Gutterpillar: An Eavestrough Cleaning Robot

Cleaning eavestroughs is dangerous. Every year in the U.S. alone, over 300 people die from falls from ladders.

Introducing: Gutterpillar!

It’s custom designed in Fusion 360.

Because of the segmented design, Gutterpillar can bend around corners.

The X-wing mechanism adjusts wheel height and compression. This lets it fit under gutter brackets, and apply enough force to climb a vertical downspout! Gutterpillar will be able to clean the entire eavestrough system without anyone needing to use a ladder!

Gutterpillar can be remote controlled from a phone or a computer. A built-in camera on Gutterpillar streams live video to the device.

To eliminate the need for ladders, and clean eavestroughs safely, use Gutterpillar!

Ambulance video source: Freepik, 2026

Cleaning eavestroughs is dangerous. Each year in the United States alone there are more than 130,000 emergency room-treated injuries and over 300 deaths that are caused by falls from ladders (American Ladder Institute, 2018). As well, most of the 300 deaths are from falls of 10 feet or less (Ladder Safety, n.d.).

Having clear eavestroughs is very important. A gutter system free of leaves and debris allows rainwater to flow away from buildings (Figure 1). If the gutter is clogged (Figure 2), water will collect and weigh down the eavestrough, pulling it away from the house. If the water isn’t moved away from the house, water can seep in through the roof (Figure 3) and the foundation. In addition, leaves inside gutters are the perfect home for rodents and birds. Insects like mosquitos and flies breed in standing water. Removing debris wards off pests. (Cohen, 2026)

Cleaning eavestroughs is mostly done in the fall when it’s cold and wet, which makes it a messy and inconvenient job (Figure 4). Add that to the hazardous elevation above the ground (Figure 5), and it’s clear we need another way.

Many elderly or people with disabilities are unable to clean their own eavestroughs. As well, many people in remote areas cannot easily get the professionals needed. Gutterpillar demonstrates how a robot could safely clean the eavestrough without the need for ladders, using a simple interface that is accessible to everyone.

I designed the physical mechanisms using Fusion 360, a professional 3D modeling software (Autodesk, 2026). Over 50 prototypes were needed! First, I created a parallelogram contraption to move the wheels in and out (Figure 6), but it was too large to fit in the narrow confines of the downspout. I designed a new mechanism that rotates the wheel segments to collapse under the gutter brackets.

There were many difficulties when designing small features, due to the fragile plastic breaking. The parallelogram contraption for moving the wheels in and out could have been small enough, but I couldn’t make all the hinges sturdy with such small features. My final mechanism was both more elegant and robust.

I developed a device with a servo motor that pulled nylon ropes to control the direction the robot bent (Figure 7). This feature was not used in the final design, to simplify the prototype. Direction control could instead be implemented with individually controlled wheels.

I prototyped my electronics with a breadboard (Figure 8), and soldered my custom circuit board (Figure 9). There were a lot of challenges with wires breaking off so the base of the wires needed to be reinforced with hot glue for strain relief.

The first iteration of the circuit board used a 9V battery for the drive motors, and a 4.8V battery pack of AA batteries for the ESP32 and servos (Figure 10). The AA batteries did not put out enough current, and the 9V battery drained very quickly. I later switched to a single, regulated 5V lithium battery intended for charging phones, that can supply a lot more current. There were still small issues with brownouts if the servos stalled, but this can be worked around with software limits and future improvements to the battery and electronics.

Gutterpillar can ascend a downspout, crawl through the eavestroughs, bend around corners, and will clean the entire gutter system without anybody having to climb a ladder!

Mechanical

Gutterpillar can expand to push on the inside of the downspout so it can climb, and it can contract to fit in the eavestrough under the gutter brackets (Figure 11). It does this using two X-Wing mechanisms, named after the collapsible style of the Star Wars movie starfighters (X-Wing Starfighter, n.d.). A servo motor controls the angle of one of the arms, and the other three arms are driven by the first, using integrated, custom gears. The drive motors are linked to the wheels using bevel gears that keep the drive motors tucked in.

The wheels were molded out of two-part silicone. The cutouts allow them to squish for more grip against the downspout walls (Figure 12). I used a 3D printed mold, and a central 3D printed hub. I developed these techniques with my science fair project last year, Scraper Snail (Wight, 2025).

