Structure Design of Climbing Snake-Like Robot for Detection of Cable-Stayed Bridge

Abstract

In order to realize the detection of bridge cable defects, we conducted research on bridge cable climbing robot, developed a strong climbing ability and high mobility climbing snake-like robot, which is suitable for bridge cable automatic defect detection. It consists of modules with a single degree of freedom, the number of modules can flexible increased or decreased to realize manually reconstructed according to the cable’s feature. The Ultra Torque servo, lightweight aluminum mechanical components and high coefficient of friction skin in the module, enhance the robot’s climbing ability. The robot can effectively complete cable climbing and testing operations because of the modules which combined orthogonal connection with P-R connection. Design a master-slave distributed multi-level closed-loop motion control system, with battery-powered and torque limit been introduced, which enhance the robot's mobility and ability to adapt to the environment. Cable-imitate climbing experimental results prove that the robot has powerful mobility and climbing ability.