Heat-based automated on-the-road painting machine

Abstract

This paper focuses on the design and development of a semi-automated road painting machine. The system design incoporates an electric bicycle as the prime mover to be driven by a human operator, which hauls a mobile platform that carries an automated and heat assisted paint delivery mechanism, capable of producing different straight line (single or double) patterns on the road. An Arduino-based microcontroller was used to execute data communication between the system devices through a written programming code for the operation of a desired painting task. A safety lamp and a camera with a reasonably large LCD screen were installed onto the system as additional commercially attractive features. A working prototype of semi automated road lane painting machine that intergrates mechanical, electric/electronic and computer control parts was tested in actual road conditions. The test indicated that 30% of the diluted paint mixture produces the best performance.