Climbing robot for corrosion monitoring of reinforced concrete structures

This paper introduces a climbing robot for corrosion monitoring of reinforced concrete structures such as cooling towers, dams or bridges. The robot combines a vortex adhesion mechanism with a wheel electrode sensor for potential mapping of the concrete surface. A detailed description of the system is presented first. A special effort was made during the design in order to develop a lightweight device. The climbing robot is well suited for rough surfaces and can climb on vertical surfaces or move upside-down. The experiments that have been done to validate the concept are presented afterwards. They show that the climbing robot has several advantages over the traditional corrosion monitoring technique. This robot will therefore provide engineers in charge of infrastructure maintenance with the means to do their job much better than they can today. It offers them a way to circumvent all present barriers and brings a radical innovation in this area.