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Title: Flying-Climbing Mobile Robot for Steel Bridge Inspection
The research of robots to assist people in inspecting the quality of steel bridges has attracted significant attention in recent years. However, the intricate structure of the steel bridge components poses a massive challenge for researchers to move the robot across the bridge to perform the tests. This paper presents a new development of a hybrid flying-climbing robotic system, which can move flexibly and quickly to different positions on the steel bridge. In addition to using high-resolution cameras for an overview, the design allows the robot to stick to steel surfaces and act as a mobile robot for more detailed inspection with our developed giant magneto-resistance (GMR) sensor array system. We conduct a mechanical analysis to show the climbing capability of the mobile part. Additionally, we develop a landing algorithm to allow the robot to land on a steel surface to perform in-depth inspection safely. The designed GMR sensor array has shown the capability of detecting steel cracks to support the in-depth inspection mode. We have tested and validated our developed robot on real bridges to ensure that the design works well and is stable.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1846513 1919127
NSF-PAR ID:
10318773
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
2021 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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