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• Navigate and explore industrial plants with robots. • Improve the existing inspection technologies by building compact robots with high mobility. • These robots will allow bringing inspection sensors (camera, ultrasonic probes, … ) to locations hardly or not accessible by humans. • Gaining inspection time and increasing the inspection performance using robots: e.g. no need to disassemble the part to be inspected or to move it to a workshop. Typical environment Motivation Approach Autonomous Systems Lab http://www.asl.ethz.ch Fabien Tâche ([email protected]) Wolfgang Fischer ([email protected]) Roland Siegwart ([email protected]) ETH Zentrum Tannenstrasse 3, CLA 8092 Zurich, Switzerland A UTONOMOUS UTONOMOUS S YSTEMS YSTEMS L AB AB Objectives • The main goal of this project is to develop new compact robots with high mobility able to access any location in narrow environments with complex geometry. • We want the robot to be as autonomous as possible, in order to simplify its control by the end-user. 3D CAD model of a typical environment Profile of the inner casing • A typical environment includes horizontal as well as vertical sections • The pipe diameter can be very narrow: down to 220mm • The diameter varies along the pipe • The pipes are metallic: we then use magnetic wheels for locomotion Magnetic wheels tests Modelling and simulation Passive vs. active mechanics Inspection Robots with Magnetic Wheels Miniaturization and Integration Previous work: micro autonomous robot Fusing passive and active structures Previous work: rough terrain exploration rovers with excellent obstacle negotiating skills Study and enhance Magnetic wheels for negotiating complex shape obstacles Develop locomotion and navigation concepts for inspection robots: How to get rid of two magnetic contact points? • Passive wheel mechanism • Active wheel lifting mechanism 60mm 7-21mm Mass: 100-400g We want to answer the following questions: • Necessary friction coefficient? • Optimal ratio between magnetic force and mass? • What is the most critical situation? Semi-automatic navigation + Electromagnetic, active wheel lifter mechanism or passive wheel mechanism? Fusion of CAD data, sensor information and user commands + Acknowledgment This research is supported by Alstom www.alstom.com
