A path planning method for robot patrol inspection in chemical industrial parks

Safety patrol inspection in chemical industrial parks is a complex multi-objective task with multiple degrees of freedom.Traditional pointer instruments with advantages like high reliability and strong adaptability to harsh environment,are widely applied in such parks.However,they rely on manual readings which have problems like heavy patrol workload,high labor cost,high false positives/negatives and poor timeliness.To address the above problems,this study proposes a path planning method for robot patrol in chemical industrial parks,where a path optimization model based on improved iterated local search and random variable neighborhood descent(ILS-RVND)algorithm is established by integrating the actual requirements of patrol tasks in chemical industrial parks.Further,the effectiveness of the model and algorithm is verified by taking real park data as an example.The results show that compared with GA and ILS-RVND,the improved algorithm reduces quantification cost by about 24%and saves patrol time by about 36%.Apart from shortening the patrol time of robots,optimizing their patrol path and reducing their maintenance loss,the proposed algorithm also avoids the untimely patrol of robots and enhances the safety factor of equipment.

Hand-eye-vision based control for an inspection robot's autonomous line grasping

In order to ensure that the off-line arm of a two-arm-wheel combined inspection robot can reliably grasp the line in case of autonomous obstacle crossing,a control method is proposed for line grasping based on hand-eye visual servo.On the basis of the transmission line's geometrical characteristics and the camera's imaging principle,a line recognition and extraction method based on structure constraint is designed.The line's intercept and inclination are defined in an imaging space to represent the robot's change of pose and a law governing the pose decoupling servo control is developed.Under the integrated consideration of the influence of light intensity and background change,noise(from the camera itself and electromagnetic field)as well as the robot's kinetic inertia on the robot's imaging quality in the course of motion and the grasping control precision,a servo controller for grasping the line of the robot's off-line arm is designed with the method of fuzzy control.An experiment is conducted on a 1:1 simulation line using an inspection robot and the robot is put into on-line operation on a real overhead transmission line,where the robot can grasp the line within 18 s in the case of autonomous obstacle-crossing.The robot's autonomous line-grasping function is realized without manual intervention and the robot can grasp the line in a precise,reliable and efficient manner,thus the need of actual operation can be satisfied.

Dynamic Balance Control Based on an Adaptive Gain-scheduled Backstepping Scheme for Power-line Inspection Robots

This paper presents an adaptive gain-scheduled backstepping control(AGSBC) scheme for the balance control of an underactuated mechanical power-line inspection(PLI) robotic system with two degrees of freedom and a single control input.First, a nonlinear dynamic model of the balance adjustment process of the PLI robot is constructed, and then the model is linearized at a nominal equilibrium point to overcome the computational infeasibility of the conventional backstepping technique. Second, to solve generalized stabilization control issue for underactuated systems with multiple equilibrium points,an equilibrium manifold linearized model is developed using a scheduling variable, and then a gain-scheduled backstepping control(GSBC) scheme for expanding the operational area of the controlled system is constructed. Finally, an adaptive mechanism is proposed to counteract the impact of external disturbances. The robust stability of the closed-loop system is ensured by Lyapunov theorem. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and high performance of the proposed scheme compared with other control schemes.

Dynamic simulation and experimental study of inspection robot for high-voltage transmission-line

A mobile robot developed by Wuhan University for full-path hotline inspection on 220 kV transmission lines was presented. With 4 rotating joints and 2 translational ones, such robot is capable of traveling along non- obstaclestraight-line segment and surmounting straight-line segment obstacles as well as transferring between two spans automatically. Lagrange’s equations were utilized to derive dynamic equations of all the links, including items of inertia, coupling inertia, Coriolis acceleration, centripetal acceleration and gravity. And a dynamic response experiment on elemental motions of robot prototype’s travelling along non-obstacle straight-line segment and surmounting obstacles was performed on 220 kV 1∶1 simulative overhanging transmission-line in laboratory. In addition, dynamic numerical simulation was conducted in the corresponding condition. Comparison and analysis on results of experiment and numerical simulation have validated theoretical model and simulation resolution. Therefore, the dynamic model formed hereunder can be used for the study of robot control.

