Purpose

The rope-climbing robot that can cling to a rope for locomotion has been a popular piece of equipment for some overhead applications due to its high flexibility. In view of problems left by existing rope-climbing robots, this paper aims to propose a new-style rope-climbing robot named Finger-wheeled mechanism robot (FWMR)-II to improve their performance.

Design/methodology/approach

FWMR-II adopts a modular and link-type mechanical structure. With the finger-wheeled mechanism (FWM) module, the robot can achieve smooth and quick locomotion and good capability of obstacle-crossing on the rope and with the link module based on a spatial parallel mechanism, the robot adaptability for rope environments is improved further. The kinematic models that can present configurations of the FWM module and link module of the robot are established and for typical states of the obstacle-crossing process, the geometric definitions and constraints that can present the robot position relative to the rope are established. The simulation is performed with the optimization calculating method to obtain the robot adaptability for rope environments and the experiment is also conducted with the developed prototype to verify the robot performance.

Findings

From the simulation results, the adaptability for rope environments of FWMR-II are obtained and the advantage of FWMR-II compared with FWMR-I is also proved. The experiment results give a further verification for the robot design and analysis work.

Practical implications

The robot proposed in this study can be used for inspection of power transmission lines, inspection and delivery in mine and some other overhead applications.

Originality/value

An ingenious modular link-type robot is proposed to improve existing rope-climbing robots and the method established in this study is worthy of reference for obstacle-crossing analysis of other rope-climbing robots.

中文翻译：

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FWMR-II：具有指轮机构的模块化连杆式爬绳机器人

目的

由于其高度的灵活性，可以抓住绳索进行运动的爬绳机器人一直是一些高架应用的流行设备。针对现有爬绳机器人存在的问题，本文旨在提出一种新型爬绳机器人，命名为手指轮机械机器人（FWMR）-II，以提高其性能。

设计/方法/方法

FWMR-II采用模块化、连杆式机械结构。借助指轮机构（FWM）模块，机器人可以在绳索上实现平稳快速的运动和良好的越障能力；采用基于空间并联机构的连杆模块，进一步提高机器人对绳索环境的适应性. 建立了可以表示机器人FWM模块和连杆模块配置的运动学模型，并针对越障过程的典型状态，建立了可以表示机器人相对于绳索位置的几何定义和约束。仿真采用优化计算方法获得机器人对绳索环境的适应性，并在开发的样机上进行实验以验证机器人性能。

发现

从仿真结果中，获得了FWMR-II对绳索环境的适应性，也证明了FWMR-II与FWMR-I相比的优势。实验结果为机器人的设计和分析工作提供了进一步的验证。

实际影响

本研究中提出的机器人可用于电力传输线路的检查、矿山的检查和交付以及其他一些架空应用。

原创性/价值

提出了一种巧妙的模块化连杆式机器人来改进现有的爬绳机器人，本研究建立的方法值得其他爬绳机器人的越障分析参考。