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The purpose of this paper is to implement a glass-curtain-wall cleaning robot driven by a double flexible rope, so as to replace manual cleaning. The glass-curtain-wall, because of its excellent daylighting performance, damp-proofing characteristics, heat insulation properties and aesthetics, is widely used in modern city buildings. For glass-curtain-wall buildings, regular cleaning of the glass-curtain-wall is necessary to ensure that the surface of the building appears clean and tidy, which in turn contributes toward preserving the overall aesthetic appearance of the city. Currently, the primary method of cleaning glass curtain walls is manual cleaning by workers on a suspended platform.

The mechanical structure of the proposed glass-curtain-wall cleaning robot driven by a double flexible rope is inspired by the way a spider moves by pulling its silk draglines in the air. For self-locking protection and increased rope friction, the robot’s moving section includes a worm reducer and multislot master–slave roller. The cleaning section comprises a water tank, control valve, shower nozzle and brush. The wall adsorbing section is realized by a double rotor. The workspace of the robot is analyzed. Flexible rope winding and unreeling control of the cleaning robot is deduced. The force of the cleaning robot when the double rotor is working is analyzed and calculated. The prototype of the glass-curtain-wall cleaning robot model driven by a double flexible rope is established, and experiments wherein the robot moves along a preset track, as well as cleaning experiments, are performed.

The prototype of the glass-curtain-wall cleaning robot model driven by a double flexible rope can move along the preset track, satisfy the design functions and clean effectively. The experimental results verify the validity and practicality of the robot.

The implication of this research is that a glass-curtain-wall cleaning robot model driven by a double flexible rope fulfills the movement strategy and drive-type requirements for cleaning glass curtain walls. The limitation of this research is that it is difficult to implement rapid cleaning.

The traditional method of manual cleaning by workers on a suspended platform will be changed after the glass-curtain-wall cleaning robot is manufactured, and the advent of this cleaning robot for the low- and mid-rise buildings will reduce the cost of cleaning buildings, improve the working environment and enhance production efficiency.

Glass-cleaning robots were developed to perform the difficult, time-consuming and dangerous job of cleaning windows that had traditionally been done by humans. The wiping mechanism is the most important functional component of a glass-cleaning robot, which indirectly affects the design of the adsorption and transport mechanisms. This study aims to compare two types of wiping mechanisms – the drag-wiper and roller-wiper –through an analysis and an actual experiment, providing theoretical and measured data that can be applied to the optimization of the design of future glass-cleaning robots.

The authors undertook a theoretical force and energy consumption analysis of glass-cleaning robots and, based on the obtained results, undertook an analysis the two wiper types. They verified the theoretical analysis by conducting several experiments including studying the relationship between a wiper’s friction force and rotational speed, measuring the contact normal forces of the suckers, wiper and crawlers relative to the glass wall, measuring the energy consumed to drive the robot and studying the relationship between the vacuum pump’s power consumption and the adsorption force. The authors also compared the wiping efficacy of the drag-wiper robot and roller-wiper robot.

The drag-wiper offers the advantages of simplicity while being able to wipe the area around the edge of a window frame. Meanwhile, the use of a roller-wiper not only improves the robot’s driving performance and reduces the required adsorption force but can also reduce the amount of energy consumed to drive both the robot itself and also the vacuum pump; in addition, the roller-wiper is more flexible and energy- and time-efficient when dealing with dirt that is difficult to remove.

This study has, through a detailed analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of a drag-wiper and roller-wiper robot, from the three aspects of force analysis, energy consumption and wiping efficacy, obtained theoretical and measured data that can be applied to the optimization of the design of future industrial and household glass-cleaning robots.

This paper presents the design of climbing robots for glass‐wall cleaning.

A systemic analysis of the basic functions of a glass‐wall cleaning system is given based on the research of working targets. Then the constraints for designing a glass‐wall cleaning robot are discussed. The driving method, the attachment principle, mechanical structure and unique aspects of three pneumatic robots named Sky Cleaners follow. In the end a summary of the main special features is given. All three climbing robots are tested on site.

Our groups spent several years in designing and developing a series of robots named Sky Cleaners which are totally actuated by pneumatic cylinders and sucked to the glass walls with vacuum grippers in mid‐air. It was found that they can meet the requirements of glass‐wall cleaning.

The air source, cleaning liquid and control signals should be provided by the supporting vehicle stationed on the ground. Even if the robots are intelligent, the suitable working height is below 50 m because the weight of the hoses has to be taken into account when the robots work in mid‐air.

