小径管に対応した空気圧駆動式イモムシ型ロボット

－管保持機構に用いた吸着ブレーキの設計法－

抄録

This paper describes development of an in-pipe mobile robot driven by pneumatic pressures. Town gas is supplied to houses through polyethylene pipes laid under the road. It is necessary to inspect these pipes regularly caused by the gas leak owing to earth load and oscillation for driving cars on the road. So we manufactured in-pipe mobile robot driven by pneumatic pressures on the model of a green caterpillar. The robot is structured by three somites, four suction brakes and ten air supply tubes. In this work, we researched best diameter of suction brake to move in-pipe, robot's moving speed, movable minimum tube inner diameter and traction force. As a result, the diameter of suction brake was 18 mm, the speed was 9.7 mm/s, the inner diameter was 34mm and the force was 4.2 N.