Professional Documents
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Automation in Construction
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
The study on the integrated control system for curtain wall building façade T
cleaning robot
Yong-Seok Leea, Sang-Ho Kima, Myeong-Su Gilb, Seung-Hoon Leec, Min-Sung Kangd,
⁎
Sung-Hoon Jange, Bo-Hyun Yue,f, Byung-Gab Ryua, Daehie Hongg, Chang-Soo Hanh,
a
Graduate School of Hanyang University, 222, Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea
b
ROHAU Corp., 55 Hanyangdeahak-ro, Sangnok-gu, Ansan, Gyeonggi-do 15588, Republic of Korea
c
Dept. of Advanced Mechanical Eng., Korea Polytechnic University, TIP #325, 237, Sangidaehak-ro, Siheung-si, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea
d
Dept. of Interdisciplinary Engineering Systems, Hanyang University, 55 Hanyangdeahak-ro, Sangnok-gu, Ansan, Gyeonggi-do 15588, Republic of Korea
e
Dept. of Mechatronics. Eng., Hanyang University, 55 Hanyangdeahak-ro, Sangnok-gu, Ansan, Gyeonggi-do 15588, Republic of Korea
f
Dept. of Robot Technology, Institute for Advanced Engineering, Young-in, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea
g
Dept. of Mechanical Eng., Korea University, 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
h
Dept. of Robot Eng., Hanyang University, 55 Hanyangdeahak-ro, Sangnok-gu, Ansan, Gyeonggi-do 15588, Republic of Korea
A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Recently, with a growing number of high-rise buildings in cities, interest in building facade maintenance is
Curtain wall building cleaning robot increasing. The existing method of cleaning the exterior walls of existing high-rise buildings depended on the
Integrated control system methods by workers who used ropes, gondolas, and winch systems. Recently, however, BMU (building main-
Built-in guide rail tenance unit) has been developed and applied to resolve safety problems and boost work efficiency. In Germany,
Building façade cleaning robot
USA, France and other countries, various types of robot systems for building façade maintenance are being
applied. In South Korea, façade cleaning robots attached with curtain walls are also being developed. In this
paper, we propose an integrated control system for the stable control of robots with the building façade cleaning
technology. The proposed control system can be divided into three stages such as preparation stage, cleaning
stage, and return stage. Each independent robot system performs tasks such as cleaning, moving, and obstacle
detection according to each stage. A wireless communication system for stable communication between robots
was proposed and applied for controlling the robot system. The proposed integrated control system was applied
to building façade cleaning robots and its efficiency was verified compared with existing high-rise building
cleaning methods.
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: cshan@hanyang.ac.kr (C.-S. Han).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.12.030
Received 1 May 2017; Received in revised form 15 November 2017; Accepted 19 December 2017
Available online 09 June 2018
0926-5805/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Y.-S. Lee et al. Automation in Construction 94 (2018) 39–46
Table 1
Cleaning façade robot systems and features.
Name Figure Features
GEKKO Façade ▪Moves freely by attaching a robot 2.2. System configuration and roles
Robot onto the glass surface utilizing
[18] several adsorption devices The built-in guided robot that performs cleaning in the work en-
▪Rotary brush type cleaning tool vironment shown in Fig. 1 is composed of an HMR (horizontal-moving
robot), a VMR (vertical-moving robot), a winch module, and a mon-
itoring module as shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4. The HMR performs
this module. Likewise, Skycleaner 3 in Germany is hooked up with the
cleaning while moving along the rail installed horizontally across the
following unit mounted on top of the building via wires while cleaning
façade whereas the VMR plays the role of transporting the HMR to each
the building, with the cleaning supplies transported from the ground
floor while moving along the rail installed vertically along the façade,
level by a supporting vehicle [13,14,15].
as well as of cleaning the façade. The winch module moves the HMR
Skycleaner 3 moves along the building façade using pneumatic cy-
and VMR to their target floors, respectively, while the monitoring
linders as well as multiple suctions pads installed along the sides of the
module sends the cleaning command, monitors the current position of
cylinders. Tito 500 developed by RATIOFOREM in the United States
the cleaning robot, and transmits the robot status information to the
moves up and down the building façade along the vertical wires while
control staff and various other systems.
