Ingenious EEWOC robotic makes use of a tape measure to climb rapidly

A brand new wheeled robotic is ready to climb steel buildings in a really intelligent and distinctive method – it makes use of an extendible tape-measure limb. Descendants of the bot could sooner or later discover use inspecting and even repairing issues like towers, bridges, energy stations and ships.

Though we have seen different robots that may make their method up vertical steel surfaces, most of them make the most of both a mix of vacuum techniques and wheels, or legs with magnetic ft. The previous bots typically cannot make their method over even comparatively small obstacles, nonetheless, whereas the latter ones are usually slow-moving and mechanically complicated.

That is the place the EEWOC (Prolonged-reach Enhanced Wheeled Orb for Climbing) is designed to come back in. The experimental robotic was created by Justin Quan, Mingzhang Zhu and Dennis Hong from UCLA’s Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa).

When on the bottom or different horizontal surfaces, the self-balancing bot rolls alongside on its two wheels. As soon as it is time to get climbing, although, the EEWOC vertically extends somewhat one thing referred to as its EEMMMa (Elastic Extending Mechanism for Mobility and Manipulation) limb.

RoMeLa

This gadget incorporates a motorized spool of steel measuring tape situated contained in the robotic’s physique. The tape itself extends straight up out of the robotic, bends round to kind an upside-down U form, then runs again right down to be anchored to the highest of the bot.

On the bend within the inverted U, the tape runs over a pulley inside an “end-effector” software. Amongst different issues, this software incorporates a top-mounted adjustable-angle electromagnet.

For straight-up climbing, the EEMMMa begins by extending its tape. Doing so causes the limb to elongate (as much as a most attain of 1.2 m/3.9 ft), with the end-effector software at all times staying within the bend on the high. The magnet on that software then grips the steel, after which the robotic pulls itself up to the software just by winding the tape again onto its spool. When the EEMMMa is launched and re-extended for the subsequent leg of the climb, the robotic stays in place on the steel construction utilizing a bottom-mounted magnet of its personal.

RoMeLa

For climbing up and round ledges, the EEMMMa nonetheless extends its tape however the end-effector primarily applies a brake, conserving the tape from transferring by way of it. This causes the tape to bunch up and kink at a proper angle, letting the magnet attain its otherwise-inaccessible goal. The bot then pulls itself as much as the magnet, rolling over the ledge within the course of.

This video supplies a extra detailed clarification of how the limb works – the article continues under it.

In its present kind, the EEWOC has a diameter of 260 mm (10.2 in) and it suggestions the scales at simply 2.1 kg (4.6 lb). The robotic additionally has a most climbing pace of 0.24 meters per second (0.79 ft/s), reportedly making it one of many quickest climbing robots ever made.

Future plans embrace equipping the bot with a number of EEMMMa’s that may be prolonged in several instructions for omnidirectional motion. The scientists additionally envision using non-magnetic EEMMMa grippers that may as an alternative grasp surfaces corresponding to bushes or partitions.

You’ll be able to see the robotic in metal-climbing motion, within the video under – the factor may even be seen swinging throughout horizontal gaps, Indiana-Jones-style. Papers on each the EEWOC and the EEMMMa have been introduced on the fairly long-named ASME 2023 Worldwide Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computer systems and Info in Engineering Convention.

Supply: RoMeLa through IEEE Spectrum