Proposal

Date: May 3, 2021
To: Sarah Feinberg
From: Malena Arevalo, Eric Gopaul, Andrew Prescod, Nyah Bajana Subject: Creating Perfect Roomba For NYC Subway Stations

Purpose

As New Yorkers we have first hand experienced the need for New York City’s subway authority to develop a cleaning plan. Now more than ever we see this need as a priority, during this pandemic the awareness of sanitation has grown. A solution to this sanitation problem is creating ideal roombas (A roomba is a known model of a robotic vacuum cleaner), the roomba will have legs allowing it to navigate easily from floor to floor..

Summary

Tons of trash and unsanitized platforms can be found in every subway station which is not a great look for New York City. This proposal is going to discuss the benefits that the MTA train stations will gain from having a robotic vacuum cleaner, a roomba. This roomba will help maintain the train stations in New York City as clean as possible for all local commuters and even tourists traveling throughout the boroughs, as well as helping decrease the spread of germs and diseases.

Introduction

In October of 2011, the MTA initiated an experiment to remove trash cans in subway stations to determine whether there would be a decrease in the amount of garbage bags collected. The MTA believed that if commuters did not see any nearby trash cans to dispose of their waste, then they would not want to litter on the platform or train tracks, instead they would keep their trash until a trash can was found. This method did show some kind of improvement, however, it did not completely get the job done. Sadly, a lot of people are too lazy to carry their trash out, and because of this, 40 tons of litter is still being removed from the system everyday (“Trash Can Free Stations Pilot Yields Positive Results”). Due to there being dozens of trash found subway stations platforms, residue and unsanitized floors are being a major problem for the MTA.

Although the MTA is to implement ways to clean and decrease trash, this does not guarantee keeping commuters safe from germs or diseases. With that being said, a roomba that has an ultraviolet light sanitizer with arms and legs that collect garbage on the ground would be ideal to have in train stations. This innovative roomba would be extremely helpful today because of the current pandemic that the world is facing. When New York City reported its first Coronavirus case on March 1, 2020 (NBC New York), it was obvious that this virus could spread easily in crowded spaces that people often gather to commute to their desired destinations, i.e. subway stations.

Plan of Work/Innovation

For our proposed program we plan to have a cleaning program that includes robot vacuums with UV lights across the 472 stations in New York City that would clean stations at specific times, ideally before or after rush hour to maintain cleanliness. This would improve the smell of the Subway; the number of mice and roaches present, aid the work of sanitation workers and reduce the risk of Coronavirus.

Introduction/ Technical Description

A robot vacuum often which is generically branded as “roombas” are robots that are designed and programmed to automatically clean and vacuum limited flooring space. Roombas are designed to be small and compacted enough to go under tight spaces
and can be controlled manually by a remote control or programmed to
clean without human control. The Roomba i7 from the iRobot family is
one of the most common examples of a robot vacuum for cleaning. Robot
vacuums that are generally built for indoor use, are small, compact and
discs shaped. The Roomba 700 series for example has a height of about
3.6 inches and a width of about 13.9 inches, enough to go under couches
and beneath kitchen kickboards. The Roomba we are considering for
subway stations have UV sanitizing light lamps meant to disinfect the
subway and potentially legs or some type of device to navigate different
terrain like stairs..

Sensors

In order for a robot vacuum to navigate around a room without human control, there are several sensors such as cliff sensors, wall sensors and optical encoders. Cliff sensors use infrared light and are important for determining the relative distance the robot is to the floor around it. This is for the robot to detect sharp changes in depth and avoid falling off stairs or some type of steep incline. Optical encoders are used to determine the distance the robot traveled. Wall sensors are the same as cliff sensors but the infrared light is pointed off to the side of the Roomba to detect nearby walls.

UV Light Lamps

The main attraction of these robot vacuums would be their far UV/ ultraviolet light emissions meant to sanitize around the subway. Most household robot vacuums have UV lights emitting from beneath the robot however the ones that we plan to install in most subway stations will have UV lamps mounted on top of it’s base. Using the different types of sensors, the robot vacuum will strategically plan and move to certain parts of the room to fully disinfect the subway station

Interface

In order to avoid unauthorized personnel from tampering with the device, the roomba will have a tablet for workers to operate, and a key to open the roomba manually to fix any hardware problems

Summary

The combination of components such as the wheels, sensors, design and programming allow roombas to clean a specific area without need of human control. Roombas will not always be able to solve large problems like large pieces of debris or cleaning during rush or peak commute hours but will be a way to maintain some form of cleanliness within the subway and remove pathogens, viruses and bacteria inside stations and train tracks.

