Problem Description

Current commercial robot vacuums in the market are efficient in vacuuming on flat ground but fall short in staircases. These robot vacuums are commonly purchased by customers who lack the time, energy or ability to vacuum manually. The drudgery of vacuuming staircases manually can be alleviated by a robot that vacuums staircases automatically. In our project StairVacuum, we propose to design and build a robot that vacuums staircases without human assistance under time constraints. The robot can be started either on ground or second floor, and it is capable of covering the entire staircase surface.

System Requirements

Maximum dimensions: 12" x 36" x 24"
Mass limit: 10lbs
Total budget: $1000
Safe to test and use
Testbed: Staircase of 7 steps (step size: 50.5" x 11.5" x 6.5")
Maximum runtime: N x 60 + W x 15 seconds (where N is the number of steps and W the unitless width of each step in feet)
Implicit requirements:

- The robot needs to be able to determine its position relative to the staircase.

- Lateral and vertical drive systems need to work independently.

- The robot should know when it has traversed the last step.

Coolness factors:

- Battery powered: some space and mass needs to be reserved for loading the battery.

- Dark mode: the robot uses this aesthetic template throughout

Staircase for Testing

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