Lau

The robot Lau is a redesign based on components from our old robot Faraday, which is designed to compete in the yearly Delta Advanced Automation Contest. For this competition we designed a AGV which can autonomously clean the inside of a toilet. A group of 4^th year engineering students designed and built the robot. At the end of the half year long project the group presented Lau and won the grand prize in the mechatronics category at the Engineering & Technology in practice symposium, hosted by Fontys centre of expertise HTSM.

The Delta advanced automation contest is a yearly open innovation contest hosted by Delta Electronics. Delta Electronics is a Taiwanese electronics manufacturing company which focusses on power electronics, automatization, infrastructure and automotive. The goal for the competition is to invent, design and built a robot that automates or executes a task based on parts from Delta Electronics. Lau is heavy duty AGV which can carry loads of over 200kg. The robot is equipped with a Delta DRV70L robotic arm which has a built-in control box and has a reachability of 700mm. Lau has a maximum speed of 1 m/s and it includes a clever ‘suspension’ mechanism which makes sure to have optimal grip at uneven surfaces. Furthermore, it has 2 Hokuyo LiDAR scanners for 360 degrees Field of View for navigation.

It also has a custom-made end effector which is designed and build from 3D printed parts and can dispense the needed chemicals to properly clean the inside of the toilet.

The competition was unfortunately canceled during the competition. After this, we pulled the plug on the project and put our full focus back towards the robocup@work competition.