VacBot
Updated 7/19/05

 Here is a genuine household application
      of robotics, a electric sweeper that works extremely well on
      rugs, tile and wooden floors. The plan is to modify a "Dirt
      Devil" brand sweeper to be robotic, complete with processor,
      bumpers and drive motors. Here is a photo essay on its progress.



      
The starting point
      is this electric power sweeper that is rechargeable and able
      to run hours on end on carpets, tile and wooden floors and even
      concrete.
 

 

      
The original sweeper,
      on the bench ready for disassembly! It runs on a rechargeable
      7.2v battery pack and will go 3.5 HOURS on a single charge. I
      will use the same battery to drive the motors but not the electronics.
      The clear part pulls out, and is the dirt tray. It was simply
      amazing to see how much it pulled out of the carpet in a few
      seconds of use!
 

      
The bottom consists
      of the brushes at the top, some rubberized rollers just below
      to set the sweep depth, and to the lower left a hatch for the
      battery. The wheels are free wheeling. The object is the weight
      of the front end sets the pressure on the floor, so that will
      stay the same here.
 
The NiCad Battery
      pack puts out 7.2 volts, and will run the 6v rechargeable drill
      motors I'm using for the drive just fine.
More to Come - this is just the beginning!

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