Mechanical Design and Analysis of an Articulated-Tracked Robot for Pipe Inspection

In order to execute the task of inspecting welding defects, spray painting and corrosive status inside a pipe automatically, an articulated-tracked robot was designed to replace the manual labor. In this paper, authors describe the mechanical design and analysis of an articulated-tracked robot which has four swing arms and six tracks. The actuation mechanism and transmission mechanism are described in detail. To guarantee the operation of this robot, the mutative bending moment acting on the main shaft is calculated and described through force diagram and algebraic expressions. In addition, the dimensions of the robot are determined according to the maximum moment acting on the dangerous cross-sections.

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