Development of Wall Climbing Robot with Magnetic Crawlers to Support Paint Removal of Steel Bridges

Fabrication and operation verification of half scale prototype

Abstract

Most of the steel bridges are painted to prevent corrosion. In order to maintain the corrosion protection performance, it is necessary to repaint the bridges periodically. Before applying a new paint, it is important to remove the deteriorated existing paint to improve the corrosion protection performance. Induction heating is the current method to remove the paint. But the equipment for induction heating is heavy, and it is a heavy burden for the workers who operate it. So, we developed a wall locomotion robot that can absorb the wall of a steel bridge using magnetic crawlers and move equipment for induction heating automatically.