Design of a robot for inspection and diagnostic operations of rail track facilities

PurposeThe need to examine the integrity of infrastructure in the rail industry in order to improve its reliability and reduce the chances of breakdown due to defects has brought about development of an inspection and diagnostic robot.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, an inspection robot was designed for detecting crack, corrosion, missing clips and wear on rail track facilities. The robot is designed to use infrared and ultrasonic sensors for obstacles avoidance and crack detection, two 3D-profilometer for wear detection as well as cameras with high resolution to capture real time images and colour sensors for corrosion detection. The robot is also designed with cameras placed in front of it with colour sensors at each side to assist in the detection of corrosion in the rail track. The image processing capability of the robot will permit the analysis of the type and depth of the crack and corrosion captured in the track. The computer aided design and modeling of the robot was carried out using the Solidworks software version 2018 while the simulation of the proposed system was carried out in the MATLAB 2020b environment.FindingsThe results obtained present three frameworks for wear, corrosion and missing clips as well as crack detection. In addition, the design data for the development of the integrated robotic system is also presented in the work. The confusion matrix resulting from the simulation of the proposed system indicates significant sensitivity and accuracy of the system to the presence and detection of fault respectively. Hence, the work provides a design framework for detecting and analysing the presence of defects on the rail track.Practical implicationsThe development and the implementation of the designed robot will bring about a more proactive way to monitor rail track conditions and detect rail track defects so that effort can be geared towards its restoration before it becomes a major problem thus increasing the rail network capacity and availability.Originality/valueThe novelty of this work is based on the fact that the system is designed to work autonomously to avoid obstacles and check for cracks, missing clips, wear and corrosion in the rail tracks with a system of integrated and coordinated components.

A Mobile Robot-Based System for Automatic Inspection of Belt Conveyors in Mining Industry

Mechanical systems (as belt conveyors) used in the mining industry, especially in deep underground mines, must be supervised on a regular basis. Unfortunately, they require high power and are spatially distributed over a large area. Till now, some elements of the conveyor (drive units) have been monitored 24 h/day using SCADA systems. The rest of the conveyor is inspected by maintenance staff. To minimize the presence of humans in harsh environments, we propose a mobile inspection platform based on autonomous UGV. It is equipped with various sensors, and in practice it is capable of collecting almost the same information as maintenance inspectors (RGB image, sound, gas sensor, etc.). Till now such experiments have been performed in the lab or in the mine, but the robot was controlled by the operator. In such a scenario the robot is able to record data, process them and detect, for example, an overheated idler. In this paper we will introduce the general concept of an automatic robot-based inspection for underground mining applications. A framework of how to deploy the inspection robot for automatic inspection (3D model of the tunnel, path planing, etc.) are defined and some first results from automatic inspection tested in lab conditions are presented. Differences between the planned and actual path are evaluated. We also point out some challenges for further research.

Thermoelasticity and ArUco marker-based model validation of polymer structure: application to the San Giorgio’s bridge inspection robot

<p>Experimental procedures are often involved in the numerical models validation. To define the behaviour of a structure, its underlying dynamics and stress distributions are generally investigated. In this research, a multi-instrumental and multi-spectral method is proposed in order to validate the numerical model of the Inspection Robot mounted on the new San Giorgio's Bridge on the Polcevera river. An infrared thermoelasticity-based approach is used to measure stress-concentration factors and, additionally, an innovative methodology is implemented to define the natural frequencies of the Robot Inspection structure, based on the detection of ArUco fiducial markers. Established impact hammer procedure is also performed for the validation of the results.</p>

Path Selection for the Inspection Robot by m-Generalized q-Neutrosophic PROMETHEE Approach

Path planning can be considered the most vital task of the autonomous robot. In this task, selecting an optimal route from the starting to the target position becomes an important problem that must be addressed when multiple competing optimization priorities are considered. Thus, a novel route assessment strategy based on a multi-criteria decision-making approach is proposed. The m-generalized q-neutrosophic PROMETHEE (PROMETHEE-mGqNS) method is applied to aggregate the competing route assessment requirements and choose an optimal route. A case study is investigated to explain the proposed strategy for path planning in a typical environment and indicates the method stability when incomplete input data characteristics are present.

The climbing performance analysis of a robot for power line inspection with retractable double serial manipulators

A power line inspection robot has to overcome many kinds of obstacles in inspection processes. The strain clamp is the obstacles difficult for inspection robots to overcome. The inspection robot needs to have a particular climbing ability to overcome the strain clamp. Therefore, the ability to climb power lines is the key point of the inspection robot’s design. An inspection robot with retractable double serial manipulators is proposed to improve the climbing and obstacle-crossing ability. Besides, this paper shows that the inspection robot is more suitable for climbing from static analysis and dynamic evaluation index. Firstly, the obstacle-crossing processes and structures of the inspection robot are introduced. Next, the static analysis is carried out when inspection robot climbs the power lines. The static analysis shows that the new inspection robot has a smaller driving torque. What’s more, the dynamic model of the inspection robot is established by Lagrange’s dynamical equations. By constructing the dynamic evaluation indexes, the inspection robot with retractable arms performs better dynamic characteristics. Finally, a prototype robot is carried out to cross obstacles and climb up power lines. The results show that the inspection robot can overcome different obstacles and has a good climbing performance.