Title :
Climbing robot for corrosion monitoring of reinforced concrete structures
Author :
Leibbrandt, A. ; Caprari, G. ; Angst, U. ; Siegwart, Roland Y. ; Flatt, R.J. ; Elsener, B.
Abstract :
This paper introduces a climbing robot for corrosion monitoring of reinforced concrete structures such as cooling towers, dams or bridges. The robot combines a vortex adhesion mechanism with a wheel electrode sensor for potential mapping of the concrete surface. A detailed description of the system is presented first. A special effort was made during the design in order to develop a lightweight device. The climbing robot is well suited for rough surfaces and can climb on vertical surfaces or move upside-down. The experiments that have been done to validate the concept are presented afterwards. They show that the climbing robot has several advantages over the traditional corrosion monitoring technique. This robot will therefore provide engineers in charge of infrastructure maintenance with the means to do their job much better than they can today. It offers them a way to circumvent all present barriers and brings a radical innovation in this area.
Keywords :
bridges (structures); condition monitoring; corrosion; dams; geotechnical engineering; mobile robots; poles and towers; reinforced concrete; sensors; structural engineering; vortices; bridge; climbing robot; concrete surface mapping; cooling tower; corrosion monitoring; dam; reinforced concrete structure; rough surface; vertical surface; vortex adhesion mechanism; wheel electrode sensor; Concrete; Corrosion; Electric potential; Electrodes; Robot sensing systems; Wheels; Climbing robots; Condition monitoring; Corrosion; Inspection; Mechatronics;
Conference_Titel :
Applied Robotics for the Power Industry (CARPI), 2012 2nd International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Zurich
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-4585-9
DOI :
10.1109/CARPI.2012.6473365