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Dynamic obstacle-surmounting analysis of a bilateral-wheeled cable-climbing robot for cable-stayed bridges

Fengyu Xu (College of Automation, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, China and State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System (HIT), Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China)
Quansheng Jiang (School of Mechanical Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China)

Industrial Robot

ISSN: 0143-991x

Article publication date: 30 May 2019

Issue publication date: 5 August 2019

307

Abstract

Purpose

Field robots can surmount or avoid some obstacles when operating on rough ground. However, cable-climbing robots can only surmount obstacles because their moving path is completely restricted along the cables. This paper aims to analyse the dynamic obstacle-surmounting models for the driving and driven wheels of the climbing mechanism, and design a mechanical structure for a bilateral-wheeled cable-climbing robot to improve the obstacle crossing capability.

Design/methodology/approach

A mechanical structure of the bilateral-wheeled cable-climbing robot is designed in this paper. Then, the kinematic and dynamic obstacle-surmounting of the driven and driving wheels are investigated through static-dynamic analysis and Lagrangian mechanical analysis, respectively. The climbing and obstacle-surmounting experiments are carried out to improve the obstacle crossing capability. The required motion curve, speed and driving moment of the robot during obstacle-surmounting are generated from the experiments results.

Findings

The presented method offers a solution for dynamic obstacle-surmounting analysis of a bilateral-wheeled cable-climbing robot. The simulation, laboratory testing and field experimental results prove that the climbing capability of the robot is near-constant on cables with diameters between 60 and 205 mm.

Originality/value

The dynamic analysis method presented in this paper is found to be applicable to rod structures with large obstacles and improved the stability of the robot at high altitude. Simulations and experiments are also conducted for performance evaluation.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51775284), Primary Research & Development Plan of Jiangsu Province (BE2018734), Supported by State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System (HIT)(SKLRS-2017-KF-10) and Joint Research Fund for Overseas Chinese, Hong Kong and Macao Young Scholars (61728302).

Citation

Xu, F. and Jiang, Q. (2019), "Dynamic obstacle-surmounting analysis of a bilateral-wheeled cable-climbing robot for cable-stayed bridges", Industrial Robot, Vol. 46 No. 3, pp. 431-443. https://doi.org/10.1108/IR-07-2018-0152

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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