An Experimental Ferromagnetic Wall Climbing and Paint Fixing Robot Control by an Upper Computer with Colour Discrimination and Its Development Prospect

Abstract

It is an extremely important task to detect and repair the magnetic conductivity walls of large tanks, steel bridges, ship walls and aircraft exterior surfaces in the industrial field. This kind of task is usually carried out in extremely complex environment, which has the characteristics of high labor intensity and dangerous operation. Thus, there is a great demand for robot assistance. The paper describes a kind of corporation robot system, which use a Linux based computer with a camera as upper computer and a Magnetic caterpillar car robot with Arduino inside. With pixel to real distance calculation, upper computer is able to find the path and correctly guide the robot. The combination of magnetic wall climbing robot and upper-computer system can greatly improve the safety and efficiency of engineering operations. In addition, this paper analyses the motion system and the computer system in detail. The result shows that the whole system has the ability to adapt many kinds of magnetic conducting surface, and is able to expand easily.