Impacts of flexible obstructive working environment on dynamic performances of inspection robot for power transmission line

The rigid-flexible coupling dynamic modeling and simulation of an inspection robot were conducted to study the influences of the flexible obstructive working environment i.e. overhead transmission line on the robot＇s dynamic performance. First, considering the structure of the obstacles and symmetrical mechanism of the robot prototype, four basic subactions were abstracted to fulfill full-path kinematic tasks. Then, a multi-rigid-body dynamic model of the robot was built with Lagrange equation, whil^e a multi-flexible-body dynamic model of a span of lin~ was obtained by combining finite element method （FEM）, modal synthesis method and Lagrange equation. The two subsystem models were coupled under rolling along no-obstacle segment and overcoming obstacle poses, and these simulations of three subactions along different spans of line were performed in ADMAS. The simulation results, including the coupling vibration parameters and driving moment of joint motors, show the dynamic performances of the robot along ftexibile obstructive working path： in flexible obstructive working environment, the robot can fulfill the preset motion goals; it responses slower in more flexible path; the fluctuation of robot as well as driving moment of the corresponding joint in startup and brake region is greater than that in rigid environment; the fluctuation amplitude increases with increasing working environment flexibility.

Concrete Defects Inspection and 3D Mapping Using City Flyer Quadrotor Robot

The concrete aging problem has gained more attention in recent years as more bridges and tunnels in the United States lack proper maintenance. Though the Federal Highway Administration requires these public concrete structures to be inspected regularly, on-site manual inspection by human operators is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Conventional inspection approaches for concrete inspection, using RGB imagebased thresholding methods, are not able to determine metric information as well as accurate location information for assessed defects for conditions. To address this challenge, we propose a deep neural network(DNN) based concrete inspection system using a quadrotor flying robot(referred to as City Flyer) mounted with an RGB-D camera. The inspection system introduces several novel modules. Firstly, a visual-inertial fusion approach is introduced to perform camera and robot positioning and structure 3 D metric reconstruction. The reconstructed map is used to retrieve the location and metric information of the defects.Secondly, we introduce a DNN model, namely Ada Net, to detect concrete spalling and cracking, with the capability of maintaining robustness under various distances between the camera and concrete surface. In order to train the model, we craft a new dataset, i.e., the concrete structure spalling and cracking(CSSC)dataset, which is released publicly to the research community.Finally, we introduce a 3 D semantic mapping method using the annotated framework to reconstruct the concrete structure for visualization. We performed comparative studies and demonstrated that our Ada Net can achieve 8.41% higher detection accuracy than Res Nets and VGGs. Moreover, we conducted five field tests, of which three are manual hand-held tests and two are drone-based field tests. These results indicate that our system is capable of performing metric field inspection,and can serve as an effective tool for civil engineers.

Localization of a Robotic Capsule for GI Motility Inspection with a Portable Ultrasonic System

The micro-systems used for in vivo physical inspection have many advantages over traditional methods. In order to aid diagnosis of gastrointestinal (GI) motility disorders, a capsule is developed for GI pressure and pH inspection. Localization of the capsule in GI tract with time is a necessary condition for subsequent data analysis and medical diagnosis. It is also a common problem facing all in vivo mobile micro-systems. An approach of segment localization by utilizing some key points along GI tract is proposed. A portable ultrasonic detecting device was designed for this purpose. Experiments under conditions similar to GI tract were carried out and the results proved the effectiveness and reliability of this method and the device.

An Active Endoscopy Robotic System for Direct Tracheal Inspection

The development of active endoscopy techniques is one important area of medical robot.This paper designed a new flexible and active endoscopy robotic system for direct tracheal inspection.The mobile mechanism of the robot is based on the inchworm movement actuated by pneumatic rubber actuator.There are five air chambers controlled independently,by adjusting pressures in air chambers,the robot can move in a straight mode or in a bending mode.The inspection sensors and some therapy surgery tools can be equipped in the front of the robot.The prototype was made and its mechanical characteristics were analyzed.The robot could move smoothly in a small plastic tube,and the robot is respectable to be used for inspection in human trachea directly.

Modelling and Backstepping Motion Control of the Aircraft Skin Inspection Robot

Aircraft skin health concerns whether the aircraft can fly safely.In this paper,an improved mechanical structure of the aircraft skin inspection robot was introduced.Considering that the aircraft skin surface is a curved environment,we assume that the curved environment is equivalent to an inclined plane with a change in inclination.Based on this assumption,the Cartesian dynamics model of the robot is established using the Lagrange method.In order to control the robot’s movement position accurately,a position backstepping control scheme for the aircraft skin inspection robot was presented.According to the dynamic model and taking into account the problems faced by the robot during its movement,a position constrained controller of the aircraft skin inspection robot is designed using the barrier Lyapunov function.Aiming at the disturbances in the robot,we adopt a fuzzy system to approximate the unknown dynamics related with system states.Finally,the simulation results of the designed position constrained controller were compared with the sliding mode controller,and prove the validity of the position constrained controller.