cleaning the façade, without bumping onto the glass curtain walls,
The VMR and HMR, which play the key roles in the built-in guided
through the use of a wheel mechanism installed inside the robot, which
robot, are configured as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The VMR contains four
functions as a damper [16]. RobuGlass, developed by Robosoft in
brake units and brake check sensors designed to prevent safety acci-
France [17] and Gekko Façade, developed by Serbot in Switzerland
dents due to a shift in its weight, as well as a docking rail, which allows
[18] were designed to perform cleaning independently by sucking onto
the HMR to dock in the rail running horizontally along the building.
the building façade only with suction cups, without using wires. Table 1
The two rail extension units connect the building and the docking rail.
shows the characteristics of the various cleaning robots introduced
In Figs. 2 and 3, the part marked ① indicates 24 V and 48 V DC
above.
batteries that supply electricity to the motors and various electronic
In this paper, a built-in guided robot system mounted with cleaning
devices of the VMR and HMR, whereas the part marked ② indicates a
supplies and that cleans the building façade by gliding along the rails
barrel, in which the cleaning agent that is used to clean the outer glass
installed around the building will be introduced, along with the in-
tegrated control system required to carry out uninterrupted and stable
control by considering the robot's cleaning method and cleaning en-
vironment. This study on the integrated control system is aimed at
proposing and verifying an automated control strategy, which has never
been presented in the previous studies conducted on high-rise cleaning
robots, by considering the efficiency and safety of the robot-guided
cleaning works when an automated system was constructed by re-
flecting the inherent mechanical characteristics of the proposed system
and the requirements for cleaning high-rise buildings.
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Y.-S. Lee et al. Automation in Construction 94 (2018) 39–46
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Y.-S. Lee et al. Automation in Construction 94 (2018) 39–46
module by sending the status information to the monitoring system mentioned earlier, the VMR moves from the lower floors to the upper
once every second throughout the three stages. In the operator mode, floors, and if S1 and S2 detect the inner cavities of the horizontal rails of
the aforementioned sequential commands can be transmitted by the the building one by one while doing so, the HMR defines the rails as
operator in real time to ensure the smooth return of the robot to the aligned. The rail alignment algorithm performs the aforementioned
initial location in the event of work failure. definition in accordance with the following five modes, depending on
the locations of the building's horizontal rails and the VMR's rails. Fig. 7
3.2. Rail alignment control shows the flow chart for rail alignment control. Fig. 8 present the flow
chart in Mode 1 case. Mode 1 signifies an occasion where S2 is ON and
For the VMR to be able to clean the areas between the floors, it S1 is OFF, and the VMR glides down slowly until S2 is turned OFF. If S1
should first move to the inter-floor rails that connect the floors. The rail is turned ON, the VMR starts to glide up again slowly while the algo-
alignment algorithm controls the precise location and speed of the VMR rithm function stops when S2 is turned OFF. Mode 2 signifies an oc-
so that the VMR could dock into the horizontal rail surrounding the casion where S1 is ON and S2 is OFF, and as in Mode 1, the VMR
building. First, the two laser sensors (Sharp EX-L211) are mounted on performs its algorithm while slowly gliding up the building.
the upper/lower half of the VMR's rail extension module, as shown in In Mode 3, 4, and 5, both S1 and S2 are OFF, and the process of
Fig. 6, to perform the algorithm and to detect the space and building detecting the rails is included in the algorithm. The search process in
wall inside the horizontal rail with ON/OFF signals. Assuming the DIO the rail alignment algorithm signifies the process where S1 or S2 detects
signals from the laser sensor mounted on the upper section as S1 and the inner cavities of the rails while the VMR is gliding up to the upper
DIO signals from the sensor mounted on the lower section as S2, the rail floors. Mode 3 signifies an algorithm where S1 detects the inner cavities
alignment algorithm attempts to align the VMR rails with the building's of the building rails, which is followed by the performance of the task in
horizontal rails while moving slowly from the lower floors to the upper Mode 2. In Mode 4, S2 detects the inner cavities of the building rails,
floors to prevent failure due to the weights of the HMR and VMR. As which is followed by the performance of the task in Mode 1. In Mode 5,
the robot glides up the building for 15 s considering its inter-floor
distance and VMR's speed before it glides down again when the S1 and
S2 sensors are OFF, and then performs the task in Mode 1.
