Circumferentially rotatable inspection robot with elastic suspensions for bridge cables

Li, Jie; Yin, Chenyang; Shi, Yunde; Dai, Suya; Wang, Xingsong

doi:10.1108/ir-11-2021-0261

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The dual-motor drive improves the motion performance of the robot, and the elastic shock-absorbing suspensions and composite wheels enhance the robot's obstacle-surmounting capacity. Compared with our previous climbing robot [28], the maximum climbing speed is increased from 0.22 m/s to 0.3 m/s, and the maximum height of surmounted obstacle is enhanced from 13 mm to 20 mm. In addition, this robot is more flexible and can adapt to curved pipes.…”

Section: Robot Mechanical Designmentioning

confidence: 69%

Elastic Obstacle-Surmounting Pipeline-Climbing Robot with Composite Wheels

Huang

et al. 2022

Machines

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Regular inspection and maintenance can ensure safe working conditions of transport pipelines without leakage and damage. Pipeline-climbing robots can be used for rapid inspection of pipelines, effectively reducing labor costs and time consumption. For the annular pipelines outside spherical tanks, the special distribution and installation form presents more high obstacles, and puts forward higher requirements for the robot’s climbing performance and obstacle-surmounting ability. An elastic obstacle-surmounting pipeline-climbing robot with composite wheels is proposed in this paper. The designed elastic shock-absorbing suspension mechanisms and composite wheels were designed to increase the stability and obstacle-surmounting ability of the robot. The adjustable robot frame and rotating joint mechanisms allowed the robot to adapt to pipelines of different diameters and radians. Force analysis and simulation of obstacle surmounting by the robot were performed. Experiments were conducted on a 110-mm diameter pipeline to test the payload performance and obstacle-surmounting ability of the robot. With its elastic shock-absorbing suspension mechanisms, the pipeline-climbing robot could carry a 30 kg payload and stably climb the pipeline. The maximum height of obstacles surmounted by the composite wheels of the robot was 20 mm. In the process of surmounting obstacles, the velocity and inclination angle of the robot could remain relatively stable. This novel composite wheels and mechanisms can improve the performance of the pipeline-climbing robot and solve the problem of surmounting high obstacles. By carrying various equipment and instruments, the robot can promote the automated maintenance and inspection of complex pipelines.

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Section: Robot Mechanical Designmentioning

confidence: 69%

Elastic Obstacle-Surmounting Pipeline-Climbing Robot with Composite Wheels

Huang

et al. 2022

Machines

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…As a result, the total time required for a single circumferential arc movement and scan is 11.70 sec (T 𝑡 =325 x 36; theoretical). To calculate the total time required for the inspection by adding the time required for the scanner module to scan the pipeline and the time required for the robot's linear movement [26]. The robot's movement is defined as discrete linear movement, owing to the fact that the sensor utilised in the system has a signal delay; hence, in order to compensate for the sensor's delay, the robot's linear movement is made discrete.…”

Section: Circumferential To and Fro Mechanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Development of an External Modular Pi-XTS Robot for Detecting Presence of Defects in Pipelines

James,

Rajasekaran

2023

Preprint

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This paper presents an external semi-autonomous inspection robot capable of detecting surface cracks on steel pipelines. External inspection of pipeline in unstructured environment remains a challenge. A novel modular design of the robot is proposed to enable easy handling and placement of the robot on the pipeline surface. However, in order to establish a modular design a scanning mechanism is developed for the inspection approach. Furthermore, power transfer between modules and thermal studies on the pipeline is also carried out. In this paper we investigate the possibility of high manoeuvrability of modular robot in both horizontal and inclined pipelines. An ultrasonic inspection method is adopted and integrated to the scanner module for inspection of cracks on a 60mm diameter pipeline. We further validate its effectiveness by experimental verification and represented its accuracy, inspection duration on comparison with theoretical formulation.

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“…As a result, some wheeled cable-climbing robots were unable to cross some auxiliary cables and perform circumferential detection of the cables. Unlike these methods, some wheeled cable-climbing robots based on omnidirectional wheels [10] or flip joints [11] could perform circumferential rotation along the cable, but they could not self-tune the moving direction to overcome deflection. In a word, existing wheeled cable-climbing robots could not overcome climbing deflection and perform circumferential working at the same time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual servoing for wheeled cable-climbing robots with deflection correction

Jin,

Wen,

Zou

2023

Fourth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Electromechanical Automation (AIEA 2023)

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Wheeled cable-climbing robots that can detect cable damages are widely used to liberate human resources and reduce bridge hazards. Most wheeled cable-climbing robots have poor stability and will deflect along the cable under uneven loading. In this paper, a visual servoing method for wheeled cable-climbing robots is proposed with applications in antideflection. The proposed method integrates visual localization and trajectory tracking control, enabling robots to precisely estimate the deflection angles and stably correct deflection in dynamic and complex environments. For visual localization, a deflection angle estimation algorithm that combines object detection and coplanar feature points matching is developed. Then, a reference image update strategy is used to overcome the visual servoing errors caused by images distortion. On the controlling side, the trajectory tracking of the wheeled cable-climbing robots is implemented under the framework of model predictive control (MPC) with constraint functions to achieve expected position while avoiding wheel slipping. Based on the Multibody and V-Realm simulation platforms, the visual servoing method of wheeled cable-climbing robots is demonstrated, and its effectiveness and accuracy are verified by experiments.

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Circumferentially rotatable inspection robot with elastic suspensions for bridge cables

Cited by 7 publications

References 15 publications

Elastic Obstacle-Surmounting Pipeline-Climbing Robot with Composite Wheels

Elastic Obstacle-Surmounting Pipeline-Climbing Robot with Composite Wheels

Design and Development of an External Modular Pi-XTS Robot for Detecting Presence of Defects in Pipelines

Visual servoing for wheeled cable-climbing robots with deflection correction

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