Gutterpillar is segmented with universal joints to go around corners. Each joint consists of two brackets made out of aluminum for strength, and a 3D printed hub in the center (Figure 13). Screws pass through the brackets and fasten into threaded inserts that were melted into the central hub.

Electrical

Gutterpillar has a custom soldered circuit board (Figure 14). It uses an ESP32 microcontroller, which has built-in Wi-Fi. A transistor (electrical switch) is used to turn the drive motors on and off. A second transistor rotates or stops the brush. The X-Wing mechanisms are driven by servo motors, and an ESP32-CAM is used for video feed. The motors and servos are wired with pin connectors that allow for easier wire management.

Remote Control

Gutterpillar can be remote controlled from a phone or computer. Based on ESP32-CAM example code, a built-in camera on Gutterpillar streams live video to the user’s device. The core ESP32 code was built on example webserver code and customized to allow a user to control the drive speed, the servos, and turn the brush on and off (Figure 15).

Gutterpillar’s drive speed can be controlled using pulse width modulation (PWM). The ESP32 turns the power for the motors on and off very fast, which makes them go slower, because the motors aren’t on the whole time. The servo motors are also controlled by PWM, but the width of the pulses sent by the ESP32 tells the servo what angle to move to.

The two ESP32s connect to a router which has been configured to give the microcontrollers fixed IP addresses. The client connects to the router Wi-Fi network, and because of the fixed IP addresses the controls and video are always at the same network locations. A user just needs to type the IP address into a web browser. No app installation needed!

I successfully made a robot that can climb the downspout (Figure 16), traverse the eavestroughs under the gutter brackets (Figure 17), and bend around corners (Figure 18). This could completely eliminate the need for ladders, preventing injuries and potentially saving lives!

A comparable product is the iRobot Looj (iRobot Looj, n.d.) (Figure 19). It is a similar idea, however, it cannot go around corners or up the downspout, so a ladder is required to use it. As well, the Looj is discontinued, so there is currently no direct competition on the market.

The iRobot Looj cost $400. Gutterpillar only cost $125 for one complete prototype, however if it was a product, it would become more expensive with waterproofing and design team wages. The cost could be offset by buying in bulk and injection molding the case, so the final price would likely be comparable to the Looj.

Gutterpillar could be a product usable by homeowners, which would make it safer for people inexperienced in cleaning gutters, as well as making it possible for elderly people or people with disabilities to maintain their homes (Figure 20). Homeowners in rural areas that have a harder time getting gutter cleaning services would benefit from this robot. Gutterpillar may also be used by gutter cleaning companies. Corporate investment in this robot would keep their employees safer, reduce insurance costs, and save time and effort, which increases profitability.

For improved functionality, Gutterpillar needs to drive forwards and backwards using an H-bridge (Figure 21). Otherwise, some areas of eavestrough will be a dead end (Figure 22).

The robot needs to be waterproofed, because clogged gutters are likely to contain blocked rainwater (Figure 23). The software could be improved to allow Gutterpillar to automatically expand and contract based on its surroundings. Injection molding could improve strength (Figure 24). A smaller battery, and a custom printed circuit board (Figure 25) could reduce size and weight. Once these improvements are made, field testing in eavestroughs will follow.

Many thanks to the Waterloo Wellington Science and Engineering Fair support team for their feedback on my ProjectBoard!

Thank you to our delegates for taking me and the other finalists to the Canada-Wide Science Fair. This is an amazing opportunity!

I am grateful to my dad for helping me manufacture the metal brackets for Gutterpillar’s joints.

Thank you to my parents for ordering the parts that I requested for my prototypes.

And thank you to my family for teaching me that every problem has a solution, especially in engineering where it's unlikely for designs to work on the first try!

