Bago University Research Journal, 2019, Vol. 9, No.

Automatic Vacuum Cleaner Robot Car by using ATMega-328P

Hla Htay Win , Ar Kar , Lai Lai Win

Abstract
This research focuses on design, construction and control of domestic vacuum cleaner robot
car using ultrasonic sensor with servo motor and DC motors. The domestic vacuum cleaner
robot car comprises 8-bit Arduino microcontroller, ultrasonic sensor, 2-channel dual motor
driver (L9110S), two wheels with DC motor, servo motor, centrifugal fan and vacuum
chamber. The advantage of controlling the servo motor with ultrasonic sensor is that they can
be programmed to have an initial position of the robot car and to rotate the robot car to an
exact degree with respect to the require distance. The operations of the complete circuit are
controlled by C++ programming language. A program coding will be loaded into the ROM of
ATMega-328P. The vacuum cleaner robot car will clean the dust on the floor in an apartment
as a normal vacuum cleaner with controllable motor and sensors.

Introduction
Arduino is an open source computer hardware and software company, project, and user
community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller
kits for building digital devices and interactive objects that can sense and control objects in the
physical world. Arduino board designs use a variety of microprocessors and controllers. The
boards are equipped with sets of digital and analog input/output (I/O) pins that may be
interfaced to various expansion boards (shields) and other circuits. The boards feature serial
communications interfaces, including Universal Serial Bus (USB) on some models, which are
also used for loading programs from personal computers.
A vacuum cleaner, also known as a sweeper or hoover, is a device that uses an air
pump (a centrifugal fan in all but only in some of the very oldest models), to create a partial
vacuum to clean up dust and dirt from the floors and from other surfaces such as upholstery
and draperies.
For the ease of human beings different designs of brushes are evolved. Again during
the age of monarchs carpets of different designs are utilized to cover the floor to keep it clean.
As the time passed new scientific era begins a lot of new methods are used to clean the floor.
The first among those was the reciprocating action of brush actuated by muscular force. The
brush design is changed time to time depending upon the floor structure and ease of washing
personnel. As the electricity came into the role, vacuum cleaner is invented to clean a dry
surface. By moving forward different floor cleaning machines are being invented to clean the
floor with less application of muscular power. The block diagram of the system is shown in
Figure 1.


Dr., Lecturer, Department of Physics, Bago University

Dr., Assistant Lecturer, Department of Physics, Bago University

Demonstrator, Department of Physics, Bago University
128 Bago University Research Journal, 2019, Vol. 9, No. 1

POWER SUPPLY

2-CHANNEL TWO WHEELS

DUAL WITH DC
MOTOR MOTORS
DRIVER
ARDUINO
ULTRASON DEVELOP-
IC SENSOR MENT BOARD

SERVO
MOTOR

SUCKING
FUN WITH POWER SUPPLY
MOTOR

Fig. 1 The Block Diagram of Domestic Vacuum Cleaner Robot CSar

Components of the Whole System

Arduino Nano
Arduino Nano is the heart of the robot car. The specifications of the Arduino Nano:
Operating Voltage (logic level) - 5 V
Input Voltage (recommended) - 7-12 V
Digital I/O Pins - 14 pins
Analog Input Pins - 8 pins
DC Current per I/O Pin - 40 mA
Flash Memory - 32 KB (ATMega328)
SRAM - 2KB (ATMega328)
EEPROM - 1 KB (ATMega328)
Clock Speed - 16 MHz
Dimensions - 0.73" x 1.70"
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Fig. 2 Photo of the Arduino Nano Microcontroller

Smart Car Robot Plastic DC 3V-6V Gear Motor with wheel

There are two pairs of dc gear motor with wheel in the system. The features of the
motor:
Operating voltage - DC 3V to 6V
Speed (no load) - 200 RPM
Speed (with load) - 152 RPM
Torque - 1 kg.cm
Motor Dimensions - 70 mm x 22 mm x 18 mm
Plastic tire wheel size - 65 x 26 mm
Wheel diameter - 6.5 cm
Weight - 50 g

Fig. 3 Photo of the Gear Motor with Wheel

Dual Channel Motor Driver Module (L9110S)

The dual channel motor driver module drives the dc gear motor with wheel. The
specifications of the driver module:
 One pair of L9110S motor driver chips
 Motor Input Voltage: 2.5 V to 12 V
 Motor Channels: 2
 Max Continuous Current per Channel: 800 mA
 Board Size: 29.2 x 23 mm
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Fig. 4 Photo of the Dual Channel Motor Driver Module

