円筒状湾曲型弾性クローラの研究

―フレキシブルシャフトを用いた小型化の検討―

抄録

The many pipe installations used today include diverse types such as pipelines in chemical plants, water pipes and gas pipes. There is important to be protected from severe accidents by pipe inspection. We have so far been developed a cylindrical crawler robot based on amoeba locomotion mechanism, which has a simple structure and does not need large space to move. This study was carried out the development of component technology miniaturization for the cylindrical crawler robot which could drive in smaller diameter pipe. In this study, we developed a robot driven by a flexible shaft. The proposed mechanism can transmit the torque from the external motor to the crawler belts by using a small diameter flexible shaft. Then, it was demonstrated that the robot driven by the flexible shaft could drive within Φ25mm pipe smaller than Φ28mm pipe in which built-in motor type could drive.