BogieBot: A Climbing Robot in Cluttered Confined Space of Bogies with Ferrous Metal Surfaces

Abstract

Proactive inspection is essential for prediction and prevention of rolling stock component failures. The conventional process for inspecting bogies under trains presents significant challenges for inspectors who need to visually check the tight and cluttered environment. We propose a miniature multi-link climbing robot, called BogieBot, that can be deployed inside the undercarriage areas of trains and other large vehicles for inspection and maintenance purposes, for the first time. BogieBot can carry a visual sensor or manipulator on its main body. The novel compact design utilises six identical couple joints and two mechanically switchable magnetic grippers that together, empower multi-modal climbing and manipulation. The proposed mechanism is kinematically redundant, allowing the robot to perform self-motions in a tight space and manoeuvre around obstacles. The mechanism design and various analyses on the forward and inverse kinematic, work-space, and selfmotions of BogieBot are presented. The robot is demonstrated to perform challenging navigation tasks in different scenarios involving simulated complex environments.

Climbing robots for manufacturing

“…For point stabilization control tasks such as hole-making operations at a designated point, the path planning of a climbing robot is a common requirement in situations where different planes or obstacles exist in the working area. Common algorithms, such as RRT in path planning, have been successfully applied to climbing robots [ 54 ]. At the same time, intelligent optimization algorithms for path planning are research hotspots in this domain.…”

“…Linearizing or decoupling the control model is a frequently used approach. For example, a feedback linearization technique was employed to control a miniature multilink climbing robot [ 54 ]. A dynamic feedback linearization strategy was developed for a quadrotor-driven wheeled climbing robot [ 44 ].…”

“…(a) Magnetic adhesion integrated with wheels, tracks and legs. Adapted with permission from Refs [ 22 , 20 , 54 ], respectively. (b) Negative pressure adsorption, which can be divided into suction cup based and suction chamber based.…”

“…The arm-like structure can also be combined with magnetic wheels, thus enabling walking on steel structures spanning different planes [ 49 ]. The magnetic adsorption unit can also be directly mounted on a robotic arm to achieve a more compact magnetic multimodal climbing manipulator [ 54 ]. The magnetic unit can also be separated from the locomotion mechanism.…”

SCALER: A Tough Versatile Quadruped Free-Climber Robot

“…Grippers for climbing can be categorized by if there is explicit grasping, such as with fingers or not. Magnetic [18] or suction-based [19] end effectors, dry adhesive toes such as a gecko gripper [7], and EPDM Rubber [14] are other viable options for climbing robots. LEMUR 2B [2] has demonstrated a bouldering wall climbing by hocking a high-friction rubber wrapped end-effectors.…”