments. It is intended that the following detailed description be considered as exemplary only, with the true scope being indicated by the following claims.
Surface cleaning systems demand power, time, and cost efficient approaches. Cleaning systems proposed in the art have technical construct limitations in the cleaning mechanisms used, which leads to a lower ratio of power consumed to area cleaned, directly affecting the cleaning efficiency. Embodiments herein provide a system also referred to as an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Propelled Autonomous Multiplane Cleaning System (UPAMCS) for surface cleaning of flat and inclined surfaces. An UAV and Mopping Interface Mechanism (UAV-MIM) connects a UAV to one or more mopping systems comprising an epicyclic gear system, also referred to as planetary gear system, driven moppers with no additional power devices used. A maneuvering mechanism disclosed enables the UAV to propel the mopping systems to reach any geometric shape or inclination. The UPAMCS provides cost, time, and power efficient surface cleaning. The UPAMCS is also equipped with vision cameras and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) for guidance during landing and crawling over surfaces along with additional surface defect detection by performing image processing on the captured images.
Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to
Irrespective of mode of operation, the mechanism for transfer of energy (forward movement) from the UAV to one or more the mopping system is the same and explained below, with specific design changes, to adapt to the two modes.
As depicted in
Thus, the system 100 provides two embodiments, the single mopping system and dual mopping system. The choice of mode to be used is dependent on area of the surface of interest. For example, for a smaller area the single mopping system is a preferred choice at it reduces the payload of the UAV 106 to half and hence the cost.
The UPAMCS 100 is equipped with the cleaning fluid distribution network 136 attached to the base frame 104, which can operate differently for to address requirements of cleaning fluid spaying for an inclined surface and a flat surface. Examples of inclined surfaces include vertically mounted (90 degrees) glass panes or angularly mounted glass panes. The UAV 106 with UAV-MIM 102 can easily maneuver the moping systems at any angle with irregular shape surface. Examples of flat surfaces include floating or roof top solar panels and the like. The cleaning fluid distribution network 136 comprises (i) an inclined surface cleaning mechanism for spraying the cleaning fluid in an upward direction, and (ii) a flat surface cleaning mechanism for spraying the cleaning fluid in a downward direction for a surface to be cleaned below the one or more mopping systems 124A-B.
As depicted in the 3-D view of
As depicted in
UPAMCS operation: The UAV 106 is equipped with landing and take-off configurations, wherein the UAV-MIM 102 allows the UAV 106 to land and take-off vertically. A drive configuration of the UPAMCS 100 activated after landing on the surface enables utilizing a propulsive power of the UAV 106 to maximum for pushing the pair of driving wheel 112 and the driven wheels 114A-C using friction, wherein the pair of driving wheels 112 at the rear end of the base frame 104, and the driven wheels 114A-C attached to each of a front end, a Left Hand Side (LHS) and a Right Hand Side (RHS) of the base frame 104 push the UPAMCS 100 forward over the surface to be cleaned. The cleaning fluid distribution network 136 is activated as soon as the UPAMCS 100 lands and drives forward, spraying the cleaning fluid on the surface enabling the mopping system 124A-B to cleanse. One or more cylindrical surface cleaning rollers 502 installed in the front of the base frame 104 and supported at (i) the LHS, a middle side and the RHS of the UPAMCS base frame 104 for a two cylindrical surface cleaning rollers configuration, and (ii) at the LHS and the RHS for a single cylindrical surface cleaning roller configuration. The brushes are free to rotate about central axles. The electrical nozzle activation system 142A-B and the proximity sensor 144A-B can be controlled via on-board processing by the UAV 106 in accordance with the current UPAMCS configuration.
The mopping system 124 works under three configurations comprising:
Provided below is an illustrative ‘cleaning time’ calculation of the system 100.
Design calculation for Solar Pond (SP) cleaning:
The written description describes the subject matter herein to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the embodiments. The scope of the subject matter embodiments is defined by the claims and may include other modifications that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other modifications are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have similar elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims or if they include equivalent elements with insubstantial differences from the literal language of the claims.
It is to be understood that the scope of the protection is extended to such a program and in addition to a computer-readable means having a message therein; such computer-readable storage means contain program-code means for implementation of one or more steps of the method controlling the UAV configuration, when the program runs on a server or a device, for example, the embedded compiler or any edge device or any suitable programmable device. The hardware device can be any kind of device which can be programmed including e.g., any kind of computer like a server or a personal computer, or the like, or any combination thereof. The device may also include means which could be e.g., hardware means like e.g., an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or a combination of hardware and software means, e.g., an ASIC and an FPGA, or at least one microprocessor and at least one memory with software processing components located therein. Thus, the means can include both hardware means, and software means. The method embodiments described herein could be implemented in hardware and software. The device may also include software means. Alternatively, the embodiments may be implemented on different hardware devices, e.g., using a plurality of CPUs.
The embodiments herein can comprise hardware and software elements. The embodiments that are implemented in software include but are not limited to, firmware, resident software, microcode, etc. The functions performed by various components described herein may be implemented in other components or combinations of other components. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can comprise, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
The illustrated steps are set out to explain the exemplary embodiments shown, and it should be anticipated that ongoing technological development will change the manner in which particular functions are performed. These examples are presented herein for purposes of illustration, and not limitation. Further, the boundaries of the functional building blocks have been arbitrarily defined herein for the convenience of the description. Alternative boundaries can be defined so long as the specified functions and relationships thereof are appropriately performed. Alternatives (including equivalents, extensions, variations, deviations, etc., of those described herein) will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s) based on the teachings contained herein. Such alternatives fall within the scope of the disclosed embodiments. Also, the words “comprising,” “having,” “containing,” and “including,” and other similar forms are intended to be equivalent in meaning and be open ended in that an item or items following any one of these words is not meant to be an exhaustive listing of such item or items or meant to be limited to only the listed item or items. It must also be noted that as used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
Furthermore, one or more computer-readable storage media may be utilized in implementing embodiments consistent with the present disclosure. A computer-readable storage medium refers to any type of physical memory on which information or data readable by a processor may be stored. Thus, a computer-readable storage medium may store instructions for execution by one or more processors, including instructions for causing the processor(s) to perform steps or stages consistent with the embodiments described herein. The term “computer-readable medium” should be understood to include tangible items and exclude carrier waves and transient signals, i.e., be non-transitory. Examples include random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), volatile memory, nonvolatile memory, hard drives, CD ROMs, DVDs, flash drives, disks, and any other known physical storage media.
It is intended that the disclosure and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope of disclosed embodiments being indicated by the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202321019005 | Mar 2023 | IN | national |
