v-za/clean-sweep-robot

Clean Sweep Robotic Vacuum Cleaner & Sensor Simulator

Travis-CI Build Status:

Agile Software Development Term Project

Team Members

1. John Diatte
2. Nardos Tessema
3. Ruiming Chen
4. Vinit Patel

Demo of Smart Robot Vacuum

Clean Sweep Robot Configuration

Configuration of Clean Sweep Robot is externalized to an xml file. The configuration options are listed below.

    <property name="initLocation" value="(0, 9)" />
    <property name="maxBatteryLevel" value="250" />
    <property name="dirtCapacity" value="50" />
    <property name="chargingStationDetectionRadius" value="2" />
    <property name="navigator" value="omega" />
    <property name="scheduledWait" value="2" />
    <property name="timeInTile" value="0" />
    <property name="timeToCharge" value="0" />

    <!-- Sensor Simulator Configuration Parameters -->
    <property name="floorBuilderType" value="json" />
    <property name="floorPlan" value="floor-plan-1.json" />
    <property name="floorWidth" value="10" />
    <property name="floorLength" value="10" />
    <property name="dirtGeneratorType" value="gaussian" />

    <!-- Unity -->
    <property name="unityLogHome" value="UNITY_LOGS_HOME" />
    <property name="unityLogFile" value="unity-log-file.txt" />

1. navigator - The navigator implementation deployed (Strategy pattern used)
   • omega (Current implementation. Do not use other implementations.)
   • alpha (Deprecated. Basic navigator used in earlier version of software)
2. scheduledWait - The time in seconds the robot waits for scheduled cleaning time after it gets turned on.
3. timeInTile - The total amount of time in seconds the robot stays in a tile while working and traveling.
4. timeToCharge - The amount of time in seconds needed to recharge the battery from battery level 0 to full.

Clean Sweep Robotic Vacuum Cleaner & Sensor Simulator

Your company has assembled a small team of developers and business people to work on the implementation of the Clean Sweep robotic vacuum cleaner control system.

1. Control System

The control system integrates the Clean Sweep hardware components so that the vacuum can successfully navigate and clean a typical home.

1.1 Navigation

The Clean Sweep roams around the home sweeping up any dirt that it finds. Therefore it must be able to discover the basic floor plan of a home based on the input from its sensors. The Clean Sweep has four directional sensors around its perimeter that detect when it is about to encounter an obstacle. The control system must interpret the output from these sensors and stop the vacuum from running into any obstacles. Upon encountering an obstacle, the Clean Sweep must determine a new direction that prevents it from running into another obstacle. If the Clean Sweep is unable to move, it should shut itself down and wait for the customer to move it to a new location.

Under no circumstances should the Clean Sweep attempt to traverse stairs. A sensor on the bottom of the Clean Sweep can detect the edge of stairs or other declines. If this sensor detects anything, the control system should treat it as though it had encountered any other kind of obstacle.

The Clean Sweep can move in four directions. If you envision the Clean Sweep as traversing a grid, and assume that it is located at position (x, y), then it can move to positions: (x+1, y), (x−1, y), (x, y +1), and (x, y −1). There is no need for the vacuum to change its orientation or turn around in order to navigate.

1.2 Dirt Detection and Cleaning

As the Clean Sweep moves, a sensor determines if there is dirt to collect. If so, the control system should tell the vacuum to sweep up the dirt. The sensor is not able to tell how much dirt is present, only whether or not the current location is considered clean. Therefore multiple uses of the vacuum may be required to clean a particularly dirty area.

The Clean Sweep is equipped with a surface sensor that allows it to detect whether or not the surface it is currently traversing is bare floor, low-pile carpet, or high-pile carpet. It should automatically shift its cleaning mode between the surfaces accordingly.

Each use of the vacuum removes 1 unit of dirt. The Clean Sweep has a dirt-carrying capacity of 50 units. Once that capacity has been reached, it should return to its charging base and turn on its Empty Me indicator. The Clean Sweep doesn’t stop cleaning until:

• It has visited every accessible location on the current floor.
• Its dirt capacity has been filled.
• It only has enough power remaining to return to its charging station. See Power Management for more details.

Each time the Clean Sweep begins a cleaning cycle, it automatically assumes that each location is dirty. A cleaning cycle is defined as the start of the next cleaning after all reachable areas have been cleaned. So, if the Clean Sweep is partially done cleaning a floor and has returned to its base station to recharge, it will assume that the current cleaning cycle is not yet complete.

