A legged robot that moves across a steel structure is developed for steel bridge inspection. Powerful permanent magnets imbedded in each foot allow the robot to hang from a steel ceiling powerlessly. Although the magnets are passive, the attractive force is modulated by tilting the foot against the steel surface. This allows the robot to slide its feet along the surface using “moonwalk” and “shuffle” gait patterns. The robot can also detach its feet and “swing” them over small obstacles. These diverse walking patterns are created with a single servoed joint and two sets of simple locking mechanisms. Kinematic and static conditions are obtained for the underactuated legged robot to perform each gait pattern safely and stably. A dynamic model is built for swinging a leg, and a desirable swing trajectory that keeps the foot reaction force lower than its limit is obtained. A proof-of-concept prototype robot is designed, built, and tested. Experiments demonstrate the feasibility of the design concept and verify the analytical results.
Issue Section:
Research Papers
1.
U.S. Department of Transportation
, “FHA National Bridge Inventory Data
,” http://www.dot.gov/bridge/nbi.htmhttp://www.dot.gov/bridge/nbi.htm2.
U.S. Department of Transportation
, 2001, “FHA Reliability of Visual Inspection for Highway Bridges
,” Technical Report No. FHWA-RD-01-020, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration.3.
Oh
, J. -K.
, Lee
, A. -Y.
, Oh
, S. -M.
, Choi
, Y.
, Yi
, B. -J.
, and Yang
, H.
, 2007, “Design and Control of Bridge Inspection Robot System
,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation
, pp. 3634
–3639
.4.
Balaguer
, C.
, Gimenez
, A.
, and Abderrahim
, M.
, 2002, “Climbing Robots for Inspection of Steel Based Infrastructures
,” Ind. Robot
0143-991X, 29
(3
), pp. 246
–251
.5.
Kim
, C. -Y.
, Jung
, D. -S.
, Kim
, N. -S.
, Kwon
, S. -D.
, and Feng
, M.
, 2003, “Effect of Vehicle Weight on Natural Frequencies of Bridges Measured From Traffic-Induced Vibration
,” Earthquake Eng. Eng. Vib.
1671-3664, 2
(1
), pp. 109
–115
.6.
Ntotsios
, E.
, Padadimitriou
, C.
, Panetsos
, P.
, Karaiskos
, G.
, Perros
, K.
, and Perdikaris
, P.
, 2009, “Bridge Health Monitoring System Based on Vibration Measurements
,” Bull. Earthquake Eng.
1570-761X, 7
, pp. 469
–483
.7.
Cawley
, P.
, and Adams
, R.
, 1979, “The Location of Defects in Structures From Measurements of Natural Frequencies
,” J. Strain Anal.
0022-4758, 14
(2
), pp. 49
–57
.8.
Hong
, D. -S.
, Do
, H. -S.
, Kim
, J. -T.
, Na
, W. -B.
, and Cho
, H. -M.
, 2008, “Hybrid Vibration-Impedance Approaches for Damage Detection in Plate-Girder Bridges
,” Proc. SPIE
0277-786X, 6935
, p. 69351l
.9.
Kim
, S.
, 2008, “Smooth Vertical Surface Climbing With Directional Adhesion
,” IEEE Trans. Rob. Autom.
1042-296X, 24
(1
), pp. 65
–74
.10.
Murphy
, M.
, and Sitti
, M.
, 2007, “Waalbot: An Agile Small-Scale Wall-Climbing Robot Utilizing Dry Elastomer Adhesives
,” IEEE/ASME Trans. Mechatron.
1083-4435, 12
(3
), pp. 330
–338
.11.
Grasso
, F.
, and Setlur
, P.
, 2007, “Inspiration, Simulation, and Design for Smart Robot Manipulators From the Sucker Actuation Mechanism of Cephalopods
,” Bioinspir. Biomim.
, 2
, pp. S170
–S181
.12.
Mazumdar
, A.
, 2009, “Mag-Feet: A Robotic Device for the Inspection of Steel Bridge Structures
,” MS thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, see also http://darbelofflab.mit.edu/user/17http://darbelofflab.mit.edu/user/1713.
Slocum
, A.
, Awtar
, S.
, and Hart
, A.
, 2002, “Magnebots: A Magnetic Wheels Based Overhead Transportation Concept
,” Proceedings of the Second IFAC Mechatronics Conference
, p. 833
.14.
Gosselin
, C.
, and Angeles
, J.
, 1990, “Singularity Analysis of Closed Kinematic Chains
,” IEEE Trans. Rob. Autom.
1042-296X, 6
(3
), pp. 281
–290
.15.
Saito
, F.
, Fukuda
, T.
, and Arai
, F.
, 1994, “Swing and Locomotion Control for a Two-Link Brachiation Robot
,” IEEE Control Syst. Mag.
0272-1708, 14
(1
), pp. 5
–12
.16.
Nakanishi
, J.
, Fukuda
, T.
, and Koditscheck
, D.
, 2002, “Brachiation on a Ladder With Irregular Intervals
,” Adv. Rob.
0169-1864, 16
(2
), pp. 147
–160
.17.
Xin
, X.
, and Kaneda
, M.
, 2007, “Swing-Up Control for a 3-DOF Gymnastic Robot With Passive First Joint: Design and Analysis
,” IEEE Trans. Rob. Autom.
1042-296X, 23
(6
), pp. 1277
–1285
.18.
Fukuda
, T.
, and Hasegawa
, Y.
, 2007, “Design Method of Brachiation Controller Based on Virtual Holonomic Constraint
,” Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE/RSJ Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
, pp. 450
–455
.19.
Dubowsky
, S.
, and Vance
, E.
, 1989, “Planning Mobile Manipulator Motions Considering Vehicle Dynamic Stability Constraints
,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
, pp. 1271
–1276
.20.
Osumi
, H.
, and Saitoh
, M.
, 2006, “Control of a Redundant Manipulator Mounted on a Base Plate Suspended by Six Wires
,” Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
, pp. 73
–78
.21.
Bryson
, A.
, 1969, Applied Optimal Control
, Ginn and Company
, Waltham, MA
.22.
Michael
, G.
, 1971, “Computation of Chebycheff Optimal Control
,” AIAA J.
0001-1452, 9
(5
), pp. 973
–975
.23.
Ross
, I.
, 1998, A Beginner’s Guide to DIDO. Technical Report
, Elissar LLC
, Monterey, CA
.24.
Roy
, B.
, and Asada
, H.
, 2009, “Nonlinear Feedback Control of a Gravity-Assisted Underactuated Manipulator With Application to Aircraft Assembly
,” IEEE Trans. Rob. Autom.
1042-296X, 25
(5
), pp. 1125
–1133
.25.
Roy
, B.
, and Asada
, H.
, 2006, “Dynamics and Control of a Gravity-Assisted Underactuated Robot Arm for Assembly Operations Inside an Aircraft Wing-Box
,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
, pp. 701
–706
.Copyright © 2010
by American Society of Mechanical Engineers
You do not currently have access to this content.
