898 research outputs found
The Problem of Adhesion Methods and Locomotion Mechanism Development for Wall-Climbing Robots
This review considers a problem in the development of mobile robot adhesion
methods with vertical surfaces and the appropriate locomotion mechanism design.
The evolution of adhesion methods for wall-climbing robots (based on friction,
magnetic forces, air pressure, electrostatic adhesion, molecular forces,
rheological properties of fluids and their combinations) and their locomotion
principles (wheeled, tracked, walking, sliding framed and hybrid) is studied.
Wall-climbing robots are classified according to the applications, adhesion
methods and locomotion mechanisms. The advantages and disadvantages of various
adhesion methods and locomotion mechanisms are analyzed in terms of mobility,
noiselessness, autonomy and energy efficiency. Focus is placed on the physical
and technical aspects of the adhesion methods and the possibility of combining
adhesion and locomotion methods
New Technologies for Climbing Robots Adhesion to Surfaces
The interest in the development of climbing robots is growing steadily. The main motivations are to increase the operation e ciency, by eliminating the costly assembly of sca olding, or to protect human health and safety in hazardous tasks. Climbing robots have already been developed for applications ranging from cleaning to inspection of constructions di cult to reach. These robots should be capable of travelling over di erent types of surfaces, with di erent inclinations, such as oors, walls, ceilings, and to walk between such surfaces. Furthermore, they should be able of adapting and recon guring for di erent environment conditions and to be self-contained. Regarding the adhesion to the surface, the robots should be able to produce a secure gripping force using a light-weight mechanism. This paper presents a survey of di erent technologies proposed and adopted for climbing robots adhesion to surfaces, focusing on the new technologies that are recently being developed to ful ll these objectives.N/
Limpet II: A Modular, Untethered Soft Robot
The ability to navigate complex unstructured environments and carry out inspection tasks requires robots to be capable of climbing inclined surfaces and to be equipped with a sensor payload. These features are desirable for robots that are used to inspect and monitor offshore energy platforms. Existing climbing robots mostly use rigid actuators, and robots that use soft actuators are not fully untethered yet. Another major problem with current climbing robots is that they are not built in a modular fashion, which makes it harder to adapt the system to new tasks, to repair the system, and to replace and reconfigure modules. This work presents a 450 g and a 250 × 250 × 140 mm modular, untethered hybrid hard/soft robot—Limpet II. The Limpet II uses a hybrid electromagnetic module as its core module to allow adhesion and locomotion capabilities. The adhesion capability is based on negative pressure adhesion utilizing suction cups. The locomotion capability is based on slip-stick locomotion. The Limpet II also has a sensor payload with nine different sensing modalities, which can be used to inspect and monitor offshore structures and the conditions surrounding them. Since the Limpet II is designed as a modular system, the modules can be reconfigured to achieve multiple tasks. To demonstrate its potential for inspection of offshore platforms, we show that the Limpet II is capable of responding to different sensory inputs, repositioning itself within its environment, adhering to structures made of different materials, and climbing inclined surfaces
Climbing Robot for Steel Bridge Inspection: Design Challenges
Inspection of bridges often requires high risk operations such as working at heights, in confined spaces, in hazardous environments; or sites inaccessible by humans. There is significant motivation for robotic solutions which can carry out these inspection tasks. When inspection robots are deployed in real world inspection scenarios, it is inevitable that unforeseen challenges will be encountered. Since 2011, the New South Wales Roads & Maritime Services and the Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems at the University of Technology, Sydney, have been working together to develop an innovative climbing robot to inspect high risk locations on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Many engineering challenges have been faced throughout the development of several prototype climbing robots, and through field trials in the archways of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This paper will highlight some of the key challenges faced in designing a climbing robot for inspection, and then present an inchworm inspired robot which addresses many of these challenges
A concept selection method for designing climbing robots
This paper presents a concept selection methodology, inspired by the Verein Deutscher
Ingenieure (VDI) model and Pugh's weighted matrix method, for designing climbing robots
conceptually based on an up-to-date literature review. The proposed method is illustrated with a case study of ongoing research, the investigation of an adaptable and energetically autonomous climbing
robot, in Loughborough University
A Survey of Technologies and Applications for Climbing Robots Locomotion and Adhesion
The interest in the development of climbing robots has grown rapidly in the last years. Climbing
robots are useful devices that can be adopted in a variety of applications, such as maintenance
and inspection in the process and construction industries. These systems are mainly
adopted in places where direct access by a human operator is very expensive, because of the
need for scaffolding, or very dangerous, due to the presence of an hostile environment. The
main motivations are to increase the operation efficiency, by eliminating the costly assembly
of scaffolding, or to protect human health and safety in hazardous tasks. Several climbing
robots have already been developed, and other are under development, for applications ranging
from cleaning to inspection of difficult to reach constructions.
A wall climbing robot should not only be light, but also have large payload, so that it may
reduce excessive adhesion forces and carry instrumentations during navigation. These machines
should be capable of travelling over different types of surfaces, with different inclinations,
such as floors, walls, or ceilings, and to walk between such surfaces (Elliot et al. (2006);
Sattar et al. (2002)). Furthermore, they should be able of adapting and reconfiguring for various
environment conditions and to be self-contained.
Up to now, considerable research was devoted to these machines and various types of experimental
models were already proposed (according to Chen et al. (2006), over 200 prototypes
aimed at such applications had been developed in the world by the year 2006). However,
we have to notice that the application of climbing robots is still limited. Apart from a couple
successful industrialized products, most are only prototypes and few of them can be found
in common use due to unsatisfactory performance in on-site tests (regarding aspects such as
their speed, cost and reliability). Chen et al. (2006) present the main design problems affecting
the system performance of climbing robots and also suggest solutions to these problems.
The major two issues in the design of wall climbing robots are their locomotion and adhesion
methods.
With respect to the locomotion type, four types are often considered: the crawler, the wheeled,
the legged and the propulsion robots. Although the crawler type is able to move relatively
faster, it is not adequate to be applied in rough environments. On the other hand, the legged
type easily copes with obstacles found in the environment, whereas generally its speed is
lower and requires complex control systems.
Regarding the adhesion to the surface, the robots should be able to produce a secure gripping
force using a light-weight mechanism. The adhesion method is generally classified into four groups: suction force, magnetic, gripping to the surface and thrust force type. Nevertheless,
recently new methods for assuring the adhesion, based in biological findings, were proposed.
The vacuum type principle is light and easy to control though it presents the problem of
supplying compressed air. An alternative, with costs in terms of weight, is the adoption of
a vacuum pump. The magnetic type principle implies heavy actuators and is used only for
ferromagnetic surfaces. The thrust force type robots make use of the forces developed by
thrusters to adhere to the surfaces, but are used in very restricted and specific applications.
Bearing these facts in mind, this chapter presents a survey of different applications and technologies
adopted for the implementation of climbing robots locomotion and adhesion to surfaces,
focusing on the new technologies that are recently being developed to fulfill these objectives.
The chapter is organized as follows. Section two presents several applications of
climbing robots. Sections three and four present the main locomotion principles, and the
main "conventional" technologies for adhering to surfaces, respectively. Section five describes
recent biological inspired technologies for robot adhesion to surfaces. Section six introduces
several new architectures for climbing robots. Finally, section seven outlines the main conclusions
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