Project BakeR (Building blocks for cost efficient, modular cleaning robots), Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (Fraunhofer IPA), Stuttgart, Germany

[Airicist]

Developer - Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (Fraunhofer IPA)

ipa.fraunhofer.de/de/presse/presseinformationen/2016-03-23_reinigungsroboter-effizienter-entwickeln-und-einsetze.html

[Airicist]

BakeR – Building blocks for cleaning robots

Nov 25, 2019

The video shows the prototype of a flexible cleaning robot for commercial use, which was developed in the research project "BakeR" (Building blocks for cost efficient, modular cleaning robots). The aim of the robot application is to reduce the workload of the cleaning personnel – e.g. in office cleaning – and to support them in part of their work. To achieve this, the robot plans the cleaning tasks based on the available object information, selects the appropriate navigation routes and follows them autonomously. Thanks to various cleaning modules, which the robot independently loads onto its mobile base according to the cleaning location and task, it can perform various tasks such as vacuuming and wet cleaning. With the help of an arm, the robot can also grab and empty wastepaper bins. Within the project, Fraunhofer IPA developed the underlying software components for room segmentation and area coverage of the operating environment, for object, dirt and streak detection and for mobile manipulation.
The project ran from March 1 2016 to September 30 2019 and was funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) as part of the High-Tech Strategy 2020. In addition to Fraunhofer IPA (management), partners were Dussmann Service Deutschland GmbH, KENTER Bodenreinigungsmaschinen Vertriebs- und Service GmbH, MetraLabs GmbH Neue Technologien und Systeme, AMTEC Robotics Consult (subcontractor).