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Y.-S. Lee et al. Automation in Construction 94 (2018) 39–46
Start
Get Sensor
Data
Sensor2 Check No
the empty
space?
Sensor1 Check No In order to verify the proposed integrated control system for
the empty building façade cleaning robots, it was applied to robots in a test bed
space?
equipped with a curtain wall with horizontal and vertical rails.
Yes No
Sensor2 Check Experiments were carried out according to preparing step, cleaning
the empty step, and returning step, and each step was run continuously to verify
Mode 3
space?
the performance of the integrated control system.
Yes No Fig. 10 shows the results of applying the integrated control to a
Over 15sec?
building façade cleaning robot. According to the integrated control
Mode 4
Yes system procedure, the preparing step is first performed in advance. The
VMR moves to the target floor after receiving the movement command
VMR Stop
from the integrated control monitoring system. When the VMR ap-
proaches the target floor, the rail alignment function is performed for
Mode 5 horizontal movement of the HMR. After the rail alignment function is
Fig. 7. Flow chart for rail alignment control. performed, the VMR operates the brake module to fix the robot in the
vertical rail and extracts the horizontal rail for the HMR to move on the
horizontal rail. During the cleaning process, the HMR places the blade
Mode 1 of the wiper module on the glass façade to clean the glass walls. The
Start water jet module attached to the HMR injects a tiny amount of water
onto the glass surface. The HMR then moves along the horizontal rails
while the blades, which are attached to the glass, remove the water on
VMR DOWN VMR UP
the glass by squeezing it. In addition, the HMR sensor detects obstacles
(slow speed) (slow speed)
(e.g., windshields) and stops the robot. The cleaning process is also
performed along the straight and curved areas.
The VMR contracts the horizontal rail and releases the brake
Get Sensor Get Sensor
module. Meanwhile, the robot climbs along the vertical rail in order to
Data Data clean the window façade. The wiper module in the VMR brings the
blade into close contact with the glass wall, and the water jet module
injects a tiny amount of water onto the glass surface. The system cleans
the vertical window façade while descending along the vertical rail.
Sensor1 Check No Sensor2 Check No In the returning step, the VMR climbs the vertical rail up to the floor
the empty space? the empty space? where the HMR is stationed in order to perform the rail alignment
function. When the robot and the horizontal rail are accurately aligned
with each other, the brake module for locking the robot onto the ver-
Yes Yes tical rail is activated while the horizontal rail is extended in order to
facilitate the movement of the HMR robot. When the VMR is ready for
VMR Stop docking, the HMR docks with the VMR in order to form a single con-
VMR Stop
joined robot. When the docking procedure of the robots has been
completed, the VMR contracts the rails and releases the brakes while
waiting for the command to clean the other side of the building's glass
Alignment façade. From the results shown in Fig. 10, it can be confirmed that the
Complete glass façade cleaning robots, which were applied with the proposed
integrated control system, have successfully performed stable control
maneuvers that are pre-requisites for robot cleaning. In the cleaning
Alignment
step, the wiper module operation processing is performed to conduct
Control End
façade cleaning. The waterjet module sprays the water on the curtain
Fig. 8. Flow chart for Mode 1 case study. wall glass and simultaneously, the water is squeezed by wiper module
according to move the HMR. As shown in Fig. 10, if the ultrasonic
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sensor detects obstacles while moving, the fault detection will be per-
formed, alerting the stationary user. The cleaning step is also performed
in the straight line area and the curved line area. In the returning step,
the HMR returns to its initial position to board the VMR. If the HMR
arrives at its initial position, it will conduct the dock-in process, and the
VMR and HMR will become one robot. Also, the VMR will clear its
brake, contract the rail and wait for the command to move to a different
floor. From the results of Fig. 10, it was confirmed that the proposed
integrated control system was applied in controlling the curtain wall
building façade cleaning robot.