Research on Oil/Gas In-pipe Inspection Robot

A new type of in-pipe mobile robot was designed and developed on the basis of w heel in-pipe robot and crawler in-pipe robot. The three sets of driving wheels circumferentially 120° apart in the cross section, both front and rear driving wheels are distributed on the same parallelogram mechanis m. The driving motor drives the three sets of driving wheels by worm couple, the regulating motor makes the three sets of driving wheels push against the pipe inwall with stable and adequate pressing force by the ball screw pair and p ressure sensor, so the in-pipe robot can provide adequate and stable traction force. The robot mechanism is simple and sm all in size and work reliably . It is particularly suitable to the pipe with diameter 400～650 mm.

Research on a New-style Pipeline Inspection Robot System

The pipe inspection robot system is developed for automatic inspection of gas pipeline with pipe diameter between 400 mm and 650 mm. It is composed of a pipe robot crawling mechanism controlled by remote network system, nondestructive examination sensor system, ground working station and so on. This paper presents the pipe inspection robot system design, the Key technique and the performance experiment of the robot. The main performance index of the pipe robot system prototype has reached domestic advanced level. The prototype has also the technical potential to be developed as a product used in industry for periodic check of main gas/oil pipe.

A Pipeline Inspection Micro Robot Based on Screw Motion Wheels

The micro robot based on screw motion wheels, which features high payload/mass ratio, fast and continuous motion, adaptation to pipe diameter or roundness variations, is suitable for locomotion and inspection inside small diameter pipelines. The robot inspection system, Tubot I, developed at Shanghai University is composed of locomotion mechanism with an inner motor, a micro CCD camera and a monitor outside the pipeline. In the paper, the kinematics and statics analyses are presented for the screw locomotion system of Tubot I. The moving characteristics are obtained from experiments on the robot prototype.

The obstacle crossing ability analysis and improvement of the cable inspection robot

In this paper, the climbing obstacle capability of the previous special cable inspection robot （ Model Number： XS1T-1） is analyzed. Static equations are established to analyze the relationships between the external forces and the maximum height of an obstacle. Parameters affecting the obstacle crossing ability are obtained. According to the analysis results, an innovated small volume, simple structure and light weight climbing mechanism is proposed （Model Number： XS1T-2）. A simplified kinematics model of the mechanism is established. With two powered wheels, the obstacle crossing ability of the XSIT-2 is improved apparently. For the robot moving without deflection, the relationships of two powered input torques are deduced. The comparison of the simulation results clearly shows that the climbing ability of XS1T-2 is obviously improved, and it can meet the demands of inspection.

Design of a Submarine Pipeline Inspection Robot System Based on CT Technology

With the rapid development of submarine oil and gas,the security issues of submarine oil and gas pipeline become increasingly prominent,and regular inspection of submarine pipeline is particularly important.Therefore,a submarine pipeline inspection robot system based on CT technology to solve the problems such as low traditional manual inspection efficiency,high labor cost,low security and backward inspection methods.Based on the platform of ROV robot,carrying CT scanner as an external detection device,the system is used for non-invasive inspection of submarine pipeline,which is safe and harmless,with good economy,high mobility,and strong environmental adaptability.Compared with traditional technology,CT scanner’s external inspection technology used in the system avoids the damage to the external protective layer of the pipeline in the measurement of pipeline wall thickness.Meantime,it can provide the tomography of the pipe wall and the composition of the sediment material on the inside wall,which fills the gap in this technical field in China.According to the test,the robot has the characteristics of stable adsorption,flexible movement,and clear pipeline CT scanning image,and can realize the intelligent inspection of submarine pipeline.

Manipulator-based autonomous inspections at road checkpoints:Application of faster YOLO for detecting large objects

With the increasing number of vehicles,manual security inspections are becoming more laborious at road checkpoints.To address it,a specialized Road Checkpoints Robot(RCRo)system is proposed,incorporated with enhanced You Only Look Once(YOLO)and a 6-degree-of-freedom(DOF)manipulator,for autonomous identity verification and vehicle inspection.The modified YOLO is characterized by large objects’sensitivity and faster detection speed,named“LF-YOLO”.The better sensitivity of large objects and the faster detection speed are achieved by means of the Dense module-based backbone network connecting two-scale detecting network,for object detection tasks,along with optimized anchor boxes and improved loss function.During the manipulator motion,Octree-aided motion control scheme is adopted for collision-free motion through Robot Operating System(ROS).The proposed LF-YOLO which utilizes continuous optimization strategy and residual technique provides a promising detector design,which has been found to be more effective during actual object detection,in terms of decreased average detection time by 68.25%and 60.60%,and increased average Intersection over Union(Io U)by 20.74%and6.79%compared to YOLOv3 and YOLOv4 through experiments.The comprehensive functional tests of RCRo system demonstrate the feasibility and competency of the multiple unmanned inspections in practice.