Ultrasonic Sensor (HC-SR04)

The ultrasonic sensor senses the objects to avoid the obstacles. The specifications of the
ultrasonic sensor:
 Power Supply : +5V DC
 Quiescent Current : <2mA
 Working Current: 15mA
 Effectual Angle: <15°
 Ranging Distance : 2cm – 400 cm/1″ – 13ft
 Resolution : 0.3 cm
 Measuring Angle: 30 degree
 Trigger Input Pulse width: 10uS
 Dimension: 45mm x 20mm x 15mm

Fig. 5 Photo of Ultrasonic Sensor

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Servo Motor (SG-90)

The servo motor is used for choice the direction of the robot car. The specifications of
the servo motor:
Operating voltage : 4.8 V (~5V)
Operating speed : 0.1 s / 60º
Torque : 1.8 kg.cm
Dead band width : 10µs
Temperature range : 0ºC - 55ºC
Red wire - 5V
Brown wire - Ground
Yellow wire - Digital pin
.

Fig. 6 Photo of Servo Motor with Shaft

HX DC 385 Motor with Centrifugal fan

HX DC 385 Motor with Centrifugal fan is used for sucking the dust and piece of paper
on the floor. The features of this device:
Model No : HX DC – 385
Maximum speed : 1773 rpm
Operating Voltage Range : 12-16 V
Current : 0.15 A

Design of the Printed Circuit Board

Specially designed printed circuit boards are required for the first step in
experimenting, a circuit. The printed circuit board was designed with computer aided software,
TraxMaker PCB software. The software can be easily downloaded from the internet. It is free
software and it is very easy to design a printed circuit board for beginners. The software
consists of two layers, one to design the circuit, the soldering side and another one for the
component side. The soldering side is illustrated with the red track lines and components side
is illustrated with the blue color. When printing the circuit, the labels can be inverted by using
mask printing. Mask printing is required, after copying the printed carbon tracks and labels on
the copper board, the inverted labels can be read as normal words. The drawings of the circuit
are illustrated in Figure 7.
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Etching Procedure
The printed carbon powders on solder side were placed on the copper side of the
printed circuit board (PCB). The PCB was pressed and heated at the back side for ten minutes
to cover the copper surface with carbon print lines. After pressing and heating process, the
PCB was cooled down and the paper on the PCB was removed by soaking it in the water.
The “Design and Construction of Domestic Vacuum Cleaner Robot Car with Servo and
Dc Motors” circuit diagram was copied on the copper surface of the PCB. To remove the
unwanted copper surface area on the circuit, the PCB was slowly shaken in the ferrous chloride
solution until copper dissolved into ferrous chloride and this process is called etching. After
removing unnecessary parts of the copper surface, just only circuit diagram remained on the
PCB. The PCB was cleaned with water. Finally the circuit components are mounted and
soldered on the PCB in their positions on it.

Construction of the Robot Car

The components are picked up on the printed board. This circuit required on +5V and
one +12V power supply to do the required operations. First, for the connection of two channels
L9110S motor driver derived to Arduino Nano. This motor driver is connected to D6, D7, D8
and D9 of Arduino. Echo pin of ultrasonic sensor is connected to D11 of Arduino Nano and
D10 of Nano is connected to trigger pin. The servo motor is also connected to D5 of Nano. In
this circuit, 12V DC sucking motor, the power 2.4W and the current 0.15A, is used for sucking
the dust on the floor. Then the clearing robot car is assembled. The complete circuit diagram of
the robot car is shown in Figure 8.

The Operation of the Circuit

When the system received +5V power supply, both of the motors of the robot will run
normally and the robot moves forward. During this time, the ultrasonic sensor continuously
calculates the distance between the robot and the reflective surface. If the front surface distance
detected by the ultrasonic sensor is less than 27cm, then the robot car will take a turn. Else, it
will keep moving straight. The device will automatically stop moving forward and makes a
step back. This sensor sensed firstly the left and then the right. If the distance between the
robot and the obstacle is less than 12cm, the robot stops and scans in left and right directions
for new distance using servo motor and ultrasonic sensor. If the distance towards the left side is
more than that of the right side, the robot will prepare for a left turn. But first, it backs up a
little bit and then activates the left wheel motor in reserved in direction. Similarly, if the right
distance is more than that of the left distance, the robot prepares right rotation. This process
continues forever and the robot keeps on moving without hitting any obstacle. The operation of
the moving the robot car is sucking dust on the floor by using another +12V DC motor. The
flow chart diagram of vacuum cleaning robot car is shown in Figure 9.

