Development of a Throw & Collect Type Rescue Inspector - 6th Report: Control of the Throwing Distance by a Magnetic Brake Cylinder

For an effective search for survivors over debris in collapsed buildings, the authors have been developing the throw and collect type rescue inspector. The performance of this rescue robot is based on the parent robot throwing the child machine, equipped with cameras and sensors over high debris for inspection of the area and for searching for survivors, and then to draw it back, which should be better than trying to roll over, or jump over obstacles, as usual robots do. The throwing mechanism consists of a magnetic brake cylinder, which was developed to overcome the problems of the internal pressure fall of the pneumatic cylinder when moving light loads. However, the first magnetic brake cylinder designed does not have the necessary structure and mechanism to provide control over the child machine´s throwing distance. This paper describes the design and the controlling method of a new magnetic brake cylinder, which allows control of the throwing distance of the child machine