Design and analysis of a line-walking robot for power transmission line inspection

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the design and analysis of a biped line walking robot for inspection of power transmission lines. The novel mechanism enables the centroid of the robot concentrate on the hip joint to minimize the drive torque of the hip joint. The line-walking cycle of the designed mechanism is composed of a single-support phase and a double-support phase. The mechanical structure of the robot is discussed, as well as forward kinematics. Dynamic model is established in this paper to analysis the reachable robot workspace in the single supported phase and inverse kinematics for motion planning. Locomotion of the line-walking robot is discussed in details and the obstacle-navigation process is planed according to the structure of power transmission line. The feasibility of this concept is then confirmed by performing experiments with a simulated line environment.