Title :
OmniClimber-II: An omnidirectional climbing robot with high maneuverability and flexibility to adapt to non-flat surfaces
Author :
Tavakoli, Mahdi ; Viegas, Carlos ; Marques, Lino ; Norberto Pires, J. ; de Almeida, Anibal T.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
Abstract :
This paper introduces, OmniClimber II, an evolution of OmniClimber I, a novel climbing robot with high maneuverability for inspection of ferromagnetic 3D human made structures. The robot takes advantage of novelties which allows an excellent maneuverability on the structure and can adapt to flat and non-flat structures. In this paper we present the conceptual and detailed design of the robot, the implementation and improvements over the first version and a set of tests: laboratory tests on a flat surface; and a set of field tests performed on a wind turbine foundation and another field test on a curved steel structure in Mechanical Engineering, to prove the applicability of the robot on both structures.
Keywords :
condition monitoring; foundations; inspection; mobile robots; steel; structural engineering; OmniClimber-II; curved steel structure; ferromagnetic 3D human made structures; inspection; mechanical engineering; nonflat surfaces; omnidirectional climbing robot; robot flexibility; robot maneuverability; wind turbine foundation; Arrays; Force; Magnetic flux; Magnetic forces; Mobile robots; Wheels;
Conference_Titel :
Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2013 IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Karlsruhe
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-5641-1
DOI :
10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630746