The Insta-Sweeper
D.O.R.K. Inc Project
Introduction
These days we have many ways to collect trash: iRobot, Roomba, and other vacuuming robots. These robots go all over the place, and even worse, sometimes clean up places that are already clean and do not make it to places that are actually dirty. This wastes our energy and makes the robot inefficient!
Thus, we need a way to improve upon these cleaning robots. Our product is the Whistle--a robot that allows your house to be clean as a whistle without the need to worry about wasting energy and spots of the house that are being left a mess.
Problem Statement
We need a robot that allows us to have our house clean with the most efficient technology. Whistle is the way to go! People often don’t throw trash into the trash can. Instead, many pieces of trash fall around the trash can and make the street environment look ugly and unhealthy. We are finding a solution to make sure all the trash is getting put into the trash can to maintain a clean and healthy environment. We also wish to make it easier for people to throw away trash. It will be perfect for anyone from small business owners to mothers. Instead of going near the trash can, opening the lid, and putting the trash in, they can actually just “throw” the trash to the direction of the trash can. This automatic trash can will use its smart “arm” to sweep them for you. It makes more efficient to build a clean environment.
Research -- Roomba
“Roomba is a series of autonomous robotic vacuum cleaners sold by iRobot. Roomba features a set of sensors that enable it to navigate the floor area of a home and clean it. For instance, Roomba's sensors can detect the presence of obstacles, detect dirty spots on the floor, and sense steep drops to keep it from falling down stairs. Roomba uses two independently operating side wheels that allow 360° turns in place. A rotating, 3-pronged spinner brush can sweep debris from square corners to the cleaning head.”
From these sources, we learned that customers have frequently complained about the battery life of a Roomba. The device runs for so long, cleaning areas that do not necessarily need to be cleaned that the battery is worn out very quickly. Our device, the Whistle, will be a large improvement to that issue. The Whistle will only operate when trash is detected in its vicinity. This will increase the battery life that Roomba users complain about. We plan to imitate the general idea of the Roomba and its sweeping/cleaning abilities. We do not plan to have the Whistle move around the home, however. The Whistle would be stationary and simply detect when trash has been thrown nearby.
Stakeholder Anylysis
User Interface & Sketches
Our product is designed for people who are older than 4+
This is because people who are younger than 4+ are going to be susceptible to the arm (which will pick up the trash and put it into our trash can) that may hurt them, while people who are older know that it is going to hurt them and will not go close to it.
They interact with the trash can by throwing something close to the can. Then a command will be sent to ask the arm to sweep the piece of trash that is in front of it.
The arms are similar to those of humpback whales bristles, which it uses to scoop up krill and shrimp, using this design the trash can will be effectively able to pick up trash that is close to it.
The user wants to get trash collected and to get the trash collected, all the user has to do is drop trash close to it, and once the trash is on the ground, the robot will scoop up the trash that is sensed.
Technical Design Report
Our team used a pulley system for the plate elevation and we calculated the angle that the sweeper was needed to turn and the rotation rate of the motors for the plate to elevate and come back down. We used a servo motor for the joint of the rotating sweeper and we used 2 regular motors and 2 belts for the pulley system. We then used Arduino for the system input and output, and we used Fusion and 3D printer to make the prototype of the sweeper and the platform.
