Systematic design of flexible magnetic wall and ceiling climbing robot for cargo screening

Abstract

Cargo screening is an important process to inspect illegal contraband, such as drugs, nuclear materials, weapons and explosives at seaports and airports. A great deal of research has been carried out to address the problem of cargo screening to explore new methods and solutions to improve detection accuracy and rates [1]. In some cases, human or sniffer dogs are required to enter the internal cargo to inspect unidentified substances. However, this is time consuming and potentially dangerous. These problems with correct systems have motivated the development of an innovative solution for cargo inspection in this study. It is known that robotic inspection techniques have been applied to many industries in recent years. However, so far, very little work has been done to develop a cargo screening robotic system. According to the literature, only one related piece of work was found to be proposed by Siegel et al [2], who pointed out that robotic systems could be used to detect illegal contraband in cargo. However, the approach was suggested to use sensors for external cargo detection rather than for internal cargo screening. Consequently, this study aims to demonstrate a systematic design approach to develop an autonomous robotic vehicle to enter the cargo container to detect the contraband for cargo screening process. Fundamentally, several types of robotic vehicles might be applied to enter a cargo container, such as miniature unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), long robotic arm, flexible snake robot and climbing robot equipped with advanced sensing and navigating system. However, UAVs would need more working space whilst long robotic arm might lack mobility and snake robots require complex mechanics. In these cases, one possible solution is to design a wall and ceiling climbing robot (WCCR) to climb along the wall and ceiling of the cargo container to implement the subsequent inspections. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.