Design and optimization of a magnetic wheel for a grit-blasting robot for use on ship hulls

摘要

This paper describes an optimized magnetic wheel solution for use in a novel grit-blasting robot intended to be used on the hulls of ships. The grit-blasting robot was designed for conducting surface operations on newly-built ships in dry yards. It can be adapted to curvatures of up to 0.833 m(-1); can achieve a total payload of 120 kg and can also be steered. The proposed magnetic wheel solution for robots with such payloads and surface adaptability has not been seen in previous work.