Timeline:

Start DateEnd DateDescription
January 2022February 2022Hold several conferences with the MTA to discuss the implementation of optimized Roombas to clean subway stations. Proper scheduling will also be discussed.
March 2022April 2022Layout of subway stations will be collected to program an optimal path for the Roomba.
May 2022September 2022Programed Roombas will be deployed in select subway stations in Queens to test efficiency.
October 2022January 2023Optimized Roombas will be deployed in several Brooklyn stations.
February 2023March 2023A survey will be conducted on MTA staff to measure their satisfaction with the optimized Roomba.
April 2023May 2023Residents of Queens and
Brooklyn will be given a survey to measure their satisfaction with the optimized Roomba
June 2023November 2023Feedback collected from survey will be used to further improve optimized Roomba
December 2023January 2024Begin planning for the implementation of improved optimized Roombas in Manhattan
February 2024May 2024Deployment of optimized Roombas in Manhattan subway stations
June 2024July 2024Plans for Roomba implementation in Bronx stations begins
August 2024December 2024Optimized Roombas will be deployed in Bronx subway stations.
January 2025February 2025Plans to implement Roombas into nearly every subway station begins
March 2025November 2025Optimized Roombas now in almost every subway station across NYC
December 2025January 2026Send out mass alerts about the subways new method of sanitation
February 2026April 2026Provide any necessary information and protocol to MTA workers in the event of an optimized Roomba malfunction.
———May 2026PROJECT COMPLETE

Budget – The MTA has a 300 million year fund for sanitation purposes. A basic UV sterilizing cleaning robot is 11,438.96 dollars, creating a similar roomba being modified into a bipedal( adding legs) robot would up the price to at least 13,000, buying one of these per station results in 6,136,000. There are 472 subway stations in New York City leaving an amount of 622,593.23 dollars for remaining sanitation necessities per station. Optimized Roombas will be deployed in several Brooklyn stations, sending out at least two of the first produced Roomba into a Brooklyn station, money from the maintenance budget of this station will be used if there are some malfunctions with the robot.

Qualifications:
Our company for many years has specialized in the development of effective automated cleaning machines that have been used in domestic and business settings. This includes office buildings, airports, and even homes. Our clients and customers regard our work as being reliable and cost-efficient. Along with our partner company iRobot, we have been able to spread these compact machines across the U.S. Our team also consists of qualified engineers, programmers, and IT specialists that have designed and perfected our product. Their in-depth knowledge of CAD designs has allowed us to develop Roomba prototypes. We then conduct extensive tests on our product to ensure its overall effectiveness and productivity.

References

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Layton, J. (2005, November 03). How robotic vacuums work. Retrieved May 04, 2021, from https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/home/robotic-vacuum3.htm

Meyer, David. “MTA Will Continue $300M-a-Year Subway Cleaning after COVID Crisis.” New York Post, New York Post, 23 Mar. 2021, nypost.com/2021/03/23/mta-will-continue-300m-a-year-subway-cleaning-after-covid/.

NBC New York. “NYC Might Have Had Almost 11,000 COVID-19 Infections Before ‘First’ Case: Report.” NBC New York, NBC New York, 23 Apr. 2020, www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-might-have-had-almost-11000-covid-19-infection s-before-first-case-report/2386680/.

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web.mta.info/nyct/service/trashcanremoval.htm. Vaudel, Cedric. “UVD Disinfection Robot.” RobotLAB, www.robotlab.com/store/uvd-disinfection-robot.

“UV Sterilizing Robot – Disinfection Lamp.” Magic Wand Company, 6 Apr. 2021, www.magicwandcompany.com/product/uv-sterilizing-robot/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6Ie-o uWu8AIVFPnICh3lYg2ZEAQYASABEgJmhvD_BwE.