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A Climbing Robot for Steel Bridge Inspection

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Abstract

As an effort of automating the bridge inspection process, this paper presents a new development of an adaptable tank-like robot, which can climb on steel structures to collect data and perform inspection. While most current steel climbing mobile robots are designed to work on flat steel surface, our proposed tank-like robot design is capable of climbing on different steel structural shapes (e.g., cylinder, cube) by using reciprocating mechanism and magnetic roller-chains. The developed robot can pass through the joints and transition from one surface to the other (e.g., from flat to curving surfaces). A prototype robot integrating multiple sensors (hall-effects, IR, IMU, Eddy current and cameras), has been developed by coping with variety of strict concerns including tight dimension, effective adhesive and climbing adaptation. Rigorous analysis of robot kinematics, adhesive force, sliding and turn-over failure and motor power has been conducted to certify the stability of the proposed design. The theory calculations can serve as an useful framework for designing future steel climbing robots. The cameras and Eddy current sensor is integrated on Robot for visual and in-depth fatigue crack inspection of steel structures. Experimental results and field deployments on more than twenty steel bridges confirm the adhesive, climbing, inspection capability of the robot. Video of this deployment can be seen in this link: https://youtu.be/1Wl9Trd3EoM.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under grants NSF-CAREER: 1846513 and NSF-PFI-TT: 1919127, and the U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (USDOT/OST-R) under Grant No. 69A3551747126 through INSPIRE University Transportation Center, and the Vingroup Innovation Foundation (VINIF) in project code VINIF.2020.NCUD.DA094. The views, opinions, findings and conclusions reflected in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent the official policy or position of the NSF, the USDOT/OST-R and any other entities.

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  1. Advanced Robotics and Automation (ARA) Lab, University of Nevada, 1664 N. Virginia Street, Reno, NV, 89557, USA

    Son Thanh Nguyen

  2. ARA Lab, University of Nevada, 1664 N. Virginia Street, Reno, NV, 89557, USA

    Hung Manh La

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  1. Son Thanh Nguyen
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Correspondence to Hung Manh La.

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Nguyen, S.T., La, H.M. A Climbing Robot for Steel Bridge Inspection. J Intell Robot Syst 102, 75 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-020-01266-1

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