Design and Implementation of Articulated Rail Robot for Bridge Bottom Inspection

Abstract

To solve the problems such as high safety risk, low accessibility and inspection blind spots in bridge bottom inspection, a robot system for automatic inspection of wide-width bridge bottom was developed. The robot system, with the ability of autonomous configuration adaptation, consists of a deformable articulated long span rail and a wheeled inspection vehicle. According to the cross-section characteristics of the bridge, a long rail with deformable configuration is articulated by a sequence of modular rail modules. The long rail is driven to form a conformal bridge cross section characteristics ridged structure by two cables, which are actuated by a high-torque density motor. A wheeled inspection robot equipped with a high-definition camera moves along the rigid structure for inspection operation and image transmission. By designing a remote motion control and communication system, remote control and sampling ability is realized. The test results show that the robot have strong adaptability, remote control and inspection ability.