Biologically Inspired Robotic System for Steel Bridge Condition Assessment
Australia has many thousands of steel bridges which form a key infrastructure supporting urban and rural communities. Periodic inspection is a vital undertaking that minimises risk of bridge failures and associated community impact. This project aims to develop a robotic inspection system capable of crawling over the structure, inspecting areas, acquiring essential information and appropriately presenting these to a human operator to facilitate effective condition assessment.
This research has addressed many research challenges and developed methodologies, including methods and algorithms for sensing, exploration, 3D map building, collision avoidance, control and robot design, that enables a climbing robot to navigate in steel bridge structures, collect bridge condition data and conduct condition assessment. Many engineering challenges have also been addressed including the design of the 7DOF inchworm robot and a novel adhesion pad. A prototype climbing robot has been developed and tested in field trials.
Chief Investigators
Partner Investigators
- Palitha Manamperi
- Philip Brooks
- Waruna Kaluarachichi
- Peter Mann, et al.
Other Members
Funding
- ARC Linkage Project
- Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) Partnership Fund. RTA is now known as Roads and Maritime Service (RMS)
Years
- 2010–2014
Patent
- P. Ward, D.K.Liu, “Adhesion system for a climbing vehicle”, Australian Patent application number: 2013902595, filed 12 July 2013.
Relevant publications
- D.K. Liu, G. Dissanayake, J. Valls Miro, K.J. Waldron (2014), “Infrastructure Robotics: Research Challenges and Opportunities”, Proceedings of the 31st International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction and Mining (ISARC 2014), 9-11 July 2014, Sydney, Australia, pp43-49
- Phillip Quin, Gavin Paul, Dikai Liu, Alen Alempijevic (2013), “Nearest Neighbour Exploration with Backtracking for Robotic Exploration of Complex 3D Environments”, Proceedings of Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2-4 Dec 2013, University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia, 8 pages
- P. Ward, D.K. Liu, K. Waldron and M. Hasan (2013), “Optimal Design of a Magnetic Adhesion System for Climbing Robots”, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots (CLAWAR), 14-17 July 2013, pp375-382
- P. Quin, G. Paul, A. Alempijevic, D.K. Liu, G. Dissanayake (2013), “Efficient Neighbourhood-Based Information Gain Approach for Exploration of Complex 3D Environments”, Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Karlsruhe, Germany, May 6-10, 2013, pp1335-1340
- D. Pagano, D.K. Liu, K. Waldron (2012), “A method for optimal design of an inchworm climbing robot”, Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), December 11-14, 2012, Guangzhou, China, pp1293-1298
- P. Ward, D.K. Liu (2012), “Design of a high capacity electro permanent magnetic adhesion for climbing robots”, Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), December 11-14, 2012, Guangzhou, China, pp217-222
- A. Lozano, G. Peters, D.K Liu and K. Waldron (2011), “Study of ant locomotion in surface transitions for climbing robot design”, Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots and the Support Technologies for Mobile Machines (CLAWAR2011), September 6-8, 2011, Paris, France, pp173-180
- A. Lozano, G. Peters and D.K. Liu (2011), “Analysis of an arthropodal system for design of a climbing robot”, Proceedings of the 28th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2011), 29 June - 2 July, 2011, Seoul, Korea, pp832-838
- G. Peters, D. Pagano, D.K. Liu and K. Waldron (2010), “A prototype climbing robot for inspection of complex ferrous structures”, Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots and the Support Technologies for Mobile Machines (CLAWAR'2010), pp150-156, 31 August - 03 September 2010, Nagoya, Japan