Pole-climbing serpentine robots used as inspection tools to reduce injuries at construction worksite
Posted by ketyung
on Apr/23/2009
at 3:40 am
Construction workers need to be involved in dangerous climbing or jobs performed on scaffolding. And more injuries and death have been reported each year. There is a need for a solution for helping to reduce the number of injuries and death at construction sites.
Here comes a trio of pole-climbing serpentine robots, the products of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) of the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. These three robots are specially designed to climb scaffolding and buildings by wrapping around a pole or beam and then rolling upward via an oscillating joint motion. These robots will be used to replace construction workers to carry out the kind of dangerous jobs such as high-rise or underwater bridge inspections.
The three pole-climbing robots are named HyDRAS-Ascent, HyDRAS-Arm, and CIRCA, which each is equipped with sensors, motors and have their own unique way of operation. The HyDRAS robots operate using electric motors, while the CIRCA robot uses compressed air muscle. All these pole-climbing robots are three feet in length. Each robot can wrap around, roll upward to carry out the inspection needed for construction work. Eventually they’ll be used at construction sites as the practical inspection tools.
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