MagneBike: Compact magnetic wheeled robot for power plant inspection (original) (raw)
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A Magnetic Wheeled Robot for Steel Bridge Inspection
Advances in Engineering Research and Application, 2019
There are thousands of steel bridges with different structures and designs that have been built around the world. Although they have different structures and designs, they have in common that they need regular quality checks to avoid possible unfortunate accidents. Often, the inspection is being carried out manually, and the inspectors need to bring the testing equipment to climb the tall bridges to perform inspection. This job is dangerous and difficult. To support the inspectors, we present the design and construction of a robotic system that can assist them to perform steel bridge inspections to help minimize difficulties and dangers as well as increase productivity in the quality inspection. The robot can move on bridges with a square or circular steel structure. It is capable of carrying several types of sensors for navigation and mapping. The collected data is stored in an onboard computer and simultaneously sent to the ground station for processing in time. The robot also has the ability to mark suspicious locations to facilitate locating repairs. The results of laboratory tests in fact show the feasibility of robot design.
Three-dimensional localization for the MagneBike inspection robot
Journal of Field Robotics, 2011
The MagneBike inspection robot is a climbing robot equipped with magnetic wheels. The robot is designed to drive on three-dimensional (3D) complexly shaped pipe structures; therefore it is necessary to provide 3D visualization tools for the user, who remotely controls the robot out of sight. The localization system is required to provide a 3D map of the unknown environment and the 3D location of the robot in the environment's map. The localization strategy proposed in this paper consists of combining 3D odometry with 3D scan registration. The odometry model is based on wheel encoders and a three-axis accelerometer. Odometry enables the tracking of the robot trajectory between consecutive 3D scans and is used as a prior for the scan matching algorithm. The 3D scan registration facilitates the construction of a 3D map of the environment and refines the robot position computed with odometry. This paper describes in detail the implementation of the localization concept. It presents the lightweight, small-sized 3D range finder that has been developed for the MagneBike. It also proposes an innovative 3D odometry model that estimates the local surface curvature to compensate for the absence of angular velocity inputs. The different tools are characterized in detail based on laboratory and field experiments. They show that the localization concepts reliably track the robot moving in the specific application environment. We also describe various techniques to optimize the 3D scanning process, which is time consuming, and to compensate for the identified limitations. These techniques are useful inputs for the future automatization of the robot's control and optimization of its localization process. C 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Development of Magnetic Wheeled Boiler Tube Inspection Robot
Jurnal Teknologi, 2015
The periodical inspection of boiler header and tube is considered important to avoid power plant shutdown due to failures caused by degradation, creep, corrosion, thermo-mechanical loading and others. The boiler header inspection robots developed by our research center, namely “MK-02” and “LS-01”, are only able to inspect the boiler header but unable to travel in and examine the boiler tube condition. This paper introduces a boiler tube inspection robot with magnetic wheeled which is able to inspect the inner surface of 45 mm ferromagnetic tube. The detailed design and analysis of Boiler Tube Inspection Robot “ND-01”are presented. The experimental results proved that the proposed system was able to work efficiently. With further research, the proposed design is expected to improve the inspection of boiler tube or small pipe efficiency.
Adapted magnetic wheel unit for compact robots inspecting complex shaped pipe structures
2007 IEEE/ASME international conference on advanced intelligent mechatronics, 2007
This paper describes a novel magnetic wheel unit integrating a mechanism that can be used for lifting and stabilizing the unit. The mechanism consists of 2 active lever arms mounted on each side of the wheel and rotating coaxially with the wheel. This mechanism allows slightly lifting the magnetic wheel at any desired position on the wheel circumference and consequently decreasing the magnetic force at this specific location. The same mechanism can also be used to stabilize the wheel, when external forces are unfavorable. This paper also describes the potential of this concept for in-pipe inspection technologies. Indeed it can be used to increase the mobility of magnetic wheels robots which are currently not able to negotiate complex obstacles. At the same time, it allows building smaller robots, since the self stabilizer system allows reducing the amount of required magnetic wheels to only two units.
