Nozzle Position Control for Vacuum Work Robots on a Slope

In steel mills, workers typically use a hose connected to a vacuum car to clean up iron ore that has fallen from the conveyor belt and accumulated under it. However, for safety reasons, the conveyor belt must stop while workers vacuum, resulting in reduced pro-ductivity. Therefore, it is necessary to develop vacuum work robots to replace workers. However, it is difficult for a remote-controlled vacuum work robot to suction the debris because the nozzle moves away from the sediment when the robot moves up onto the slope of the sediment pile and tilts. Thus, it is essential to main-tain an appropriate distance between the nozzle and the sediment pile while automatically controlling the nozzle position. This study aimed to develop an efficient robot suction system that can automatically control the nozzle position and reduce the amount of sediment left behind. We propose a nozzle position control method that enables the robot to suction even when on up a slope. Finally, we conducted an automatic nozzle position control experiment on a test course simulating the working environment to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.