A Study of a Vibrating Bristled Vehicle for Small Pipes : 2nd Report, Moving Characteristics of the Vehicle

Abstract

This paper proposes a new vehicle that moves inside small pipes with inner diameters of less than 100 mm in order to maintain and inspect them. The vehicle is surrounded by bristles vibrated by centrifugal force provided by rotating eccentric weights. Since this method does not require wheels or reduction gears, there is a good potential for miniaturization. First, the sliding velocity of each bristle and its friction are discussed. Then, moving simulations and experiments are conducted using a vehicle with 16 bristles in order to clarify the relationship between the moving velocity of the vehicle and the angular velocity of the rotating eccentric weights. It is shown that the vehicle moves smoothly inside a small pipe. The calculated moving velocity agrees with the experimental results.