Enabling Tidying Tasks in Robotic Vacuum Cleaners via a Geometry-Induced Self-Locking Deployable Linkage

Abstract

Robotic vacuum cleaners must extend their functionality within tight limits on size, cost, and durability. Deployable linkages with few actuators meet these limits, but their backdrivability makes it difficult to hold a load-bearing posture without continuous motor torque. We introduce a two-stage deployable linkage that is self-locking, in the sense used for toggle and singularity-based linkages, through its own geometry: at full deployment an internal three-link subchain approaches a collinear, near-singular configuration where the input--output transmission ratio approaches zero, so that plate loads produce a small residual back-driving torque, absorbed by drive-train friction and a lightweight magnetic detent. A single actuator performs deployment and locking, a passive chassis-mounted trigger releases the lock for retraction, and a second actuator adjusts only the deployment height. We integrate the mechanism into a commercial robotic vacuum cleaner and validate it through a 100-cycle repeatability test, a quasi-static load test in which the locked plate held 50\,N with the motor de-energized, and 140 pushing-type tidying trials on seven household objects against a commercial arm-equipped vacuum robot under a documented protocol. We derive the analytical holding condition and discuss its limits as an intermediate design point between passive compliance and articulated manipulation.