The multifunction automated crawling system (MACS)

Author

Backes, Paul G. ; Bar-Cohen, Yoseph ; Joffe, Benjamin

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

Volume

1

fYear

1997

fDate

20-25 Apr 1997

Firstpage

335

Abstract

A new robotic crawler is being developed for inspection of large aircraft external surfaces. The multifunction automated crawling system (MACS) has been designed and fabricated to carry miniature instrumentation to perform a wide variety of tasks while being attached to an aircraft´s surface. The immediate application of MACS is inspection of the exterior of large military aircraft such as the C-5. Various inspection payload modules could be incorporated onto the MACS crawler to perform the desired inspections. MACS employs ultrasonic motors for mobility and suction cups for surface adherence. MACS has two legs for linear motion and a rotation element for turning, enabling any simultaneous combination of motion from linear to rotation about a central axis

Keywords

inspection; legged locomotion; military aircraft; motion control; ultrasonic motors; MACS; aircraft inspection; legged motion; military aircraft; multifunction automated crawling system; robotic crawler; suction cups; ultrasonic motors; Aging; Aircraft propulsion; Bridges; Corrosion; Crawlers; Inspection; Military aircraft; Rain; Thermal degradation; Thermal loading;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Robotics and Automation, 1997. Proceedings., 1997 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Albuquerque, NM

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3612-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ROBOT.1997.620060

Filename

620060