Mechanic Design and Kinematic Simulation of Tri-Star Wheeled Mobile Robot for COVID-19 Using UV-C Disinfection for Public Transport

ABSTRACT

Due to the Covid 2020 pandemic, the world has faced several economic and lifestyle changes, which have been reflected in new ways of interacting and acting to avoid the spread of the virus. But these changes have not only brought negative things, due to the nature of social distancing and high contagion, governments and companies have been forced to consider technological and regulatory alternatives that can help reduce or eliminate the risks of contagion, modernizing and improving several technologically deficient sectors to current needs. For this reason, the innovative research was carried out from 2021 under the supervision of the School of Mechatronics Engineering at Ricardo Palma University, it was designed a mobile robot that can disinfect public transport using UV-C rays. This study presents mechatronics conceptual design and kinematic analysis, where SolidWorks 2020 is used to design the 3D structure. In addition, this device can climb small ladders with Tri-star wheels, composed of three 130 mm onmiwheels, as well as mecanum wheels that provide maneuverability to improve its range of displacement. The robot has IR sensors for the detection of obstacles and thermal sensors for the detection of people in the work area. It is programmed on a Raspberry Pi 4. The robot is pretended to be applied on regular public transportation and terminals to automatically disinfect them as long as there are no people around. In conclusion, favorable results were achieved;consequently, the next step of this project is to start developing a prototype applying the SLAM technique to generate 3D maps of the interior of public transport. © 2022 IEEE.