This partially 3D-printed prototype can be produced for less than $1,000, much less than commercial utility line robots.

You only need to experience another blackout for a reminder of the importance of power grid maintenance. Robots that crawl along and inspect power lines could save utilities a bundle in preventive checks.  We’ve seen a few designs for machines that can take on this dangerous and tricky job, such as Hydro-Quebec’s LineScout, but they can still cost tens of thousands of dollars. Engineers at the University of California at San Diego have developed a cheap and fast wire-crawling inspection robot called the SkySweeper. Made of off-the-shelf electronics and 3D-printed parts , the basic bot can be produced for less than $1,000.

The V-shaped bot hangs from a wire and works around a spring-elastic elbow joint. It moves along like an upside-down inchworm as its cable-hugging clamps open and close. It’s a basic prototype with a lithium-polymer battery and an Arduino controller, yet it can be augmented with cameras for inspection or induction coils to grab power from the line. That could let it stay aloft on the grid for months at a time.

If it faces a support bracket or other obstacle along the cable, SkySweeper can do a back flip to get past it. “Current line inspection robots are large, complex, and expensive,” Nick Morozovsky, a UCSD mechanical engineering grad student who designed the robot, said in a release. “Utility companies may also use manned or unmanned helicopters equipped with infrared imaging to inspect lines. This is much simpler.” Morozovsky will present the robot at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2013) in November in Tokyo, and also has it as an entry in the Road to Maker Faire Challenge.

Mechanical engineers at the University of California, San Diego invented a robot designed to scoot along utility lines, searching for damage and other problems that require repairs. Made of off-the-shelf electronics and plastic parts printed on an inexpensive 3D printer, the SkySweeper prototype could be scaled up for less than $1,000, making it significantly more economical than the two models of robots currently used to inspect power lines.

“Current line inspection robots are large, complex, and expensive. Utility companies may also use manned or unmanned helicopters equipped with infrared imaging to inspect lines,” said Nick Morozovsky, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at UC San Diego, who designed the robot. “This is much simpler.”

About The SkySweeper Project

By: Nick Morozovsky, Roboticist
Description:  SkySweeper is designed to move along rope or cable like no other robot. Existing robots that inspect power lines are large, slow, and expensive. SkySweeper is small, fast, and almost all parts of the robot are 3D printed or available cheaply off-the-shelf.

Hobby servos move the clamps on either end to one of three positions: either open, partially closed such that the clamp can roll along the cable, or fully closed such that the clamp can only pivot on the cable. A motor at the “elbow” joint of the robot is connected to a spring, together the motor and spring are called a Series Elastic Actuator (SEA), which can both change the angle between the links and store potential energy in the spring when both clamps are locked on the cable.

Sensors measure the angle between the links, how much energy is stored in the spring, and if a cable is within reach of each clamp. The robot is controlled with a finite state machine controller programmed as a switch structure on an Arduino Uno. A lithium polymer battery powers the motors, sensors, and Arduino.

SkySweeper can move along cable in multiple different ways. It can “inchworm” along by opening and closing its links and controlling which clamp is rolling or only pivoting. If SkySweeper needs to avoid an obstacle on the cable, like a support holding onto the cable, it can do a backflip to get past the obstacle, it can even keep on backflipping along the cable!

Morozovsky, who works in the lab of Professor Thomas Bewley at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego, will introduce the robot at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, also known as IROS 2013, from Nov. 3 to 8 in Tokyo. He will also present a paper, titled “A Low Degrees of Freedom, Dynamic High Wire Robot,” at the conference.

Resource Links:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57597264-1/low-cost-skysweeper-inspection-robot-scoots-along-power-lines/

http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=1352

http://review.wizehive.com/voting/view/makermedia2013/15849/1387186/0

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For more information, please visit
www.inspectorbots.com

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Care-O-bot® is the product vision of a mobile service robot to assist humans in their daily life developed at Fraunhofer IPA. As an interactive butler, it is able to move reliably among humans, to detect and grasp typical household objects, and to safely exchange them with humans. At the same time it can be used to support communication with family members or a service centre, e.g. in case of an emergency. They also have the possibility to remote control the robot. This extends its abilities, e.g. when dealing with tasks that the robot isn’t able to solve autonomously.

