A modular air-gap crawler for motor and generator in-situ inspection

Abstract

In order to cover different motor/generator air gap configurations, a modular, flexible and on-site reconfigurable inspection crawler is desired. This paper presents a highly extendable modular air-gap crawler design and implementation. A functional module is designed to connect with drive modules on the sides and then connect to another functional module and drive module and so on. Different sizes of linkage between the modules and drive module tracks are employed to fit various slot size and slot teeth to wedge ratio of the stator which the crawler tracks ride on. The modular air-gap crawler is designed and built, and has been tested on mock-up and actual motor and generator units. Visual inspection has been conducted by use of the modular air-gap crawler robot. And testing results are presented and discussed.