MagneBike: Compact magnetic wheeled robot for power plant inspection

Abstract

The MagneBike robot is a magnetic wheeled robot designed for the inspection of ferromagnetic structures in power plants, especially steam chests. This video first presents the robot's locomotion concept, i.e. two aligned magnetic wheels integrating lateral lever arms, that allow the robot to pass over complex combinations of obstacles. Laboratory and field experiments show the high mobility of the robot. This video also describes the localization and mapping strategy that consists in combining 3D odometry with 3D scanning and scan registration. An animation of the 3D reconstruction of the environment shows that the localization procedure allows to provide the necessary 3D visual feedback for the remote user or for inspection mission planning.