Design and Analysis of Modular Mobile Robot with Magnetic Wheels

In the paper, a modular climbing-wall mobile robot with four magnetic wheels is presented. It can move on the vertical steel wall and inspect the weld seam. First, the structure of the mobile robot is analyzed. It is modular, which consists of a light manipulator module, an ultrasonic probes module and a weld testing sensors module. Then, the magnetic wheels are designed and analysed. One magnetic wheel consists of two pieces of magnet and three pieces of pure steel plates. Second, the motion of the robot on the vertical cylindrical vessel is analysed in detail. The position deviation and angle deviation are adjusted with the geometric method. At last, the experiments of the modular climbing-wall robot on real vertical steel vessel are shown to verify the above motion analysis and design requirements at Nanjing refinery factory in China. It is of high reliability and simple control. Key-Words: Mobile robot, Magnetic wheel, Motion, Modular, Structure