Motion planning for robotic spray cleaning with environmentally safe solvents

Automatic motion planning of a spray cleaning robot with collision avoidance is presented. In manufacturing environments, electronic and mechanical components are traditionally cleaned by spraying or dipping them using chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) solvents. As new scientific data show that such solvents are major causes for stratospheric ozone depletion, an alternate cleaning method is needed. Part cleaning with aqueous solvents is environmentally safe, but will require precision spraying at high pressures for extended time periods. Operator fatigue during manual spraying can decrease the quality of the cleaning process. By spraying with a robotic manipulator, the necessary spray accuracy and consistency to manufacture high-reliability components can be obtained. Our motion planner was developed to automatically generate motions for spraying robots based on the part geometry and cleaning process parameters. For spray cleaning, the requirement to reach hidden surfaces necessitates the addition of a rule-based method to the geometric motion planning