The Fuzzy Neural Network Control Scheme With H∞ Tracking Characteristic of Space Robot System With Dual-arm After Capturing a Spin Spacecraft

In this paper,the dynamic evolution for a dualarm space robot capturing a spacecraft is studied,the impact effect and the coordinated stabilization control problem for postimpact closed chain system are discussed.At first,the pre-impact dynamic equations of open chain dual-arm space robot are established by Lagrangian approach,and the dynamic equations of a spacecraft are obtained by Newton-Euler method.Based on the results,with the process of integral and simplify,the response of the dual-arm space robot impacted by the spacecraft is analyzed by momentum conservation law and force transfer law.The closed chain system is formed in the post-impact phase.Closed chain constraint equations are obtained by the constraints of closed-loop geometry and kinematics.With the closed chain constraint equations,the composite system dynamic equations are derived.Secondly,the recurrent fuzzy neural network control scheme is designed for calm motion of unstable closed chain system with uncertain system parameter.In order to overcome the effects of uncertain system inertial parameters,the recurrent fuzzy neural network is used to approximate the unknown part,the control method with H∞tracking characteristic.According to the Lyapunov theory,the global stability is demonstrated.Meanwhile,the weighted minimum-norm theory is introduced to distribute torques guarantee that cooperative operation between manipulators.At last,numerical examples simulate the response of the collision,and the efficiency of the control scheme is verified by the simulation results.

Prototype Line Crawler for Power Line Inspection

In South Africa, electricity is supplied through thousands-of-kilometers of overhead power cables, which is owned by Eskom the national energy supplier. Currently monitoring of these overhead power cables are done by means of helicopter inspection flights and foot patrols, which are infrequent and expensive. In this paper, the authors present the design of a prototype power line crawler （inspection robot） for the monitoring of these overhead power lines in South Africa. The designed prototype power line crawler is capable of driving on the wire, balancing on the wire and is capable of maneuvering past certain obstacles found on the overhead power cables. The prototype power line crawler is designed to host a monitoring system that monitors the power line as the inspection robot drives on it. Various experimental tests were performed and are presented in this paper, showing the capability of performing these tasks. This prototype inspection robot ensures a platform for future development in this area.

Singular perturbation composite control of a free-floating flexible dual-arm space robot

The Free-floating Flexible Dual-arm Space Robot is a highly nonlinear and coupled dynamics system. In this paper, the dynamic model is derived of a Free-floating Flexible Dual-arm Space Robot holding a rigid payload. Furthermore, according to the singular perturbation method, the system is separated into a slow subsystem representing rigid body motion of the robot and a fast subsystem representing the flexible link dynamics. For the slow subsystem, based on the second method of Lyapunov, using simple quantitative bounds on the model uncertainties, a robust tracking controller design is used during the trajectory tracking phase. The optimal control method is designed in the fast subsystem to guarantee the exponential stability. With the combination of the two above, the system can track the expected trajectory accurately, even though with uncertainty in model parameters, and its flexible vibration gets suppressed, too. Finally, some simulation tests have been conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

New Robotic Technologies for Inspecting Two Pole Electric Generators while the Rotor Remains in Place

The electric generator is a highly stressed plant component requiring periodic inspection and maintenance to reduce the risk of a costly forced outage. This paper briefly introduces two new robotic technologies for performing fast and reliable inspections of two pole electric generators with minimal mechanical disassembly requirements. The first robotic system is designed to inspect within the generator rotor and stator air gap, while the second robotic system is designed to inspect the generator retaining rings. An overview of the design and construction of each system is provided, along with an explanation of the capabilities and benefits they bring to the power station owner.

Adaptive neural network control for coordinated motion of a dual-arm space robot system with uncertain parameters

Control of coordinated motion between the base attitude and the arm joints of a free-floating dual-arm space robot with uncertain parameters is discussed. By combining the relation of system linear momentum conversation with the Lagrangian approach, the dynamic equation of a robot is established. Based on the above results, the free-floating dual-arm space robot system is modeled with RBF neural networks, the GL matrix and its product operator. With all uncertain inertial system parameters, an adaptive RBF neural network control scheme is developed for coordinated motion between the base attitude and the arm joints. The proposed scheme does not need linear parameterization of the dynamic equation of the system and any accurate prior-knowledge of the actual inertial parameters. Also it does not need to train the neural network offline so that it would present real-time and online applications. A planar free-floating dual-arm space robot is simulated to show feasibility of the proposed scheme.