Development of a wheel with a built-in magnet for a robot to polish steel structures

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the development of a wheel for a mobile robot that polishes steel structures. Although there are various ways of moving and adsorbing a wall for a mobile robot, we adopted a method of moving by wheels and adsorbing by a permanent magnet because it is necessary to keep applying a constant pressure when polishing. A ring-shaped magnet is incorporated into the wheel to ensure constant polishing pressure with constant adsorption force while moving. We confirmed that the robot equipped with these wheels can move freely on flat walls, slopes, and ceilings. Two brushless motors are mounted in the driving system, and differential drive enables the robot to move straight and turn on the spot. In the prototype, commands are sent from a PC to operate forward, backward, and turning movements. In this paper, we report the results of testing the running performance of the prototype.