Engineering students to plan, build window-washing robot

By Lee Ann Marcel
Reporter

The Baylor American Society of Mechanical Engineering plans to design and build a window-washing robot, or the "winrobo," which will be designed to aid in window-washing for homeowners with mobility problems.

Students from nine different states, as well as the country of Mexico, will accept the challenge of the Student Design Competition, hosted by the national ASME

This year's challenge is to build and demonstrate an invention that is able to wash a residential window automatically without human interference.

The robots must be able to clean the dirty windows without falling off, as well as climb up to the upper panel of the window.

Meanwhile the robots will be judged on how fast they clean and how clean the window is.

Teams are stressed with a deadline between Jan. 25 and Feb. 1, Baylor ASME president Melanie Hawkins, a Forth Worth junior, said.

Some are approaching the deadline with confidence.

"Ours is going to be finished in like a week," San Juan, Wash., junior Thomas Guard said.

Baylor ASME has broken up into four teams to compete in the competition.

The teams are looking to design a simple robot with a microchip processor that will act as the "brain." The microchip will have specific commands written on it to instruct the winrobo to move back and forth on the window.

There will also be a sensor on each side to signal to the microchip processor when the robot has come to the end of the window frame, which then the microchip processor will then order the robot to move up and continue washing, Houston junior and treasurer of ASME Alex Keller said.

"We aren't going for flashy or elaborate, just something to get it don't quickly. The problem is deciding how to move the robot to the top pane," San Antonio sophomore Josh Kinnaird said,

Students will have to design a way for the robots to climb over the protruding bar that separates the two panes, without falling off.

"We are looking into gecko technology," Keller said, "We can design something to clean the window ... but the middle bar is the issue," Keller said.

Keller also said that teams hope to accomplish this with retractable arms and suction cups. The designed robot will look similar to a gecko.

Winners of the Student Design Competition will get $3,000 plus a trip to compete internationally.

"This is the first time that the involvement is this big." Dr. Kenneth Van Treuren, Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, said.

Though they say judges are strict and the competition is tough, the Baylor teams believe they are more likely to win due to the amount of teams participating.

"We are trying to put Baylor engineering on the map," Keller said.

Competing in the SDC would not have been possible in previous years, and that money and interest has come recently, Stamford, Conn., senior Yasaman Shirazi said.