DEVELOPMENT OF A NOVEL CRAWLER BASED ROBOT FOR MOORING CHAIN CLIMBING

摘要

Mooring systems experience high tidal waves, storms and harsh environmental conditions. Therefore, ensuring the integrity of mooring chain is important. The aim of the work reported in this paper is to develop a robotic system that performs in-service non-destructive testing of mooring chains. The inspection system is an autonomous device that operates in air as well as underwater. The permanent magnet adhesion crawler robot developed can climb mooring chains at a speed of 42cm/minute with a pay load of 50N. FEA study of the magnetic adhesion module, structural analysis, prototyping and testing of the robot is presented in this paper.