12 accepted papers
This paper proposes an in-pipe robot capable of creating route maps for narrow pipelines with inner diameters of both 3-in and 4-in. Pipe route-drawing often relies on external sensors, such as cameras and light detection and ranging (LiDAR). However, due to lighting, dirt, and spatial constraints w
This study introduces an agile robotic penguin featuring a pair of 2-degrees of freedom (DoF) wing mechanisms. Each wing can independently control flapping and feathering motions with two in-house submersible geared servomotors through a differential gear mechanism. Notably, our mechanism allows unr…
This paper presents a method of drawing pipeline routes using a sensing unit with a rotary encoder and IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), which is towed by a self-propelled in-pipe inspection robot. However, the IMU information generally contains integration errors, making it difficult to draw accurat…
The paper reports the performance verification of vertical bend and T-branch travels of an articulated wheeled in-pipe inspection robot. The robot is composed of only a single active compliant middle joint, two passive compliant joints, three drive wheels, and two roll wheels. The passage of the ben…
This paper presents a wheeled V-shaped in-pipe robot in which the two outputs of the wheel shaft and roll joint are driven solely by a single actuator input. This underactuation is generated by a simple miter gear mechanism. Generally, to control two movements easily, one of the outputs of the under…
AIRo-5.1 an in-pipe inspection robot comprised of two passive compliant joints and a single active compliant joint that is driven by a series elastic actuator (SEA) is presented in the course of this study. As an aid in pipeline maintenance, AIRo-5.1 controls joint angles and the torque of middle jo…
This study presents an in-pipe inspection robot module, called AIRo-2.3s. This robot module can control its joint angle and torque and adapt to any directed bent pipe regardless of its orientation. Stretching the drive wheels against the inner wall of pipes is essential for adapting robots to be use…
This study presents a differential elastic joint for use in multi-linked pipeline inspection robots. Active joints to stretch against the pipe wall are essential for adapting robots to use in vertical pipes and slippery inner surfaces where a large traction force is required. Series elastic actuator…
This letter proposes an $N$-link snake robot with parallel elastic actuators (PEA) and a stiffness property that reduces the energy consumption during fast movement. Each PEA couples the actuator output to a spring element, enhancing the periodic gait as demonstrated in previous studies of walking r
In this paper, we present a multi-link articulated wheeled in-pipe robot that can drive the wheel and roll joint by using only a single actuator installed in each link. The proposed mechanism enables the robot to move forward or backward and helically in pipes owing to rotation of the drive wheel an…
This paper presents an anisotropic shadow-based operation assistant method for a multilink-articulated wheeled pipeline-inspection robot by using a single illuminator and camera. By displacing the position of the illuminator relative to that of the head camera, a crescent-shaped shadow appears in th…
This paper presents a multilink-articulated robot with omni and hemispherical wheels (AIRo-II) for inspecting and exploring winding pipes. To quickly adapt to winding pipes, holonomic rolling movement without moving forward and backward is more useful. However, this requires the replacement of drivi…