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1920 |
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Fabrication of a Snake Type In-pipe Mobile Robot Corresponding to the Different Diameters |
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Equipment, Machines & Instruments: Mechatronics |
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| Content |
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We have many small diameter pipes that are cooling pipes for atomic power stations, boiler pipes, and gas or water pipe lines. They must be periodically inspected in order to protect the accident previously. Diameters of these pipes are different at the place where pipes change from the main to the branch. The inspection microrobot for these pipes must move different diameter.
A step comes where the pipe changes its diameter. The in-pipe microrobot driven by wheels is very difficult to cross the step [1]. We have used cone-shape friction rings for the driving legs of the in-pipe microrobot. However, the microrobot driven by friction rings is also difficult to move in the pipe where diameter changes more than 3 mm [2].
Now, we propose a mobile microrobot that can surely move in a pipe whose diameter changes. The microrobot is constructed by the six rubber bellows as pneumatic actuator, six electromagnetic valves and six air feeding tubes. Outer diameter and natural length of the bellows are 8 mm and 53 mm, respectively. The bellows composes three somites by being arranged in two rows and three columns. The somite can make the arc like the bimetal by giving different pressure to each bellows. The arc somite can hold the pipe. The movement of the microrobot with three somites is imitating as for the accordion movement that is the movement of the snake operation.
The fabricated mobile microrobot was confirmed to move in different diameter pipes whose diameters are between 20 mm and 30 mm. Its speed was 50 mm/s.
References
[1] K. Kawaguchi, O. Yoshida, K. Iwao and T. Kikuta: Control of an In-pipe Inspection Robot for Iron Pipes, Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan, Vol 15, No. 3 (1997), 387. (in Japanese)
[2] M. ONO, T. HAMANO and S. KATO: A Basic Study of Mobile Inspection Robot Movable the Long Distance in Small Diameter Pipes, Journal of the Japan Society for Precession Engineering, Vol. 69, No. 4 (2003), 564. (in Japanese) |
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