Carsten Hillenbrand

Cromsci - Development of a Climbing Robot with Negative Pressure Adhesion for Inspections

Purpose – The non‐destructive inspection of large concrete walls (e.g. dams, bridge pylons) with autonomous systems is still an unsolved problem. One of the main difficulties is to develop a very flexible platform, which is able to move and inspect horizontal and vertical surfaces safely, and which is fast and cost‐efficient. The purpose of this paper is to present a climbing robot designed with these attributes in mind.Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents the Climbing RObot with Multiple Sucking Chambers for Inspection, which is designed for inspection of concrete walls. The propulsion system consists of three omnidirectional‐driven wheels for high maneuverability. The adhesion is performed by a vacuum system of seven controllable vacuum chambers and one large reservoir chamber. Pressure sensors and valves are integrated for controlling, which allows fast reaction on changing conditions.Findings – The comparison of simulated results and a simple prototype indicates that the developed physica...

Omnidirectional locomotion and traction control of the wheel-driven, wall-climbing robot, cromsci

Safe and cost-efficient inspection of large concrete buildings is a great challenge for mobile robots. This paper presents the locomotion system of the climbing robot, Cromsci, which uses three steerable standard wheels and negative pressure adhesion. We will introduce criteria to avoid robot slip and tilt, and methods to enhance stability. One elementary part is the close-loop-controlled adhesion system with seven individual negative pressure chambers to balance out tilt or dynamic effects caused by leaky pressure chambers. The second part is the locomotion control using a special traction control mechanism to enhance robot navigation, which will also be presented here.

CROMSCI - A CLIMBING ROBOT WITH MULTIPLE SUCKING CHAMBERS FOR INSPECTION TASKS

The non-destructive inspection of large concrete walls via robotic systems is no longer an unsolved problem. This paper will present first results with the climbing prototype Cromsci which uses a vacuum system of seven controllable vacuum chambers and an omnidirectional drive to move and cling to vertical concrete surfaces. This platform is able to move and inspect vertical surfaces safely, fast and cost-efficient. The technician can check thebuilding more safe without any telescopic crane or other complex access devices via remote control or semi-autonomously.

Inertial navigation for wheeled robots in outdoor terrain

The implementation of an inertial measurement system used within the behavior-based control of an autonomous outdoor vehicle is presented in this paper. Autonomous dead-reckoning navigation can be substantially improved by an inertial sensor system. The determined orientation information is also mandatory for higher level behavior-based control to allow path-finding adaptive to the environment.

Development of a sealing system for a climbing robot with negative pressure adhesion

The non-destructive inspection of large concrete walls is still an unsolved problem. One possible technique is to use driven wheels for the propulsion and a vacuum system for the adhesion. The seals for the vacuum chambers are slipping over the rough surface, therefore it is not guaranteed that the chambers are always airproof. Especially over concrete walls a special seal construction must be found to make the adhesion more safe. On the other side the propulsion system must be able to produce enough force for carrying and accelerating the robot to a suitable velocity. This paper will present the climbing robot Cromsci which uses the described techniques. The propulsion system consists of three omni directional driven wheels which are airproof and completely rotatable and has been presented in earlier papers before. For adhesion a vacuum system of seven controllable vacuum chambers and one reservoir chamber is used. This system including chambers and seals will be discussed in more detail. The rough and sharp-edged surface of concrete walls cause strong requirements to the sealing concerning leak tightness and attrition. Therefore, each sealing must be flexible to allow a good adaption to the ground but also let the robot slip when the wheels are turning.

The Mechatronic Design of a Human-like Robot Head

In this paper the design concept as well as the constructed human-like robot head is introduced. Main goal of the head design is the support of an adequate human machine interaction. Therefore, our robots head should be able to support non-verbally communication based on facial expressions but should also have the skills to observe the intention of a human operator. Based on experience done with a graphical simulation system, the artificial skin movement is examined to express specific facial expressions. These results lead to the basic for the mechanical head design. In the paper also the neck design and the new eye construction is presented. At the end of the paper the sensor system and the control architecture of the head is introduced.

FORCE AND TRACTION CONTROLLED PROPULSION OF THE OMNIDIRECTIONAL WHEELED CLIMBING ROBOT CROMSCI

Climbing on vertical concrete structures like bridge pylons or dams is still a great challenge for autonomous robots. This paper presents the force- and traction control system of the climbing robot Cromsci which uses a negative pressure system for adhesion and driven wheels for propulsion. Especially in vertical environments the propulsion system must be able to produce enough force for carrying and accelerating the robot contrarily to gravity. Slippery of the wheels must be minimized due to abrasion and uncontrollable movements of the robotic system. This can be done by measuring upcoming forces and taking them into account for a traction control system (TCS). Another problem may occur because of slightly different wheel orientations which will result in increasing shear forces. We will show a control system to minimize these errors and experimental results which demonstrate its functionality.

A sensor system for the localisation of climbing robots

This paper describes the development of a sensor system for the localization and navigation of climbing robots. Based on 3 angular velocity sensors, 3 accelerometers and a dead reckoning wheel, the position and the orientation of a climbing machine are determined. Also the electronic concept is introduced, which allows the calculation of position and orientation in real-time.

RoboSense - ein Kleterroboter zur Inspektion von Brücken und Staudämmen

Die Inspektion von grosen Bauwerken wie Schornsteine, Kuhlturme, Brucken oder Staudamme mit autonomen Systemen stellt immer noch ein ungelostes Problem dar. Die Schwierigkeit dieser Aufgabe besteht darin, eine sehr flexible, sich vertikal und horizontal an Bauwerken bewegende Plattform zu entwickeln. In diesem Beitrag wird ein autonomer Kletterroboter vorgestellt, der dazu entwickelt wird, Brucken und Staudamme zu inspizieren.

Modulare Sicherheits- und Sensorsysteme für autonome mobile Roboter realisiert im Forschungsfahrzeug Marvin

Fahrerlose Transportsysteme bzw. autonome mobile Roboter werden nicht nur in der Industrie, sondern vermehrt z.B. in Buros, Krankenhausern und Museen eingesetzt um Transport-, Handlingsoder uberwachungsaufgaben zu ubernehmen. Sie agieren nicht mehr in Sicherheitszellen, sondern immer starker direkt in der menschlichen Umgebung. Somit muss es das oberste Ziel Scin, durch kombinieren verschiedener Sensoren Gefahrenquellen sicher zu erkennen. In diesem Dokument wird eine Hardwarearchitektur vorgestellt, die es ermoglicht, zugig verschiedene Komponenten zusammen zu testen. Dabei wird immer eine sichere elektromechanische Abschaltung nach bisherigem Standart garantiert.