Painting Robot for Exterior Walls of High Rise Buildings

The robot described in this report has been developed for painting the wall surfaces of the Shinjuku Center Building located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, which was recently decided to be repainted. A comparison study was made on the difference in efficiency between robot and manual painting. It was found that using the robot would reduce the work schedule by four months, make painting safer, prevent drifting of paint mist, and result in better finish of the painted surfaces. The robot was therefore chosen to do the painting. The robot's first task is scheduled to start in August 1988, and it will complete painting within 4.5 months. The building to be painted is a 219.5 meter high-rise building constructed in 1979 which has 53 floors above ground and 5 floors below ground. A total area of 47,700 m2, excluding window glass sections but including 7,800 m2 of the inside of the guide-rails, will be painted and the robot will paint approximately 70% of the total area. The conditions under which the robot will paint are very severe as the exterior of this building has a complicated configuration. This study report is based on examples of performance during experiments.