Effectiveness of Brush Operational Parameters for Robotic Debris Removal

Abstract

Surface decontamination is essential in Nuclear Gloveboxes; moving this process from manual to robotic would reduce the risk to operators. Towards the development of robotic and autonomous sweeping systems, brushing debris removal effectiveness is evaluated using visual inspection. In addition, three types of dry simulacrum debris were used: flour, sand, and metallic swarf, each with different particle sizes and friction properties. We evaluate the debris removal effectiveness for each operational brush parameter and debris type. The tested operational brush parameters were the brush angle of attack and the brush penetration with the help of a robotic manipulator arm repeating a slow and steady rectangle sweeping pattern. We found that the brush angle of attack has a higher impact than the brush penetration. Also, flour is fast to remove from a surface and necessitates 80$^{\circ }$ angle of attack. For sand particles, a 70$^{\circ }$ angle of attack gives the best configuration to create a contact surface. Regarding debris like metallic swarf, debris particles to bristles bonding must be limited, requiring a 90$^{\circ }$ angle of attack. These results allowed us to determine that autonomous robotic systems must adapt brushing operative parameters to debris type for an effective debris removal process.