Crawling motion planning of robots in the multi-rows pipeline structured environment

Abstract

Specific to the structured operating environment of multi-rows pipeline, the mode of alternated crawling motion with double claws is employed for kinematic and motion planning. Firstly, designing a 5-DOF robot prototype, and building its kinematical model by employing DENAVIT - HARTENBERG Method for forward and inverse kinematical validation; secondly, decomposing the motions in the structured pipeline environment into three typical motions: single pipe crawling, switch between pipes and between rows of pipes, then determining key gestures in the process of crawling, and then performing interpolation of joint space trajectory; finally, performing kinematics simulation analysis based on Adams simulation environment software. The result indicates that: the robot prototype can fulfill the crawling motion trajectory along pipe, between pipes, and between rows of pipes; the joint will sustain more force under over-restrained conditions.