Design and analysis of a wall‐climbing robot for water wall inspection of thermal power plants

Abstract

Boiler water wall in thermal power plants is characterized by high‐altitude detection requirements. Moreover, the existing water wall‐climbing robots are characterized by low obstacle‐crossing performance, deviations, and a lack of autonomous crossing pipeline function. In view of this feature, a wall‐climbing robot with permanent magnet and electromagnetic hybrid adsorption wheels is proposed. The robot has the function of independent traverse according to its own structural characteristics. Furthermore, transverse movement is proposed by comparing different adsorption modes, moving and driving modes. Robot statics in upward, downward, and transverse crawling are carried out, and nonsliding mechanical and nonoverturning mechanical models are obtained. Robot's dynamics are analyzed by considering the wall movement. The finite element simulation analysis of its main stressed parts is carried out by employing ANSYS, and an optimal structural model is obtained. The gap adsorption permanent magnet model is constructed, and its parametric simulation analysis is carried out using the Ansoft Maxwell module. The influence curve of the gap on the magnetic force is then obtained. Finally, the prototype is developed according to the design model and calculation analysis, and the experimental test is carried out. The experimental results show that the robot meets the expected functions and indexes, providing a basis for the intelligent development of thermal power plants.

CREST: A low energy consumption wall climbing robot with passive impactive negative pressure adhesion

“…Commonly used adhesion methods in WCR including magnetic [10][11][12], electrostatic [13,14], grippers [15,16], bio-inspired [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25], as well as negative pressure [9,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. One commonly used method is magnetic adhesion, employing permanent magnets [10], electromagnets [11], or a hybrid adhesion with permanent and electromagnets [12] to adhere to metallic surfaces. However, the characteristic of magnet restricts its operation environment to only ferromagnetic surface.…”

Necessary Conditions for Running through a Flange by Using Planetary-Geared Magnetic Wheels

“…However, if large-scale inspection equipment or scaffolding is required, these inspections are costly, time-consuming, and dangerous for workers. Therefore, robots are required to inspect instead of humans [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

Comparative Finite Element Analysis of a Novel Robot Chassis Using Structural Steel and Aluminium Alloy Materials

“…The picking robot arm's modal analysis was performed using ANSYS Workbench, and the modal characteristics in various positions were obtained. We then discovered that the deformations of the arm frame's end bearing, the sub-rod, and a triangular block were larger, resulting in a smaller stiffness, which could be decreased by increasing the parts' thickness or switching out good materials [7]. Ze et al designed frame of wall climbing robot for wall inspection of thermal power plants.…”

“…Ze et al designed frame of wall climbing robot for wall inspection of thermal power plants. The gap adsorption permanent magnet model is constructed, and its parametric simulation analysis is carried out using the Ansoft Maxwell module [7].…”