Compact magnetic wheeled robot with high mobility for inspecting complex shaped pipe structures
2007 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2007
This paper describes a compact robot with two magnetic wheels in a bicycle arrangement, which is intended for inspecting the inner casing of pipes with complex shaped structures. The locomotion concept is based on an adapted magnetic wheel unit integrating two lateral lever arms. These arms allow for slightly lifting off the wheel in order to locally decrease the magnetic force, as well as laterally stabilizing the wheel unit. The robot has the main advantage to be compact and mechanically simple. It features 5 active degrees of freedom: 2 driven wheels each equipped with an active lifterstabilizer and 1 steering unit. This paper also presents the design and implementation of a prototype robot and its high mobility is shown. It is able to pass 90 • convex and concave obstacles with any inclination regarding the gravity. Finally, it only requires limited space to maneuver, since turning on spot around the rear wheel is possible.
Highly compact robots for inspection of power plants
2010
This paper reports on a 3 years applied research project dealing with several inspection scenarios of power plants and resulting in many robot prototypes and 3 main achievements. The project is a common effort between industry and university, including ALSTOM together with researchers from the 2 Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology. The goal is to generate knowledge and transfer technology to the industry in the field of robot inspection. The method is to collect commercial scenarios, study them, make some exploratory prototypes, select the best scenarios and develop enhanced prototypes for the most promising applications. The 3 most evolved robots are MagneBike for steam chest, AirGapCrawler for generators and Tubulo for boiler tubes. The supporting technologies that have been developed are adhesion, locomotion, system integration and localization. The paper describes the handled scenarios, the generated scientific knowledge and the 3 best robotic systems.
Applied Sciences, 2022
This paper aims to present the design and prototype of an inspection robot that can perform both horizontal and vertical locomotion in ferromagnetic pipelines. The proposed robot applies to a range from 5-inch (127 mm) diameter pipes to flat plates. The train-like robot is mainly composed of three sealed modules with omnidirectional driving wheels for longitudinal and transverse movements. Permanent magnets were designed to provide sufficient magnetic adhesion between the robot and the ferromagnetic surface of the pipes. The internal condition of the pipe can be monitored visually through cameras and sensors. Specific experimental conditions have been carried out to validate the robot’s capabilities, including maximum speed, payload capacity, and vertical climbing distance. The experimental results also show that the robot is capable of passing through a straight pipe and elbow fitting in both upward and downward directions.
Modeling the inspection robot with magnetic pressure pad
Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering
This article presents the process of designing a robot with a magnetic pressure pad for inspections of ferromagnetic ventilation ducts. In compliance with the assumptions, the CAD design of the robot was developed in a 3D programming environment. The designing process brought about a mathematical model of the robot with one pair of magnetic drive modules, including simulation in a MATLAB/Simulink environment. The model accounted for parameters such as rolling resistance force, transverse resistance moment, magnetic attraction force, solid moment of inertia, and other factors. The magnetic pressure pad allowed for moving the robot in magnetic ventilation systems irrespective of slopes and shapes of ducts.
Industrial Robot: An International Journal, 2010
This paper describes the design and prototype implementation of a miniature climbing robot with magnetic adhesion, developed for the inspection of gas turbines. It can be inserted through an entrance hole of only Ø15mm and then unfolds to a magnetic crawler with 2 traction units and an antenna module for holding the camera. This crawler is able to move on vertical and overhanging ferromagnetic surfaces and to carry a camera for the visual inspection of the turbine blades. After a detailed description of the industrial environment where it is supposed to be used (inspection of gas turbines, housing not opened), we describe the basic mechanical concept and show how we solved the most difficult design challenges -torque transmission at this very small size and design of the folding mechanism. The paper concludes with a prototype implementation and some test results; and provides an outlook on future improvements in a final industrial version.