Collision Avoidance and Stability Study of a Self-Reconfigurable Drainage Robot

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Environmental Engineering

Background:

• Drain inspection and maintenance are crucial for community hygiene and disease prevention.
• Existing methods are challenged by varying drain heights and confined spaces.
• A specialized robotic solution is needed to address these limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a self-configurable hybrid robot for autonomous drain inspection and maintenance.
• To enable navigation and level adaptation in narrow, confined drain environments.
• To demonstrate the robot's capabilities in collision avoidance, stability, and level shifting.

Main Methods:

• Designed a quadruped robot (Tarantula-II) with hybrid locomotion and reconfigurable height/width.
• Incorporated linear actuators and bi-directional rolling wheels for leg mechanisms.
• Implemented a fuzzy logic system for side-wall collision avoidance and an Inertial Measuring Unit (IMU) for stability during level shifting.

Main Results:

• The Tarantula-II robot successfully demonstrated wall collision avoidance in simulated and real-world drain environments.
• The platform exhibited stable performance during level shifting using IMU feedback for height adjustment.
• The reconfigurable design allowed adaptation to varying heights and widths within the confined drain spaces.

Conclusions:

• The Tarantula-II robot offers a viable solution for autonomous drain inspection and maintenance.
• Its self-configurable hybrid locomotion and intelligent control systems enable effective navigation in challenging environments.
• The developed platform contributes to improved community hygiene and disease prevention through advanced robotics.