A Novel Aircraft Porthole Cleaning Robot Based on Negative Pressure Suction

In most cases, aircraft portholes are cleaned manually, which is time-consuming and labor-intense. In this paper, a novel aircraft porthole cleaning robot system is proposed to improve cleaning efficiency and automation level of existing methods. The robot system consists of two mobile adhesion modules and a frame equipped with cleaning mechanism. The adhesion mechanism derives from negative pressure suction which is generated by the extraction of air from sealed chamber. Static analysis and simulation-based optimization of adhesion mechanism is presented. Also, system modeling based on fluid analysis is given, and negative pressure control based on PID is studied. Finally, experiments are carried out to validate the prototype of the robot.