Abstract
Wall climbing robot can provide easier accessibility to tall structures for Non Destructive Testing (NDT) and improve working environments of human operators. However, existing adhesion mechanism for climbing robots such as vortex, electromagnet etc. are still at development stage and offer no feasible adhesion mechanism. As a result, few practical products have been developed for reinforced concrete surfaces, though wall-climbing robots have been researched for many years. This paper proposes a novel magnetic adhesion mechanism for wall-climbing robot for reinforced concrete surface. Mechanical design parameters such as distance between magnets, the yoke thickness, and magnet arrangements have been investigated by Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The adhesion module can be attached under the chassis of a prototype robot. The magnetic flux can penetrate maximum concrete cover of 30 mm and attain adhesion force of 121.26 N. The prototype provides high Force-to-Weight ratio compared to other reported permanent magnet based robotic systems. Both experiment and simulation results prove that the magnetic adhesion mechanism can generate efficient adhesion force for the climbing robot to operate on vertical reinforced concrete structures.
Highlights
This research aims to develop a novel adhesion mechanism for concrete wall climbing robot
The proposed prototype robot discussed in this paper is designed to provide robotic platform to attach variety of Non Destructive Testing (NDT) equipment for concrete wall inspection
This paper proposes a permanent magnet based adhesion system for concrete surface climbing robot that is distinctive compared to other systems found in the literature
Summary
This research aims to develop a novel adhesion mechanism for concrete wall climbing robot. The proposed prototype robot discussed in this paper is designed to provide robotic platform to attach variety of NDT equipment for concrete wall inspection. The general requirements of the robot mainly include: a) The robot should have climbing capability of vertical steel surfaces of up to 100 m high and curved surfaces where the minimum diameter is down to 10 m which is common for concrete based nuclear power plants. This paper proposes a permanent magnet based adhesion system for concrete surface climbing robot that is distinctive compared to other systems found in the literature. Roof platform which work together to form a vertical conveyor belt system to slide the robot up and down [13] Even though such system solves the difficulty of climbing vertically but it still needs the conveyor system to be installed on the roof and ground. This feature makes this system ineffective in case of very tall structures
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