Abstract
Large pressure equipment needs to be tested regularly to ensure safe operation; wall-climbing robots can carry the necessary tools to inspect spherical tanks, such as cameras and non-destructive testing equipment. However, a wall-climbing robot inside a spherical tank cannot be accurately positioned owing to the particularity of the spherical tank structure. This paper proposes a passive support and positioning mechanism fixed in a spherical tank to improve the adsorption capacity and positioning accuracy of the inspection robot. The main body of the mechanism was designed as a truss composed of carbon fiber telescopic rods and can work in spherical tanks with diameters of 4.6‒15.7 m. The structural strength, stiffness, and stability of the mechanism are analyzed via force and deformation simulations. By constructing a mathematical model of the support and positioning mechanism, the influence of structural deformation on the supporting capacity is analyzed and calculated. The robot positioning method based on the support and positioning mechanism can effectively locate the robot inside a spherical tank. Experiments verified the support performance and robot positioning accuracy of the mechanism. This research proposes an auxiliary support and positioning mechanism for a detection robot inside a spherical tank, which can effectively improve the positioning accuracy of the robot and meet the robotic inspection requirements.
Highlights
Spherical tanks are sealed containers for storing liquids or gases
This paper proposes a spherical coordinate passive support mechanism fixed to a spherical tank
The column of the support mechanism is fixed at the spherical tank and the end of the cantilever is elastically connected with the wall-climbing robot and has a rotational degree of freedom
Summary
Spherical tanks are sealed containers for storing liquids or gases To ensure their safety, regular maintenance is required. Some research institutions have developed dedicated manned workbenches for the internal maintenance of spherical tanks These methods require manual detection and maintenance, which are inefficient and safe. The wall-climbing robot has become a research hotspot in the field of automatic inspection of spherical tanks. A variety of adsorption methods have been applied to wall-climbing robots,. Wall-climbing robots based on negative pressure adsorption are usually large and structurally complex, impeding adaptation to complex environments. (2021) 34:5 the permanent magnet adsorption robots can adsorb stably but some influencing factors, such as rusts and welds, affect the adsorption capacity and the inspection robot for spherical tanks requires a more flexible and stable structure.
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