The application scenarios demonstrated in this video were developed in the SRS and Tech4P projects.

More Information

http://www.care-o-bot.de/english

www.srs-project.eu

http://www.fir.rwth-aachen.de/en/research/research-projects/tech4p-01fg10002

Product sheet: http://www.care-o-bot.de/Produktblaetter/PB_300_309e.pdf

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Target of the WiMi-Care Project was the design of application scenarios for service robots to support the staff of residential care facilities.  The autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) CASERO® by MLR System GmbH and the service robot Care-O-bot ® 3 by Fraunhofer IPA were selected for implementation. The video shows the robots in operation in a nursing home in Stuttgart, Germany.

Care-o-Bot DETAILS

For more than ten years, Fraunhofer IPA is working on the development of a mobile robot assistant Care-O-bot® able to assist humans in their daily life. The meanwhile third generation of this successful development series is characterized by a product like system design and for the first time provides the potential to apply manipulating mobile service robots in everyday environments. By using industrial components approved in daily practice the dependability of the system can be ensured.

Flexible, Autonomous Navigation

Care-O-bot® 3 has an omnidirectional platform, with four steered and driven wheels. This kinematic system enables the robot to move in any desired direction and therefore also safely to negotiate narrow passages. In doing so, Care-O-bot® 3 is also able to autonomously plan and follow an optimal, collision free path to a given target. Dynamic obstacles such as persons are detected by sensors and avoided automatically.

Dimensions (L/W/H): 75/55/145 cm

Weight: 180 kg

Power supply: Gaia rechargeable Li ion battery 60 Ah, 48 V

Internal: 48 V, 12 V, 5 V
separate power supplies to motors and controllers
All motors connected to emergency-stop circuit 

Omnidirectional platform: Neobotix MOR including
8 motors (2 motors per wheel: 1 for rotation axis, 1 for drive)
Elmo controllers (CAN interface)
2 SICK S300 laser scanners
1 Hokuyu URG-04LX laser scanner
Speed: up to 1.5 m/s 

Arm: Schunk LWA 3 (extended to 120 cm)
CAN interface (1000 kbaud)
Payload: 3 kg 

Gripper: Schunk SDH with tactile sensor
CAN interfaces for tactile sensors and fingers 

Torso: 1 Schunk PW 90 pan/tilt unit
1 Schunk PW 70 pan/tilt unit
1 Nanotec DB42M axis
Elmo controller (CAN interface) 

Sensor head: 2 AVT Pike 145 C, 1394b, 1330×1038 (stereo circuit)
MESA Swissranger 4000 or Microsoft Kinect 

Tray: 1 Schunk PRL 100 axis
LCD display
Touch screen

 Processor architecture: 3 PCs (2 GHz Pentium M, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB HDD)

Links:

http://www.care-o-bot.de/english/Cob3_Software.php

http://www.care-o-bot-research.org/

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Grizzly is easily customizable and offers users incredible strength, an unbeatable control system, and front axle articulation that keeps the vehicle grounded and stable on even the most challenging terrain. In combining power and precision, Grizzly defines a new category of robotics, the Robotic Utility Vehicle (RUV).

With 26″ all-terrain tires, 400Ah power capacity, four high-power motors, front axle articulation and a maximum drawbar of almost 1700lbf, Grizzly has a likeness of a tractor. Combine those features with high precision wheel encoders, onboard current and voltage sensors, IMU, GPS, and any other sensors you could ask for, and you have a precision machine made to do the heavy work.

Links

www.clearpathrobotics.com/grizzly
Youtube Video: http://youtu.be/K71Ov2mcxGU

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