Proposal of a Peristaltic Motion Type Duct Cleaning Robot for Traveling in a Flexible Pipe

et al. 2021

Complex Intell. Syst.

Complete area coverage is a crucial factor for a floor cleaning robot. Self-reconfigurable tiling robots have been introduced over robots with a fixed shape for floor cleaning since they improve the area coverage by the flexibility of shape-shifting in cluttered environments. The existing coverage methods of reconfigurable tiling robots follow the tiling theory to cope with the area coverage problem. However, these methods merely consider a limited set of predefined shapes for the reconfiguration of a robot. The consideration of a limited set of predefined shapes for the reconfiguration impedes the ability of coverage to a certain extent in typical floor environments. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel method to improve area coverage of a tiling robot by reconfiguring according to the shape of obstacles. To this end, the required hinge angles for reconfiguring per the shape of an obstacle are determined by a genetic algorithm. The proposed method considers an optimized shape for reconfiguration in lieu of a limited set of predefined shapes. The coverage improvement of the proposed concept has been compared against the existing coverage methods of tiling robots to validate the performance. According to the experimental results, the proposed method surpasses the existing coverage methods of tiling robots from the perspective of area coverage, and the improvement is significant and noteworthy.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward complete area coverage of a reconfigurable tiling robot by following obstacle shape

Samarakoon

et al. 2021

Complex Intell. Syst.

“…For example, the work [15] proposed a pipe inspection robot that detects defects, internal corrosion, cracks, and leakage in pipelines. In the field of cleaning, a mobile peristaltic-based duct-cleaning robot for flexible pipes was proposed that could bend as a snake while moving by contraction and expansion in the axial direction with a cleaning rate of up to 98.7% [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Falcon: A False Ceiling Inspection Robot

Apuroop

Padmanabha

et al. 2021

Sensors

Frequent inspections are essential for false ceilings to maintain the service infrastructures, such as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing, and the structure of false ceilings. Human-labor-based conventional inspection procedures for false ceilings suffer many shortcomings, including safety concerns. Thus, robot-aided solutions are demanded for false ceiling inspections similar to other building maintenance services. However, less work has been conducted on developing robot-aided solutions for false ceiling inspections. This paper proposes a novel design for a robot intended for false ceiling inspections named Falcon. The compact size and the tracked wheel design of the robot allow it to traverse obstacles such as runners and lighting fixtures. The robot’s ability to autonomously follow the perimeter of a false ceiling can improve the productivity of the inspection process since the heading of the robot often changes due to the nature of the terrain, and continuous heading correction is an overhead for a teleoperator. Therefore, a Perimeter-Following Controller (PFC) based on fuzzy logic was integrated into the robot. Experimental results obtained by deploying a prototype of the robot design to a false ceiling testbed confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed PFC in perimeter following and the robot’s features, such as the ability to traverse on runners and fixtures in a false ceiling.

“…Several robotics solutions were introduced to resolve issues associated with the maintenance and inspection of built environments [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Similarly, robots have been used for the inspection of confined spaces such as pipes and air ducts [ 11 , 12 ]. In [ 13 ], the authors introduced several types of inspection robots that are used for pipe inspections, such as long-distance inspection for sewer pipes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raptor: A Design of a Drain Inspection Robot

Palanisamy

Samarakoon

et al. 2021

Sensors

Frequent inspections are essential for drains to maintain proper function to ensure public health and safety. Robots have been developed to aid the drain inspection process. However, existing robots designed for drain inspection require improvements in their design and autonomy. This paper proposes a novel design of a drain inspection robot named Raptor. The robot has been designed with a manually reconfigurable wheel axle mechanism, which allows the change of ground clearance height. Design aspects of the robot, such as mechanical design, control architecture and autonomy functions, are comprehensively described in the paper, and insights are included. Maintaining the robot’s position in the middle of a drain when moving along the drain is essential for the inspection process. Thus, a fuzzy logic controller has been introduced to the robot to cater to this demand. Experiments have been conducted by deploying a prototype of the design to drain environments considering a set of diverse test scenarios. Experiment results show that the proposed controller effectively maintains the robot in the middle of a drain while moving along the drain. Therefore, the proposed robot design and the controller would be helpful in improving the productivity of robot-aided inspection of drains.