DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF A COMPACT LINE INSPECTION ROBOT

Abstract

Power line inspection is a rather risky and complex task. As a result, robots have been introduced that perform power line inspections with minimal human interaction with the power line itself. Most current designs, however, are unsuited for use in residential powerlines due to their architecture. The study aims to present a compact and lightweight design capable of inspecting residential power lines using a clamshell design. Several elements of the design were designed with the premise that these would be 3D printed to reduce weight and save costs. The study focused on designing several chassis models and different wheel designs. These were run through software such as ANSYS and SOLIDWORKS to determine their structural integrity and ability to traverse the power line respectively. After running tests, it was found that a thin rectangular chassis design with U-type grooved wheels yielded the best results in terms of overall performance, with the highest equivalent stress of 6.484e5 Pa for the individual top chassis and a highest equivalent stress of 3.363e6 Pa found in the wheel axel when an assembly simulation was performed. This resulted in a safety factor of 15 in the stress simulations. Stable behavior was observed in the motion analysis, indicating that the design was feasible for performing an inspection. The design was then modified to reduce print time along with incorporating a specific print setting that yielded a total print time of just over 1 day and an equivalent mass of under 1.5 kg with no relative effect on the structural integrity and stability of the robot.