(a) (b)
Fig.7 (a) Circuit Track Line Diagram by using TraxMaker Software
(b) Soldering Side of Printed Circuit Board
Bago University Research Journal, 2019, Vol. 9, No. 1 133

+5V
D13 D11 VCC Trig Echo GND
3V A D10 Ultrasonic Sensor

REF r D9 DC Motor B

A0
d B1
D8
u
A1 D7 B2
i
B-1A B-1
A5 n D6 L9110
B-2A B-2
A7
o Motor Driver
DC MotorA
D5 A-1A A-1
N
5V a D2 A-2A A-2 A1
RSTT n RST A2
GND
o
RX0
VCC Ctrl GND Sucking Fan
UIN TX1 Motor
Vacuum
Servo Motor Tube

AC+ AC-

Fig. 8 Complete Circuit Diagram of the Domestic Cleaning Robot Car

Start

Include Header Files from Library

Robot goes forward Direction

Direction

Check
Forward Yes LHD>RHD Yes Turn
Signal (12cm) Left
(27cm)

No

RHD>LHD Yes Turn

(12cm) Right

No
No Turn Around

Move Forward Direction

End

Fig. 9 Flow Chart Diagram of the Domestic Cleaning Robot Car

134 Bago University Research Journal, 2019, Vol. 9, No. 1

Results and Discussion

This device based on an obstacle avoiding robot. The cleaning robot car moves in all
directions but avoiding obstacles. By calculating the data with a ATMega 328 microcontroller,
ultrasonic sensor and servo motor can be controlled during edge-searching, obstacle-avoiding,
path searching and sucking dry dust. Present work is aimed for working of an automated
motion controlled machine that could clean the floor of normal house-hold. When the obstacle
avoiding machine and the absorb motor receives the +5V and +12V power supply, the system
will move all over the surface without omitting any bit of floor space. Basically this circuit is
to be designed for a portable machine that could move automatically all over the floor surface
avoiding obstacles and cleaning the floor. This circuit can absorb the sand and the small pieces
of paper. The absorb fan with motor can suck about the weight of 0.11g.
The disadvantage of automatic floor cleaning machines is that it can be used only used
in households for only dry things. So it is only used in households but not in hospitals or small
public areas.
Sensors are used on rotation of 3 sides of the machine: front, left and right. Image
sensing technique for avoiding obstacles is to be used. The assembly of the vacuum cleaning
robot car is shown in Figure 10 to Figure 13. This device can also use in dangerous
environments, where human cannot enter are needed to be cleaned.

Conclusion
The machine is being tested in a room and if results in successful outcome. The
scrubber design should be modified in future because the current design has few problems. If
these features will be modified, this system can work well. Overall the research is successful to
its intent and will definitely change the era robotics and floor cleaning. This machine has the
capability to detect as well as move in the all directions of path and thus resulting in better
cleaning of floors.
The robot car is a fully autonomous robot which can be able to avoid any obstacle when
it moves. The obstacle avoiding cleaning vacuum robot is very helpful. Global Positioning
System (GPS) can be used with this technology to control the car automatically without
personal tools.
Bago University Research Journal, 2019, Vol. 9, No. 1 135

Fig. 10 Front View of the Vacuum Cleaner Robot Car

Fig. 11 Back View of the Vacuum Cleaner Robot Car

136 Bago University Research Journal, 2019, Vol. 9, No. 1

Fig. 12 Top View of the Vacuum Cleaner Robot Ca

Fig. 13 Under View of the Vcuum Cleaner Robot Car

Future Work
(i) The standalone power supply, a solar panel setup will add it as using battery cell.
(ii) When this circuit will connect to GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications)
module, the smart (IOT) robot vacuum cleaning machine can construct.
(iii) It will add spy camera for investigator and spy.
Bago University Research Journal, 2019, Vol. 9, No. 1 137

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Rector Dr Aye Aye Tun, Bago University for her encouragement to do this work.
I would like to express gratitude to Professor Dr Khin Mar Ohn, Head of Department of Physics, Bago University
for her valuable advice. I am also very grateful to Dr Khin Htoo, Professor, Department of Physics, Bago
University, for her encouragement throughout the process of this work.

References
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Banzi M., (2009). Getting Started with Arduino. O’Reilly media Inc, 2nd Edition, California.
Michael M. (2014). Beginning Arduino. Second Edition, California.
Nick Dossis. (2002). Everyday Practical Electronics. (London : Wimborne Publishing)
Sinclair I. R. (2001). Practical Electronics Handbook. (London: B H Newnes)