Detection of Magnetic Attraction of Six-Crawler Robot Equipped with Magnetic Crawler Using a Disturbance Observer

Abstract

This paper presents an estimation method for forces of magnetic attractions between a six-crawler robot and running surfaces by a disturbance observer. The robot has crawlers which have magnets to climb a wall. However, there is a problem that the robot may fall if the force of the magnetic attraction becomes small. To solve this problem, we employ a disturbance observer in the control system of the crawler drive motor. The experimental results show that the proposed method enable us to detect the risk of falling caused by the magnetic attractions between the six-crawler robot and the running surfaces.