Fig. 11. Cleaning process by labor. 4. Efficiency analysis of the building Façade cleaning robot
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cleaning method which depends on the worker and the new cleaning
method by the proposed robot system were compared and analyzed. To
perform the experiment, a 3-story mockup building made of curtain
walls equipped with the built-in guide rail was used, as shown in
Fig. 11.
Using the existing method which uses workers, the cleaning time
and water consumption amount were measured. The cleaning time in-
cluded the workers' preparation time for cleaning equipment, for
binding ropes tightly, and for installing work chairs, as shown in
Fig. 11, as well as the net glass cleaning time, and the workers' resting
time during work. The water consumption amount was measured by
comparing it between before and after work.
A total of five workers were assigned to the equally divided sections
of the building and conducted cleaning simultaneously as they climbed
down from a top the building.
The cleaning robot system is designed for the external wall glass of
10-story or higher high-rise buildings. Thus, with this assumption,
water replacement time during cleaning was regarded as 1 cycle to
measure the water consumption amount and the required time for
cleaning was also measured.
Fig. 13. Water consumption comparison between human labor and façade
4.2. Comparative analysis of efficiency between the building Façade cleaning robot system.
cleaning robot and worker
Table 2
The graph in Fig. 12 shows the required cleaning time and an Cleaning performance by human and façade cleaning robot system with in-
average one-cycle time of exchanging water when five workers si- tegrated control.
multaneously cleaned the exterior wall glass of a 10-story building in Cleaning efficiency Man power Robot system Remarks
each equally divided section. Generally, the 1st cycle time was the
longest, but the 2nd ~6th cycle time had no big deviation. In cleaning Execution Time 2h 1.3 h 35% less time
the 10-story building, the water is changed about six times about once (Façade cleaning, 10-story (5 workers)
building)
every 20 min by worker.
Consumption 27.5 L/h 10 L/h 64% less utility
Fig. 13 shows the water consumption amount by worker vs. the (water, detergent, etc)
water consumption amount by the developed robot system in each Cleaning performance 2
156.6 m /h 2
234.9 m /h 50% more area
cycle. In the cleaning of the 10-story building, the water consumption per hour
amount of the robot was compared with that of the worker, based on
the worker's cleaning area per cycle. The test building had linear and
curved sections, so the robot movement speed varied accordingly. The and the water consumption amount for workers was measured as 27.5 L
robot's water spray amount was controlled to change according to its and that for the robot was measured as 10 L, per hour. The robot also
movement speed, and thus its water consumption amount for each cycle covered the cleaning area more than 1.5 times than the workers.
was measured as varying.
Table 2 showed the cleaning efficiency comparison between the 5. Conclusion
workers and the robot. In covering a total cleaning area of 626.4 m2 in
the 10-story building, 5 workers took 2 h, while the robot took 1.3 h, The study introduced the façade cleaning system for buildings
equipped with the built-in guide rail-applied curtain walls, and pro-
posed the integrated control system for cleaning motion. It further in-
troduced the façade cleaning robot system which was composed of VMR
responsible for vertical movement and cleaning, HMR responsible for
horizontal movement and cleaning, the winch system responsible for
VMR movement, and the monitoring system responsible for the robot's
cleaning and its operation status. To ensure the integrated control of
this system, the system was connected via two wireless communication
systems, and each robot system was incorporated into single integrated
façade cleaning robot system by sending diverse commands. To conduct
the robot's vertical and horizontal movement, we proposed the in-
tegrated control system architecture, applied it to the robot system, and
examined it on the test bed, proving the integrated control technology
for the robot system. To prove the efficiency of the façade cleaning
robot, the manual cleaning by human labor and the automatic cleaning
by the façade cleaning robot system that is applied integration control
system were compared in terms of work time and water consumption
amount. The analysis revealed: compared to the human labor, the robot
cut the work time by about 35% and the water consumption by 64%,
and it improved the cleaning performance by about 50%. This confirms
that the façade cleaning robot's cleaning performance is superior to
Fig. 12. Cleaning time by five workers and average cleaning time. human labor in terms of consumption time, water consumption, and
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