Development and implementation of a mobile robot for grouting floor tile joints

Abstract

Many construction tasks need time and effort from people. Thus, modern technology is one of its purposes to aid task completion. These include grouting floor tile joints. It takes time and effort to complete this process. Traditional methods for grouting floor tile joints between tiles are inefficient and require the worker to stay on his knees for extended periods, which can cause health issues. Thus, mobile robots are needed to automate floor grouting. This study describes the design and development of a mobile robot model to grout floor tile joints uniformly and effectively. Compared to manual approaches, the proposed robot can clean tiles quickly and precisely. The robot fills based on user-defined workspace coordinates. Set the robot at the start location to begin grouting. The robot then follows the user-defined code and coordinates to fill the requirement. After grout filling, the robot returned to the starting position to clean. This model was evaluated and exhibited faster, more accurate grouting and a shorter injection process than manual approaches.