Cylindrical elastic crawler mechanism for pipe inspection inspired by amoeba locomotion

2016 6th IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob) Pub Date : 2016-06-26 DOI:10.1109/BIOROB.2016.7523664

F. Fukunaga, J. Nagase

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引用次数: 6

Abstract

The diverse pipe installations used today include pipelines in chemical plants, water pipes, and gas pipes. Severe accidents at such pipe installations must be prevented by regular pipe inspection and repair. As described herein, a novel tracked crawler mechanism is proposed for pipe inspection. This simple and compact cylindrical elastic tracked crawler has multiple crawler belts in axial symmetry to a cylindrical frame, driven solely by a single motor via a single worm. It is suitable for propulsion through a narrow pipe. It can propel itself upward in a pipe using elastic force generated by deforming the crawler belt passively. Moreover, the proposed tracked crawler can cross over a level difference and pass an elbow by deforming the crawler belt passively along the pipe shape. For a prototype tracked crawler, running performance experiments conducted in various pipe conditions yielded good results. This study clarified the relation between belt rigidity and traction force in theory and experiment respectively.

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受变形虫运动启发的圆柱形弹性履带式管道检测机构

目前使用的管道装置多种多样，包括化工厂的管道、水管和燃气管道。必须定期对管道进行检查和修理，防止此类管道装置发生严重事故。本文提出了一种用于管道检测的履带式履带机构。这个简单和紧凑的圆柱形弹性跟踪履带有多个爬虫腰带在轴对称圆柱坐标系,仅仅由一个电机驱动通过一个蠕虫。它适用于通过狭窄管道的推进。它可以利用履带被动变形产生的弹性力推动自身在管道中向上运动。此外,提出履带可以跨越高差,通过跟踪变形爬虫的手肘带被动地沿管的形状。原型跟踪爬虫,各管道运行性能的实验条件取得了良好效果。本文从理论上和实验上分别阐明了皮带刚度与牵引力的关系。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

2016 6th IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob)

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