Drive and Control Method for Wheel Type in-pipe Robot to pass through an Elbow Pipe

Abstract

Usually, an in-pipe mobile robot with three drive wheels encounters a difficult problem when it is passing through a pipe elbow, whose three drive wheels interfere one another, since three wheels differential mechanism has not come into being so far, as a result,the robot can not move inside elbow. In order to guarantee the robot to pass through the elbow in a stable, reliable and rapid way, a principle that is an independent harmonious control method for three drive motors is put forward based on the analysis of resistance load characteristics of the drive wheels. Finally, simulation experiments are conducted according to the above control method, the results show this method is an effective way to solve three wheel differential problem.