Unilateral self-locking mechanism for inchworm in-pipe robot

A unilateral self-locking mechanism (USM) was proposed to increase the tractive ability of the inchworm in-pipe robots for pipeline inspection. The USM was basically composed of a cam, a torsional spring and an axis. The self-locking and virtual work principles were applied to studying the basic sel...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Central South University of Technology. Science & technology of mining and metallurgy Vol. 17; no. 5; pp. 1043 - 1048
Main Authors Qiao, Jin-wei, Shang, Jian-zhong, Chen, Xun, Luo, Zi-rong, Zhang, Xiang-po
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Heidelberg Central South University 01.10.2010
Subjects
Engineering
Metallic Materials
unilateral self-locking mechanism
traction
inchworm
in-pipe robot
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ISSN1005-9784
1993-0666
DOI10.1007/s11771-010-0596-z

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Summary:A unilateral self-locking mechanism (USM) was proposed to increase the tractive ability of the inchworm in-pipe robots for pipeline inspection. The USM was basically composed of a cam, a torsional spring and an axis. The self-locking and virtual work principles were applied to studying the basic self-locking condition of the USM. In order to make the cooperation between the crutch and telescopic mechanism more harmonical, the unlocking time of the USM was calculated. A set of parameters were selected to build a virtual model and fabricate a prototype. Both the simulation and performance experiments were carried out in a pipe with a nominal inside diameter of 160 mm. The results show that USM enables the robot to move quickly in one way, and in the other way it helps the robot get self-locking with the pipe wall. The traction of the inchworm robot can rise to 1.2 kN, beyond the limitation of friction of 0.497 kN.
ISSN:1005-9784
1993-0666
DOI:10.1007/s11771-010-0596-z