Formulation of a control and path planning approach for a cab front cleaning robot

This paper formulates a control and path planning approach for a Cab Front Cleaning Robot. Currently, the operation of cleaning the front part of a train cab is performed manually under challenging conditions. The aim of this work is to formulate a control and path planning solution for the employment of a robot manipulator for such cleaning activity. The proposed solution comprises the study of the interaction between the robotic manipulator and an unknown surface, and consists in using an Operational Space Formulation implementation of simultaneous force and position control. The end-effector trajectory results from projecting a raster scan onto the surface to be cleaned, in real-time, with path adaptation to local surface geometry nuances. This paper also presents a list of criteria to validate future results.