In nature, climbing trees and pipes of varying diameters or even navigating inside of hollow pipes and tree holes is easy for some climbing animals and insects. However, today's pipe-climbing robots, which are important for automatically conducting periodic inspections and maintenance of pipelines to save time and keep humans away from hazardous environments, are designed mainly for a specific task, limiting their adaptability to different working scenarios and further implementation in real-life. In this paper, we propose a pipe-climbing robot with a soft linear actuator for bioinspired propulsion, two origami clutches to realize multi-degrees-of-freedom (DoF) motion and two pairs of soft modular legs for multimodal climbing. Design, modeling and experimental validation of the origami clutch are introduced in detail. Preliminary experimental results show that we can achieve a stroke of up to 289.6% and a maximum 45° bending angle on the soft linear actuator by regulating the air pressure inside the soft actuator and origami clutches. Additionally, by choosing the leg-type, three climbing modes, including out-pipe versatile mode, out-pipe high-force mode and in-pipe mode can be realized for particular working scenarios. A prototype climbing robot demonstrates that in out-pipe versatile mode, the robot can climb on the exterior of pipes made of various materials including PVC, rubber and metal with diameters ranging from 105 to 117 mm. In the out-pipe high-force mode, the climber can navigate along a specific pipe carrying maximum 675 g external load at the top or 200 g hanging from the bottom, as well as keeping functional without failure under static loads as high as 1968 g. In the in-pipe mode, the robot is able to travel inside pipes. This research might bridge the design gap between in-pipe and out-pipe climbing robots while offering an alternative option for soft robots to execute multi-DoF motion.

中文翻译：

---

带有折纸离合器和柔软模块化支腿的多模式爬管机器人。

在自然界中，对于某些攀爬的动物和昆虫来说，攀登直径不同的树木和管子，甚至在空心管子和树洞的内部导航都是很容易的。但是，当今的爬管机器人对于自动执行定期检查和维护管道以节省时间并使人类远离危险环境非常重要，其主要针对特定​​任务而设计，从而限制了它们对不同工作场景的适应性以及进一步的实施。现实生活。在本文中，我们提出了一种爬管机器人，该机器人具有用于生物激励的软线性致动器，两个折纸离合器以实现多自由度（DoF）运动，以及两对软模块支腿用于多峰攀爬。详细介绍了折纸离合器的设计，建模和实验验证。初步的实验结果表明，通过调节软执行器和折纸离合器内的气压，我们可以在软执行器上实现高达289.6％的行程和最大45°弯曲角。此外，通过选择腿式，可以针对特定的工作场景实现三种爬升模式，包括出水管通用模式，出水管高强度模式和出水管模式。一个原型攀爬机器人演示了在管道外通用模式下，该机器人可以攀爬由各种材料制成的管道的外部，这些材料包括PVC，橡胶和直径范围为105至117 mm的金属。在外管高作用力模式下，登山者可以沿着特定的管道进行导航，顶部承受的最大外部负载为675 g，底部悬挂的最大负载为200 g，以及在高达1968 g的静态载荷下保持正常运行而无故障。在管道内模式下，机器人可以在管道内移动。这项研究可能会弥补管道内和管道外攀爬机器人之间的设计差距，同时为软机器人执行多自由度运动提供替代选择。