Magnetic crawler climbing detection robot basing on metal magnetic memory testing technology

Abstract

Failure detection of high facilities always presents a tremendous challenge. Climbing-wall robot with detection capacity has become a main approach. But owing to their limitations in overcoming obstacles and complicated wall situation, reliable wall-climbing property and precise detection abilities are the most basic demand for achieving this function. Hence, further research is required to enhance robot capabilities in overcoming obstacles and accurate detection signal. The paper presents a new climbing-wall detection robot mechanism. The wall-climbing robot consists of two climbing modules. The two climbing modules are connected by anti-overturning mechanism to provide a capacity of anti-overturning during overcoming obstacle. The detection mechanism is installed at the bottom of the robot. Detailed design issues are presented with analyses of the design parameters. Transition displacement of anti-overturning mechanism and force transfer equation are derived, and stable operating conditions are verified. The abilities of flat surface locomotion, anti-overturning, preload and detection capacity are validated by using experiments. Experiment results show that the prototype achieves 10kg payload capacity on vertical surfaces and can overcome 10mm obstacle. 1mm×1mm circular groove can be found.