Counterweight-navigation of a mobile inspection robot working on the ground wires

Abstract

The robot can navigate counterweights, clamps and some kinds of towers autonomously. The locomotion principle of counterweight-navigation is presented. Because of the deformation of the wire, the posture of the robot during navigation will be affected greatly. So a posture control strategy is proposed. Virtual prototyping technique is used to validate the strategy. It proves that the proper movement of the electric-box can adjust the robot centroid distribution efficiently. Driven torque and the power consumption of the whole system both decrease a lot. And the robot works more safely. Experimental results demonstrate that the robot can be applied to execute the navigation and inspection tasks. Also, the posture control strategy is proved again.