sTetro: The Autonomous Staircase Cleaning Robot

Revolutionizing Home Cleaning with Innovative Design

Even though there exists numerous precedence demonstrating the benefits of floor cleaning robots, one major factor attributing to their performance loss is their inability to access staircases. sTetro, designed by Manojkumar Devarassu, is capable of both floor and staircase cleaning modes, thereby significantly maximizing task performance. This innovative design is set to revolutionize home cleaning.

sTetro's body consists of three cuboids connected with two sliders attached to each side of the middle cuboid. Each cuboid encloses the electronics, vacuum suction, and sweeping units. The blocks have a modular design, allowing for an affordable price and easy replacement of components. The robot is equipped with onboard sensors that enable it to autonomously map its environment and navigate on both flat terrains and staircases, efficiently cleaning the environment without any user intervention.

The sTetro app supports WiFi connectivity, allowing users to operate the robot from anywhere, anytime. In manual control mode, users can choose from a list of robot behaviors such as forward, backward, left, and right, as well as deployment modes such as floor, staircase, and hybrid. Once set to autonomous mode, sTetro navigates around the deployed space, maximizing area coverage and cleaning performance while switching between floor and staircase cleaning modalities all by itself. The onboard touch panel displays the operating mode, remaining battery capacity, and error codes under abnormal conditions.

With dimensions of 45cm (L) x 20cm (W) x 45cm (H) and weighing only 3kg, sTetro is compact and lightweight, making it easy to maneuver. It has a single charge lifetime of 60 minutes, ensuring efficient cleaning of large spaces. The robot is equipped with built-in sensors that perceive the type of floor and staircase, allowing it to calibrate its cleaning settings accordingly. It also features an inductive charging base and programmable motions.

The development of sTetro began in August 2017 and was supported by the National Robotics R&D Programme Office. The design team, led by Manojkumar Devarassu, overcame various challenges in designing this versatile cleaning robot, including the design of a highly versatile mechanism and the optimal use of materials without compromising stability. The result is a cutting-edge cleaning solution that combines functionality and elegance.

sTetro has received recognition for its innovative design. It was awarded the Bronze A' Design Award in the Product Engineering and Technical Design category in 2019. This prestigious award is bestowed upon outstanding and creatively ingenious designs that authenticate experience and resourcefulness. sTetro exhibits strong technical and creative skills and contributes to quality of life improvements, making the world a better place.