1.3 Power Management

The Clean Sweep has a limited battery life of 250 units of charge. Each movement and vacuum operation requires units of charge depending on the surfaces being traversed:

• Bare floor - 1 unit
• Low-pile carpet - 2 units
• High-pile carpet - 3 units

The charge required for the Clean Sweep to move from location A to location B is the average of the required charge costs for the surfaces at the two locations. For example, if the Clean Sweep moves from a bare floor to low-pile carpet, then the charge required is 1.5 units. It costs the same amount of charge to clean the current location is it does to traverse that location.

The Clean Sweep should always return to its charging station before it runs out of power. Homeowners that come home and discover their robotic vacuum out of power in the middle of a room tend to be dissatisfied customers. As it returns to its charging station, the Clean Sweep will not perform any cleaning. Upon returning to its charging station, the Clean Sweep will automatically re-charge to full capacity. Once re-charged, it will resume cleaning until it detects that it has visited every accessible location on the current floor.

1.4 Diagnostics and Troubleshooting

Since the Clean Sweep is a new product, it is important that technical support personnel are able to troubleshoot its operation.

1.4.1 Activity Log

On request, the Clean Sweep should be able to dump a log of its activity for the latest cleaning. This log should provide relevant information including:

• Sensor checks.
• Movement.
• Cleaning.
• Power remaining after each activity.
• Recharging.

2 Sensor Simulator

The Clean Sweep must maintain an internal map of the home. In order to write the control software, it is necessary to simulate the input of the Clean Sweep’s sensor array as it might respond within actual homes. The Sensor Simulator provides this capability and acts as a virtual sensor array. These simulations will act as test data against which you can test your control software.

2.1 Floor Plan Representation

You will need to define a persistent floor plan layout. The layout file will need to represent different attributes of floor plan.

2.1.1 Layout Files

To facilitate the testing of the Clean Sweep, the Sensor Simulator must be able to “play back” pre-defined floor plans. This means that the Sensor Simulator should be able to read a floor plan file and use that file to respond to requests from the Clean Sweep’s control software.

The control software itself should have no knowledge of the floor plan layout. This file is only intended to allow the sensor simulator to emit controlled output based on interactions with the control software. The fact that the entire floor plan is available to the sensor simulator does not mean that the Clean Sweep has a priori knowledge of the home’s layout. The Clean Sweep control system must discover the floor plan in real time just as the physical device would.

2.1.2 Layout

A floor plan is a grid comprised of a series of cells. Each cell is adjacent to at most 8 other cells.

The Clean Sweep can move 90◦ in any direction. Consider the figure to the right. If the Clean Sweep is on cell E, it can move to cells B, D, F and H. Similarly, if it is on cell A, it can only move to cells B and D.

2.1.3 Surfaces

The surface sensor detects the surface of the cell. This determines how much power is required to move into and clean that cell. The surface sensor can identify the following floor coverings:

1. Bare floor (e.g. wood, linoleum, etc.)
2. Low-pile carpet
3. High-pile carpet

The dirt sensor can tell whether or not a given cell must be cleaned. The simulator must be able to represent how many units of dirt are at a given location. While the sensor itself cannot tell exactly how many units are present, this will allow the simulator to continuously register a cell as dirty until the appropriate number of vacuum operations have been performed.

2.1.4 Navigation

The Clean Sweep has navigation sensors that allow it to move around the floor plan. The floor plan must identify where the Clean Sweep may navigate and when there are obstacles to its path. The floor plan must indicate whether there is a path from one cell to another or whether such navigation is blocked. Each path between two cells can contain the following:

1. Unknown. The Clean Sweep doesn’t yet know what’s in the specified direction.
2. Open. The sensor indicates that the path is open.
3. Obstacle. The sensor indicates that the path is obstructed.
4. Stairs. The sensor indicates that the path in that direction is blocked by stairs.

2.1.5 Charging Stations

Each floor plan may contain one or more charging stations. These charging stations are used by the Clean Sweep to replenish its battery when it runs out of power. The Clean Sweep always knows about the charging station where it begins its cleaning process. It can discover others if it is within 2 cells of the charging station. The detection of the charging station happens whether or not the path to the station is actually clear. For example, it is possible that the Clean Sweep could detect a charging station in another room, but not be able to get to that station if the room’s door is closed.

The control system must identify cells that contain charging stations. As the vacuum sweeps the floor, it will continually track which charging station is closest to its current position and move to that station when necessary.