DEVELOPMENT OF A CLEANING ROBOT FOR TRENCH DRAINS

This paper discusses the design and conceptualization of a novel robotic mechanism to clean the trench drains. It describes a different approach for drain cleaning with lesser human intervention and more safety to personnel involved. The robot is designed and built to be 4 inches in width and operate entirely within the limited space inside the drain. To achieve a wholesome cleaning process, the entire robot is modular in design and consists of a drive system, a suction tube and a cutting arm assembly with metal brushes installed onto it. The bidirectional drive system enables the robot to move through drain segments repeatedly for optimal performance. The purpose of the cutting arm assembly is to aid the removal of dirt from the drain. In order to improve the robot performance, two prototypes were designed and built. The overall design and modularity of both robot prototypes will be discussed in detail in the paper.