{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,28]],"date-time":"2026-01-28T12:20:12Z","timestamp":1769602812213,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,8]],"date-time":"2021-02-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1612742400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Robotics Programme under its Robotics Enabling Capabilities 330 and Technologies","award":["192 22 00058"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["192 22 00058"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The hydro blasting of metallic surfaces is an essential maintenance task in various industrial sites. Its requirement of a considerable labour force and time, calls for automating the hydro blasting jobs through mobile robots. A hydro blasting robot should be able to cover the required area for a successful implementation. If a conventional robot footprint is chosen, the blasting may become inefficient, even though the concerned area is completely covered. In this work, the blasting arm\u2019s sweeping angle is chosen as the robot\u2019s footprint for hydro blasting task, and a multi-objective optimization-based framework is proposed to compute the optimal sweeping arc. The genetic algorithm (GA) methodology is exploited to compute the optimal footprint, which minimizes the blasting time and energy simultaneously. Multiple numerical simulations are performed to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Moreover, the strategy is successfully implemented on our hydro blasting robot named Hornbill, and the efficacy of the proposed approach is validated through experimental trials.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s21041194","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,10]],"date-time":"2021-02-10T04:33:46Z","timestamp":1612931626000},"page":"1194","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["An Optimal Footprint Based Coverage Planning for Hydro Blasting Robots"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4010-570X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thejus","family":"Pathmakumar","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Product Development Pillar, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore 487372, Singapore"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4339-4444","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Madan Mohan","family":"Rayguru","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Product Development Pillar, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore 487372, Singapore"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5063-0025","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sriharsha","family":"Ghanta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Product Development Pillar, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore 487372, Singapore"}]},{"given":"Manivannan","family":"Kalimuthu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Product Development Pillar, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore 487372, Singapore"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6504-1530","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mohan Rajesh","family":"Elara","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Product Development Pillar, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore 487372, Singapore"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,2,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"253","DOI":"10.2166\/wst.1994.0768","article-title":"Influence of fluid velocities on the degradation of volatile aromatic compounds in membrane bound biofilms","volume":"29","author":"Debus","year":"1994","journal-title":"Water Sci. 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