Mobile Worm-Like Robots for Pipe Inspection

Abstract

Worm-Like Robots (WLR) have a simple construction, and they do not need any special actuators such as wheels, caterpillars, or legs. Therefore, mobile vibration robots can move not only in space, but also in dense materials, which are not available for wheeled or leg-equipped robots. Worm-like motion allows moving on rough surfaces and inside liquid environments. Mobile devices, which can move without special movers interacting with the environment directly by their frame, possess a number of advantages, as compared to wheeled, crawling, and walking systems. This advantage allows creating miniature microrobots capable for moving in narrow channels, slits, vessels, and environments, inaccessible for other mobile objects. In this chapter, design of robots with worm-like locomotion is discussed, as well as an analysis of Worm-Like Robot (WLR) movement.