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TRIPILLAR: a miniature magnetic caterpillar climbing robot with plane transition ability1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2011

Patrick Schoeneich ,
Frederic Rochat ,
Olivier Truong-Dat Nguyen ,
Roland Moser  and
Francesco Mondada
Patrick Schoeneich
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Systèmes Robotiques (LSRO), Mobots group, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland E-mail: patrick.schoeneich@epfl.ch
Frederic Rochat*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Systèmes Robotiques (LSRO), Mobots group, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland E-mail: patrick.schoeneich@epfl.ch
Olivier Truong-Dat Nguyen
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Systèmes Robotiques (LSRO), Mobots group, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland E-mail: patrick.schoeneich@epfl.ch
Roland Moser
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Systèmes Robotiques (LSRO), Mobots group, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland E-mail: patrick.schoeneich@epfl.ch
Francesco Mondada
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Systèmes Robotiques (LSRO), Mobots group, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland E-mail: patrick.schoeneich@epfl.ch
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: frederic.rochat@epfl.ch
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Summary

We present a miniature magnetic climbing robot with dimensions 96 × 46 × 64 mm3. With two degrees of freedom it is able to climb ferromagnetic surfaces and to make inner plane to plane transitions whatever their inclination is. This robot, named TRIPILLAR, combines triangular-shaped magnetic caterpillars and frame magnets. This particular configuration allows, for example, to move from ground to wall and ceiling and back. This achievement opens new avenues to use mobile robotics for industrial inspection with stringent size restrictions, such as the ones encountered in power plants.

Keywords

Service RobotsNovel Applications of RoboticsMobile RobotsMechatronic SystemsDesign
Type
Articles
Information
Robotica , Volume 29 , Issue 7 , December 2011 , pp. 1075 - 1081
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Footnotes

1

This paper was originally submitted under the auspices of the CLAWAR Association. It is an extension of work presented at CLAWAR 2009: the 12th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots and the Support Technologies for Mobile Machines, Istanbul, Turkey.

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