The cleaning robotic systems can avoid workers presence in a hazardous environment and realize an automatic cleaning, furthermore reduce operation costs and improve the technological level and productivity of the service industry in the building maintenance.

Sky Cleaner robots can move and do cleaning on the plane glass wall or the special curve wall with a small angle between the glasses. The first two prototypes are mainly used for research and the last one is a real product designing for cleaning the glass surface of Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.

With the popularity of high-rise buildings, wall inspection and cleaning are becoming more difficult and associated with danger. The best solution is to replace manual work with wall-climbing robots. Therefore, this paper proposes a design method for a rolling-adsorption wall-climbing robot (RWCR) based on vacuum negative pressure adsorption of the crawler. It can improve the operation efficiency while solving the safety problems.

The pulleys and tracks are used to form a dynamic sealing chamber to improve the dynamic adsorption effect and motion flexibility of the RWCR. The mapping relationship between the critical minimum adsorption force required for RWCR downward slip, longitudinal tipping and lateral overturning conditions for tipping and the wall inclination angle is calculated using the ultimate force method. The pressure and gas flow rate distribution of the negative pressure chamber under different slit heights of the negative pressure mechanism is analysed by the fluid dynamics software to derive the minimum negative pressure value that the fan needs to provide.

Simulation and test results show that the load capacity of the RWCR can reach up to 6.2 kg on the smooth glass wall, and the maximum load in the case of lateral movement is 4.2 kg, which verifies the rationality and effectiveness of the design.

This paper presents a new design method of a RWCR for different rough wall surfaces and analyses the ultimate force state and hydrodynamic characteristics.

Building inspection tasks usually involve working at life‐threatening height, especially for high‐rise buildings. The purpose of this paper is to introduce two service robots which are designed for high‐rise building inspection applications.

The first service robot, equipped with independent‐climbing capability, is applied to gas pipe inspection. The robot requires very little setup time and is suitable for some small inspection tasks. The second, which shares some similarities of industrial gondolas, is applied to check the health conditions of tile‐walls of high‐rise buildings. This robot requires more initial setup time but can provide faster inspection operations. In addition, it can be programmed to carry out the inspection task automatically. So, it is more suitable for large‐scale inspection tasks.

For tile‐wall inspection, a fast, low‐cost and effective non‐destructive testing technique based on impact acoustic method has been developed for the robot.

Both prototypes have been applied to housing estates for evaluation purposes.

Wall climbing robots' volume is needed to be very small in fields that workspace is limited, such as anti‐terror scouting, industry pipe network inspecting and so on. The purpose of this paper is to design a miniature wall climbing robot with biomechanical suction cups actuated by shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators.

Based on characteristics of biologic suction apparatuses, the biomechanical suction cup is designed first. Theory analysis of the suction cup is made considering elastic plate's deflection and SMAs constitutive model. A triangular close linkage locomotion mechanism is chosen for the miniature robot because of its simple structure and control. The robot's gait, kinematics, and control system are all illustrated in this paper.

Experiments indicate that the suction cup can be used as an adhesion mechanism for miniature wall climbing robots, and the miniature robot prototype with biomechanical suction cups can move in straight line and turn with a fixed angle on an inclined glass wall.

This paper describes how a miniature wall climbing robot with biomechanical suction cups actuated by SMA without any air pump is designed.

The unitized curtain wall system (UCWS), a symbol of modern architecture, is gaining popularity among prefabricated components. Previous studies have focused on both construction technology advances and material selection strategies to facilitate the UCWS. However, the topic of client satisfaction, which drives industry development by targeting clients' demands, has gone unnoticed. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate client satisfaction with UCWS products in Hong Kong by finding its influential factors.

A systematic review was employed to first identify the influential factors. A semi-structured interview was employed to validate the reliability of the extracted factors. The machine learning algorithm Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and the Pearson correlation were then employed to rank the importance and correlation of factors based on the 1–5 Likert scale scores obtained through a questionnaire survey.

The findings revealed that “reduction in construction time” and “reduction in construction waste” are the most important factors and have a strong positive influence on client satisfaction.

Unlike previous studies, the present study focused on a novel research topic and introduces an objective analysis process using machine learning algorithms. The findings contribute to narrowing the knowledge gap regarding client preference for UCWS products from both individual and collaborative perspectives, providing decision-makers with an objective, quantitative and thorough reference before making investments in the curtain wall management development.