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In the damp and wet conditions such as water supply pipe, some pipe inspection robots using pneumatic actuators have many advantages such as no electrical leakage and short circuit. In the previous study, an inchworm type pipe inspection robot using extension type flexible pneumatic actuators (“EFPAs” for short) was successfully developed. Also, as a robot for thinner pipe, “wriggling type” and “cilia type” robots were also proposed and tested. The wriggling type robot could move forward by wriggling its body. The cilia type robot could move by using many cilia type plates covered on it. As a result, the cilia type robot could travel in wet pipe and corners by twisting its body toward any direction. In this paper, to improve the mobility of cilia type robot and simplification of driving system, a cilia type robot with automatic wriggling motion is proposed and tested. The automatic wriggling mechanism can be realized by utilizing the pressure delay in serial connected three EFPAs that consist of each tube and orifice. To obtain the suitable diameter of orifice, the analytical model of sliding and bending mechanism using three EFPAs in the robot is proposed. The robot with theoretical suitable orifice is also tested. As a result, it can be confirmed that the tested robot can smoothly travel in a pipe and corner with twice speed compared with the previous one.
Research papers (academic journals)
