CLIMBING ROBOTS FOR NDT APPLICATIONS

Abstract

A variety of automated solutions for non-destructive testing have been developed to facilitate in-situ sensing for inspection requirements to ensure safety and effective operation in a variety of hazardous application scenarios. The paper focuses on climbing robot technologies which have been developed to monitor the condition of assets such as concrete pillars, highway bridges, tunnels, wind turbine blades and towers, hull ships, pipelines, nuclear installations, etc. A review of the robot technologies is presented together with a number of climbing robots being developed via magnetic and vacuum adhesion.