Tutorials

Bro Code. (2021, September 1). Learn HTML iframes in 3 minutes 🖼️ [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRGdDy18qfY

DroneBot Workshop. (2020, April 2). Introduction to ESP32 - Getting started [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPlN_Tk3VLQ

Prabhu, A. (2026, January 20). In-Depth: generating a PWM signal on the ESP32. Last Minute Engineers. https://lastminuteengineers.com/esp32-pwm-tutorial/

Random Nerd Tutorials. (n.d.). PWM | Random Nerd Tutorials. https://randomnerdtutorials.com/?s=PWM

Robojax. (2022, July 13). How to setup and use ESP32 Cam with Micro USB WiFi Camera [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCtVxZnjPmY

Small Mechanical Parts, Components, & Assemblies Manufacturer | SDPSI, Designatronics, Inc. (n.d.). https://shop.sdp-si.com/

Fay-Wolfe, V. (2005). Creating a simple HTML Document. The University of Rhode Island, Department of Computer Science and Statistics. https://homepage.cs.uri.edu/faculty/wolfe/tutorials/csc101/HTML/topic2.html

w3schools.com. (2024, March 28). HTML - iframes - W3Schools.com [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP23O70ve7k

Workshop, D. (2023, April 11). Using Servo Motors with the ESP32. DroneBot Workshop. https://dronebotworkshop.com/esp32-servo/

Yoursunny. (n.d.). GitHub - yoursunny/esp32cam: OV2640 camera on ESP32-CAM, Arduino library. GitHub. https://github.com/yoursunny/esp32cam/tree/main

Background Research

American Ladder Institute. (2018, March 5). The Numbers Don’t Lie: Make Ladder Safety a Priority. https://blog.ansi.org/ansi/make-ladder-safety-a-priority-injury-statistics/

Autodesk. (2026). Autodesk Fusion Overview. https://www.autodesk.com/ca-en/products/fusion-360/overview

Cherkewski, R. (2026). [Picture of clogged eavestrough] [Photograph] Personal communication 2026, April.

Cohen, S. (2026, April 10). What Is Gutter Cleaning? And What Does It Include? Angi. https://www.angi.com/articles/why-gutter-cleaning-so-important.htm

CPSC (US Consumer Product Safety Commission) & CDC, National Center for Health Statistics. (2014). Ladder safety and how it affects everyone. https://www.laddersafetymonth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Why_Ladder_Safety_and_How_It_Affects_Everyone_2026.pdf

Deschutes Gutter Company. (2026). Deschutes Gutter Company. https://deschutesgutter.com/projects/

Eder, R., & Eder, R. (2025, April 4). Don’t risk it! Here is why you shouldn’t clean your own gutters. Metro Gutter and Home Services, Inc. https://www.metrogutter.com/dont-risk-it-here-is-why-you-shouldnt-clean-your-own-gutters

Find Answers | iRobot. (n.d.). https://homesupport.irobot.com/s/article/64128

Insider. (2021, August 11). How clogged gutters are deep cleaned | Deep cleaned [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzcQ2S5axEE

iRobot Looj. (n.d.). Canadian Tire. https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/irobot-looj-330-eavestrough-cleaning-robot-2741001p.html

Ladder Safety. (n.d.). International Association of Certified Home Inspectors.

https://www.nachi.org/ladder-safety.htm

Property Wizard. (2021, May 20). The Truth about Gutter Guards [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILU_q35hge0

Structure Tech Home Inspections. (2019, October 7). Are gutter guards worth it? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2vPnWWF_xM

Tools Zone. (2022, April 28). 5 best gutter cleaners | Best gutter cleaning tools [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPstc4Y1wi4

Tristan Kalina. (2023, October 11). How to get gutter cleaning jobs [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xFfSFCvUbw

Tristan Kalina. (2023, October 13). Do’s and dont’s of the gutter cleaning business [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWXetqDP_8M

Wight, B. (2025) Scraper Snail: An Aquarium Cleaning Robot. Youth Science Canada. https://partner.projectboard.world/ysc/project/scraper-snail-an-aquarium-cleaning-robot

Wight, Brinn. Personal photographs, 2025-2026

X-Wing Starfighter. (n.d.). Star Wars. https://www.starwars.com/databank/x-wing-starfighter

Purchase List

Battery https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CFLGRYZM

Drive Motors https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CHRX8Q14

ESP32 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0D8T7Z1P5

ESP32-CAM https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0FLPMGHLR

Servo Motors https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07H85M78M

Switch https://www.canadarobotix.com/products/2725

Transistors https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/infineon-technologies/IPP050N03LF2SAKSA1/22572820