The geovacs would only be deployed in areas where the combined satellite, UAV and ground-station monitoring indicate they are needed. Thus, 100% of the surface will not have to be covered by geovacs at any given time. This will extend the lifetime of both the surface cover and the geovacs.
A robotic vacuum cleaner meeting all of the above criteria does not exist at present. However, the technology to produce one does. A review of available robotic vacuum cleaners (all battery powered) identified nearly a half dozen models that are either under development or commercially available for home use in vacuuming carpets and floors (167). The Robo Cleaner of Karcher Corp. is capable of independent performance and periodically returns to its charging station where it recharges itself and empties its dust containers. The Cye-sr personal robot of Probotics, Inc. is stated to respond to sound commands (clapping), deliver coffee and vacuum carpets.
We obtained and evaluated another robotic vacuum cleaner, the $200 Roomba® unit of the iRobot Corp. (166) for use in cleaning the plastic cover. This is a 5-lb 10 oz., 13.5-in. wide disc shaped machine that uses intelligent navigation technology to operate (168). It starts in concentric circles, contacts a wall, follows the perimeter and then begins a criss-cross pattern, repeating some of the coverage during a pre-set period of operation. Its pathfinding program was originally developed for a military robot designed to clear minefields.
The Roomba® picks up large particles using a set of roller brushes rotating in opposite directions. A separate vacuum unit collects the smaller ones. The particles are collected in a 250 g capacity particle bin. The use of the roller brushes allows the vacuum unit to be smaller than on a conventional vacuum cleaner.
We want to emphasize that the Roomba was designed for routine vacuuming of carpets and floors and not as a geovac for cleaning soil contamination from plastic covers. We do believe, however, that its performance in preliminary work we have conducted justifies further investigation of the development of geovacs.
Initial work we performed using a conventional Electrolux vacuum cleaner determined that the suction was so strong that the plastic was grabbed by the vacuum and sometimes torn or drawn into the rollers where it became entangled. Because the Roomba has a smaller vacuum motor, this was not observed to be a problem when it was used. However, as will be shown, a balance must be struck between maximum removal capability and the potential to entangle the plastic in the mechanism.
