MAGNETIC WHEELS OPTIMIZATION AND APPLICATION TO THE MagneBike CLIMBING ROBOT

Abstract

Magnetic wheels are a powerful solution to design inspection climbing robots with excellent mobility. Magnetic wheels optimization based on simulations and the results that were obtained on prototypes are presented. The measured adhesion was doubled between the classic configuration and a novel multilayer one sharing exactly the same four magnets and the same total volume of iron. This know-how is then applied to optimize magnetic wheels for the existing robot called MagneBike. The adhesion force has been multiplied by 2 to 3 times depending on the conditions. Those amazing improvements open new possibilities for miniaturization of climbing robots or payload's increase.

Design Guidelines for an Embedded Permanent Magnetic Matrix Wheel Climbing Robot

“…According to the required mobility of magnetic wheel robots, the magnetic wheels need to be design efficiently to gain the desired amount of adhesive force. Rochat et al [8] presented the optimal design for magnetic wheels constructed with ring magnets (DPM) and iron flanges of a classical wheel and the multi-layer configuration wheel. The effects of different parameters on the adhesive force of magnetic wheels were studied by experiment and simulation.…”

Highly compact robots for inspection of power plants

“…On the other hand their simple structure is often not optimal. Their numeric optimization can introduce an important gain (Rochat, Schoeneich, Tâche, Mondada, & Bleuler, 2010), as has been demonstrated on the MagneBike robot. The optimization of its classic magnetic wheel has generated a gain of a factor 2 in adhesion force, in respect to initial experimental design and in simple situations.…”