Mobile robot for inspecting ventilation ducts.

The paper deals with a concept and design of a mobile robot capable of inspecting ventilation ducts made of steel sheet. The robot can operate in several modes including: autonomous, manual, and training one. Some subsystems are briefly outlined. Mobility of the robot is achieved by four wheels that include permanent magnets. There are 2 DOFs associated to each wheel. The detection system assesses the internal state of the robot and its subsystems, and perceives the surrounding environment, providing the control system with vital data that allows completing inspection tasks. The robot is also equipped with environment recognition system that collects data whose meaning is twofold. Primarily, it allows assessing actual condition of the ducts being inspected. Further on, the data makes possible creating plans of long-term movements that are required in order to complete the mission. The work of all these systems is coordinated by the control system. It is based on behaviors that are selected or combined by a neural controller. The controller is able to learn better behaviors from examples. These issues are discussed in details in other papers presented at this event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]